Quotes from Paul Wolfowitz

I think that all countries that participate in multilateral institutions see the institutions as a way of advancing what they view as their national interests and they see in many cases multi-lateral institution as the best way to do that.

Part of what is wrong with the view of American imperialism is that it is antithetical to our interests. We are better off when people are governing themselves. I'm sure there is some guy that will tell you that philosophy is no different from the Roman Empire's. Well, it is fundamentally different.

You can't win if you're chasing the wrong problem.

The use of force to liberate people is very different from the use of force to suppress or control them, or even to defeat them.

Our security depends on having good relationships with our allies. Donald Trump mainly shows contempt for them.

It's wonderful that so many people want to contribute to fighting aids or malaria. But, if somebody isn't paying attention to the overall health system in the country, a whole lot of money can be wasted.

Sometimes corruption is slowed by shedding light into what was previously shadowed.

The absence of Saddam is a huge weight off the Arab world.

I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq. Those who want to come and help are welcome. Those who come to interfere and destroy are not.

I can't predict the future.

One of the things that ultimately led me to leave mathematics and go into political science was thinking I could prevent nuclear war.

For the private sector to flourish, special privilege must give way to equal opportunity and equal risk for all.

We don't start a job that we can't finish... that's the American way.

I have always had a tendency to keep enlarging problems which I personally think is the way the world works... that seeing anything one dimensionally on the kinds of political, sort of big issues of human progress is going to be a distorted view of things, which is why over my career I have gone seemingly from subject to subject to subject.

I think one has to say it's not just simply a matter of capturing people and holding them accountable, but removing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems, ending states who sponsor terrorism. And that's why it has to be a broad and sustained campaign.

I think, in the longer view of things, there is a very powerful pull in the direction of participatory government.

Look, I think the notion that there's a dogma or doctrine of foreign policy that gives you a textbook recipe for how to react to all situations is really nonsense.

I told my father I had to try political science for a year. He thought I was throwing my life away.

I've met quite a few dictators up close and personal in my life.

We did not go to war in Afghanistan or in Iraq to, quote, 'impose democracy.' We went to war in both places because we saw those regimes as a threat to the United States.

You can't be involved in healthcare without being involved in the battle against AIDS.

Support for peaceful reform by the people themselves is the right way to promote democracy, not the use of force.

Jobs are a priority for every country. Doing more to improve regulation and help entrepreneurs is the key to creating jobs - and more growth.

Someone once said that history has more imagination than all the scenario writers in the Pentagon, and we have a lot of scenario writers here. No one ever wrote a scenario for commercial airliners crashing into the World Trade Center.