Quotes About Diplomacy

The fall of the Syrian regime is in the interest of America and Israel.

I wish - I wish the peace and good for the Syrian citizen and the Syrian regime.

Ultimately, stability in Syria will come from decisions made on the ground by the Syrian people and by their immediate neighbors.

There's been a deliberate and systematic effort to convey to countries around the world, friends and foes, that if they cross the United States there's a price to pay.

International relationships are preordained to be clumsy gestures based on imperfect knowledge.

Turkey will not accept any notion that denies Israel's right to exist. Everyone should unconditionally accept that Israel is an indispensable element of the Middle Eastern mosaic.

A lasting solution to this problem will have an exceptionally positive influence foremost on the peoples of Palestine and Israel, as well as on the region and the international community.

Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace.

You don't want your opening statement to sound like an attack the other person's character, so always begin with an "I" phrase:

Buruma is wise to recommend a balance of concessions and coordination in order to avoid war.

It strikes me, sir, that you are nearing the point where even a grateful American might tell you to go to the devil.-Nero Wolfe to an FBI Agent

The least offensive way of refusing a request is not to let it be made.

The war we are fighting today against terrorism is a multifaceted fight. We have to use every tool in our toolkit to wage this war - diplomacy, finance, intelligence, law enforcement, and of course, military power - and we are developing new tools as we go along.

Anyway, if he went anyplace, Mao said, he'd rather that it be to the United States where he was sure he'd have a great deal to learn.

When the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov visited Washington in 1942, he'd been invited to sleep at the White House. "I think," Roosevelt told Churchill in 1942 referring to Stalin, "that if I give him everything I can and ask him for nothing in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace." The American president clung to that illusion until his death in April 1945.

Remember that when you meet your antagonist, to do everything in a mild agreeable manner. Let your courage be keen, but, at the same time, as polished as your sword.

your Parliament and your Constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If those two fleas continue itching the elephant, they may just get whacked by the elephant's trunk, whacked good. President Lyndon Johnson to the Greek ambassador in Washington (1964)

Treaties of peace, made after war, are entrusted to individuals to negotiate and carry out.

From 1836, down to last year, there is no proof of the Government having any confidence in the duration of peace, or possessing increased security against war.

The progress of freedom depends more upon the maintenance of peace, the spread of commerce, and the diffusion of education, than upon the labors of cabinets and foreign offices.

Americans using expressions like "You are killing me" or "Say that once again and I'll walk away from this deal" will cause great consternation among their Japanese partners.

A peace deal requires agreements, and you don't make agreements with your friends, you make agreements with your enemies.

The negotiations were simultaneously cerebral and physical, abstract and personal, something like a combination of chess and mountain climbing.

The two Presidents sat opposite each other, while Christopher and I sat side by side on a couch between them; Hill and Galbraith also participated. Their greeting was far warmer than their performance for the press; Milosevic jovially hailed Tudjman as "Franjo." Tudjman called Milosevic "Slobo.