(from the book, written in 1958, not the far inferior movie, where the Ambassador MacWhite character played by Brando is not much like the Ambassador MacWhite portrayed in the book)

pp. 108-109, Philippine Minister of Defense Magsaysay to Ambassador MacWhite: "I know you're a diplomat and that warfare is not supposed to be your game; but you'll discover soon enough out here that statesmanship, diplomacy, economics, and warfare just can't be separated from one another. And if you keep your eyes and ears open you'll start to see some of the connections between them. It's not something you can learn from textbooks. It's a feel for the thing."

p. 267, Ambassador MacWhite in a letter to the Secretary of State: "The little things we do must be moral acts and they must be done in the real interest of the peoples whose friendship we need--not just in the interest of propaganda. The men I mentioned above, men who have sacrificed and labored here, are not romantic or sentimental. They are tough and they are hard. But they agree with me that to the extent that our foreign policy is humane and reasonable, it will be successful. To the extent that it is imperialistic and grandiose, it will fail."

p. 284, authors Lederer and Burdick: "We do not need the horde of 1,500,000 Americans--mostly amateurs--who are now working for the United States overseas. What we need is a small force of well-trained, hard-working, and dedicated professionals...They must go equipped to apply a positive policy promulgated by a clear-thinking government. They must speak the language of the land of their assignment, and they must be more expert in its problems than are the natives."