Foreign Policy Quotes

• Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Peace, Honesty, War

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

  96 Copy quote

  Show source

• When it comes to foreign policy, it is important to remember that politics stops at the water's edge.

  Hillary Clinton

  Water, Important, Remember

  "Shift to GOP control in House signals shift in foreign policy matters" by Charley Keyes, Laurie Ure, Pam Benson, www.cnn.com. November 3, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you know a country's geography, you can understand and predict its foreign policy.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Country, Geography, Knows

  94 Copy quote

• The purpose of foreign policy is not to provide an outlet for our own sentiments of hope or indignation; it is to shape real events in a real world.

  John F. Kennedy

  Real, Events, Purpose

  Speech at the Mormon Tabernacle, delivered 26 September 1963, Salt Lake City, Utah

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

  John F. Kennedy

  Defeat, Foreign Affairs, Domestic Policy

  8 Copy quote

• the purpose of foreign policy is to persuade others to do what we want or, better yet, to want what we want.

  Madeleine Albright

  Purpose, Want, Policy

  Madeleine Albright (2009). “Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box”, p.20, Harper Collins

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I will have a foreign-handed foreign policy.

  George W. Bush

  Humor, Political, Bushism

  "Bush, in his own words" by Jacob Weisberg, www.theguardian.com. November 3, 2000.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Let us, then, draw together in the name, not of jingoism, but of justice

  Margaret Thatcher

  Names, Justice, Together

  Margaret Thatcher (1987). “In defence of freedom: speeches on Britain's relations with the world 1976-1986”

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• Foreign policy deals across time as well as space.

  William Pfaff

  Space, Deals, Wells

  "Barbarian Sentiments - How The American Century Ends". Book by William Pfaff, ch. 5, Nationalism, p. 146, 1989.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A political society does not live to conduct foreign policy; it would be more correct to say that it conducts foreign policy in order to live.

  George F. Kennan

  Order, Political, Doe

  "The Two Planes of International Reality". Lecture at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey on March 1954. "Realities of American Foreign Policy". Book by George F. Kennan, p. 4, 1954.

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• My ardent desire is, and my aim has been, to comply strictly with all our engagements, foreign and domestic, but to keep the United States free from political connections with every other country; to see that they may be independent of all and under the influence of none.

  George Washington

  Country, Home, Character

  "The real George Washington".

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home.

  William E. Gladstone

  Home, Government, Principles

  Speech, West Calder, Scotland, November 27, 1879.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Separation of powers is a problem for foreign policy.

  Condoleezza Rice

  Separation, Problem, Separation Of Powers

  10 Copy quote

• Our greatest foreign policy problem is our divisions at home. Our greatest foreign policy need is national cohesion and a return to the awareness that in foreign policy we are all engaged in a common national endeavor.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Home, Needs, Division

  Speech to Boston World Affairs Council, Boston, Massachusetts, March 11, 1976.

  58 Copy quote

  Show source

• The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy.

  Ramsey Clark

  Peace, War, World

  27 Copy quote

• No foreign policy - no matter how ingenious - has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Heart, Mind, Matter

  16 Copy quote

• Foreign policy is really domestic policy with its hat on.

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Hate, Hats, Domestic Policy

  11 Copy quote

• A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Country, Perfection, Demand

  "Reflections on Containment". Foreign Affairs, Vol. 73, No. 3, p. 130, June 1994.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Horse, Republic, Influence

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.427

  346 Copy quote

  Show source

• Foreign policy is a little bit like a guy who goes to Las Vegas. If you win too much, then you eventually bet the mortgage. You start to think you are infallible.

  Peter Beinart

  Winning, Thinking, Vegas

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• [Putin] is a bully. And bullies only understand when we punch them in the nose, but we need to do that economically.

  Kelly Ayotte

  Leadership, Money, Reality

  5 Copy quote

• History and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.

  George Washington

  Government, Republican, Influence

  George Washington, Andrew Jackson (1862). “Washington's Farewell Address: The Proclamation of Jackson Against Nullification, and the Declaration of Independence”, p.10

  39 Copy quote

  Show source

• Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.

  Jimmy Carter

  Inspirational, Motivational, Rights

  "Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter, 1978, Book 1: January 1 to June 30, 1978". Book by Jimmy Carter, 1979.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Foreign policy can mean several things, not only foreign policy in the narrow sense. It can cover foreign policy, relations with the developing world, and enlargement as well.

  Romano Prodi

  Mean Girls, World, Enlargement

  World Economy interview, www.euractiv.com. February 16, 2004.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are no shortcuts to victory. We must commit ourselves to the slow, painstaking work of foreign policy day by day and year by year.

  Richard Lugar

  Years, Victory, Shortcuts

  "Bidding Adieu To Congressional Trailblazers" by Liz Halloran, www.npr.org. January 2, 2013.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source