Quotes About Diplomacy

One view at the highest levels of the U.S. embassy in Kabul by summer's end was that Karzai "was a very clever madman—just because he was insane doesn't mean he was stupid.

Our failure to properly deal with Germany and Japan early cost the world dearly later on. We dare not make the same mistake with China.

Remember, a closed mouth gathers no foot.

Boss, she's a _Dragon_. They don't _believe_ in assassination. They consider it a _crime_. If you go up to her and--" "Kragar," I interrupted, "I never said that I was going to go up to her and say, 'Aliera, I'm trying to assassinate this guy, how would you like to help set him up?' Give me credit for a little finesse, all right?

Information is a beacon, a cudgel, an olive branch, a deterrent--all depending on who wields it and how.

My fellow Americans, I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes. -Ronald Reagan, unaware a radio microphone was on

Everything worth fighting for is gained without fighting.

If you want to know how Hillary Clinton could try to distance herself from President Obama's much-criticized foreign policy, listen closely to the words of her former top strategist, Anne-Marie Slaughter.

I would never say anything derogatory about another actor even in my sleep.

I wonder how Colin Powell sleeps at night. I would like to have a word with him because he lied. He lied. He lied to me. He lied to my face through the camera at the U.N.

Eritrea is hellbent on destabilising Ethiopia. It does not care who it sleeps with.

International politics attracts politicians who talk a good game, but whose achievements are often slender.

I don't want this to sound racist, but most Orientals are nonconfrontational. They'll let things slide. I'm not like that.

The India-China intercourse began from the era of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Both interacted with each other peacefully and conducted scholarly and ideological exchanges. Both loved and admired each other; never had there been a slight clash.

I went to Moscow and met some slightly powerful and scary people.

Obviously, things can get derailed, particularly if, which looks more and more likely, you get a blow-up between Israel and Iran. I think that's a very real probability now. But barring some real blow-up, the U.S. economy will grow, after a slow first quarter, about 3, 3.5 percent this year, far better than it was in 2011.

We are a small country and we have limited influence so we are neutral.

It's never easy to be a small country next to a big neighbor.

How curious that such an outsize man, in physique as well as personality, should be remembered today mainly for giving his name to a small fish. For the 19th century, Bismarck was no herring but a leviathan. Between 1862 and 1890, he created Germany, seeing off first the Austrian empire and then France.

Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that's not true. Some of the smaller countries are neutral.

A formally recognized equality does, however, accord the smaller nations a position which they should be able to use increasingly in the interest of humanity as a whole and in the service of the ideal.

There is not much danger of the smaller nations if the big nations will behave.

Without Madeleine Albright, our community of democracies might be smaller.

Widowhood had done nothing to curb my smart mouth. So much for diplomacy.