Quotes from Ben Rhodes

I found people I really wanted to work for; I made myself available to do whatever I could with the skills I had; I took some risk, packing up and moving to Chicago; and I looked for the opportunities that fit for me. So I think the biggest advice is to find people you love to work for who you're going to learn from.

Laos is a deeply Buddhist country, and my visit included a traditional Tak Bat ceremony, in which you get up at sunrise and make offerings to Buddhist monks.

People make a mistake when they think that if you just accumulate a set number of things on your resume, it's going to lead you to a particular place - the pattern of essentially compiling credentials to climb your way up a ladder. That may work, but that's not at all what happened to me.

In China, you just don't have the space for civil society and independent discourse and free media that you do in India. That's why India's success is so important as the world's largest democracy.

We've supported the development of Cuba's private sector. This is a human rights issue - people should have the right to live with dignity and to control their livelihoods.

The Catholic Church played an integral role in supporting the opening between the U.S. and Cuban governments.

To the developing world, Cuba has been a symbol of sovereignty and resistance and a supporter of revolution - for good or bad. From the Missile Crisis to the anti-apartheid movement, from the Kennedys to Obama era, this small island has put itself at the center of world events.

Jose Marti, known as 'the Apostle of Cuban Independence,' was an influential poet, journalist, and political theorist who became a symbol for the Cuban people's bid for independence. The concepts of freedom, liberty, and self-determination feature prominently in his work.

In the Arab Spring, that obviously came to a head in Syria. I found myself arguing for intervention, mainly just because I wanted things to get better, and I had this germ of liberal humanitarian interventionism.

It was wrenching to read about the brutality of Assad every morning, to see images of family homes reduced to rubble. I felt we had to do something in Syria.

I profoundly do not believe that the United States could make things better in Syria by being there. And we have an evidentiary record of what happens when we're there - nearly a decade in Iraq.

In addition to deep divisions on issues such as trade, climate change, Middle East peace and nuclear weapons, Trump's attacks on leaders such as Trudeau and Merkel and disrespect for NATO and other institutions are prompting a reassessment by allied governments and publics.

One of the things you learn in government is there's a long tail to American decision-making when it comes to foreign policy. Moving the embassy to Jerusalem, pulling out of the Iran deal, pulling out of Paris, not speaking up for democratic values - the world doesn't end the next day.

Talking and diplomacy is often seen as a concession in America, in a way that it is not in other places.

Irrespective of our foreign policies, for decades, other nations and peoples could see, in the United States, a strong democracy that could maintain social cohesion, welcome immigrants of all backgrounds, and count on stable institutions.

Where civil society is welcomed, communities are more safe, more secure, and more prosperous.

America's trade policy has an enormous impact on the economic well-being of the American people and the strategic interests of the United States.

One of the most depressing things about President Donald Trump's decision to roll back elements of the Cuba opening is how predictable it was.

The only place in the world where, I think, leaders have preferred Trump are in Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia and Israel.

In the course of a presidency, a U.S. president says millions of words in public. You never know which of them end up cementing a certain impression.

Faith leaders, young people, American companies, human rights advocates, and many others have demonstrated a unique interest in our Cuba policy. But no community cares more deeply about these issues than Cuban Americans - young and old - who have maintained a profound interest in Cuba and an abiding faith in the Cuban people.

What people admire about Prime Minister Modi is that he is an ambitious leader who is trying to elevate India economically, and enlisting all Indians in that project will make it more successful.

If you are a speechwriter, you have to know what the person you're writing for thinks. A lot of foreign policy advisers are thinking, 'How can I get my proposal into this guy's speech?' I was just thinking, 'What does he want to say?'

When it comes to Israel's security, our military and intelligence cooperation, that's off limits. That's protected. That's sacrosanct.