Quotes About Diplomacy

Peace is better than war because conflict resolutions can be made without a wastage of life and resources.

England's diplomatic service had always been skeletal and underfunded; many ambassadors treated their papers as their personal property, so documentation from the past was far more patchy than in France or Spain, a problem exacerbated by the disruption of the Interregnum.

America's power position as "the hammer of the whole earth" extends to more than military power. America tells other nations what to do and how to do it. For example, America forced the UBS AG Bank in Switzerland to close all of the offshore accounts in the Swiss Bank held by U.S. citizens, as part of an IRS "tax investigation which challenges Switzerland's famous banking secrecy laws." (Reuters, January 9, 2009).

the President on a foreign tour declared that "we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation…" and a day later bowed before the King of the nation that supplied most of the 9/11 terrorists;

The firmest security of peace is the preparation during peace of the defenses of war.

[America] goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.

America... goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

Occasional war is one of the rigorous instruments in the hands of Providence to give tone to the character of nations.

Afghanistan is going to be here a long time, and what's critical is that Afghanistan's relationship with its neighbors are, to the maximum extent they can be, constructive and operationally useful.

Governments produced by the most banal of electoral victories, like those produced by the crudest of coups d'état, will always feel obliged to dress themselves up linguistically in some way.

The surest way to prevent war is not to fear it.

I've heard over and over that people don't vote on the basis of foreign policy.

...the best secretary of state since Dean Acheson. I say that because he and Bush 41 had an incredibly tempestuous period in history, and they navigated through it with great success.

The only thing that will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons is regime change in Tehran.

Commerce in itself may favour peace, but when commerce is artificially shut out by a decree of Government from some promising territory, then commerce just as naturally favours war.

You can either invade a country or leave them alone and trade with them. When goods cross borders, armies don't.

Ought we therefore to lay on no taxes, and, under whatever provocation, make no wars?

And I say to myself, please, John, don't throw up over Vladimir Putin.

John Hay indicates that dealing with people directly as a holder of political office "requires a stronger heart and a more obedient nervous system than I possess.

If he could be hard on kings and cabinets, he was invariably kind to his colleagues.

So far as it depends on the course of this government, our relations of good will and friendship will be sedulously cultivated with all nations.

biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom's annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have."250–MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG

One thing really pissed us off during the flight. On the next to last day of the mission, the Soviets shot a laser at Challenger, tracking it. Though it was a low-powered laser, it was still enough to cause a malfunction of onboard equipment and temporarily blind the crew. The U.S. government made a formal diplomatic protest. The message was not as terse as the one I would have sent.