Quotes About Diplomacy

We did more to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions with a computer virus than we ever could have with bombs (and we did still more with diplomacy - the abandonment of which is also bad for our military, because militaries can only stop a problem, not fix a problem).

There cannot be any concessions on the matter of human rights or the criteria for visa liberalisation.

Presidents are not only the country's principal policy chief, shaping the nation's domestic and foreign agendas, but also the most visible example of our values.

Nowhere outside of Southeast Asia is China's rise as a global power more visible than in Africa.

The statesman's duty is to bridge the gap between his nation's experience and his vision.

Richard Nixon made a toast to me as a future Prime Minister of Canada when I was 4 months old, sitting as a centerpiece in the middle of a table as my father had plonked me down there. It was more about politeness than any great vision.

We expect President Bush to implement his own vision of a two-state solution, the birth of the Palestinian State and the ending of the occupation that started in 1967.

President Obama, like every other leader on Earth, is still going to be looking out for national and economic interests. States don't cease to be states overnight just because they get a great visionary as their new president.

And a diplomatist is one who lets the other fellow think he's getting his way, while all the time he's having his own. It never does any special harm to let people have their way with their mouths.

A tactful man can pull the stinger from a bee without getting stung.

All politics must cease then we may find world peace, no political leader will bring peace to the world.

A graceful taunt is worth a thousand insults.

Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.) said on Wednesday that he trusted Middle Eastern countries as much as gas station sushi, with the exception being Israel.

If each man were to lay down his weapon, and say, With a click of his heels, "I wish you Good-day," Now what, may I ask, could the Emperor do? A king and his minions are really so few.

A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece.

The relationship of the two problems is rather the reverse. To a great extent disarmament is dependent on guarantees of peace. Security comes first and disarmament second.

Whoever wants peace among nations must seek to limit the state and its influence most strictly.

The welfare of a people lies not in casting other peoples down but in peaceful collaboration.

To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war.

Niekas nepradeda karo- ar bent jau ne vienas protingas zmogus neturetu jo pradeti - tvirtai nesuvokdamas, ka siuo karu jis ketina pasiekti ir kaip jis ketina kariauti.

No one starts a war – or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so – without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war and how he intends to conduct it. – CARL VON CLAUSEWITZ, Vom Kriege

To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill.

Historians tell us that Talleyrand once told Napoleon, "You can do anything with bayonets, Sire, except sit on them." In the language of the court this meant that obedience to the law ultimately depended on cooperation, not force.

If there is anyone here whom I have not insulted, I beg his pardon.