National Interests Quotes

• The national interest is predetermined by geopolitics or the history of a country. Important political leaders never just followed their interests - they were concerned about the interests of their people.

  Joseph Nye

  Country, People, Leader

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would do the
  same.

  John F. Kennedy

  Office, Interest, Servant

  Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, delivered 12 September 1960 at the Rice Hotel in Houston, TX

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• The predominant yardstick of your government is not human rights but national interests.

  Breyten Breytenbach

  Rights, Government, Yardsticks

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• The reputation of those countries which cater to the foreign policy interests of other states at the expense of their own national interests will go down regardless of how they explain their actions.

  Vladimir Putin

  Country, Action, Reputation

  Source: russialist.org

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• In some cases, in order to protect global issues some sacrifice for national interest is worth it in the long run. Global warming, these things, they suffer everybody.

  Dalai Lama

  Running, Sacrifice, Order

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• We want people to come into our country, but they have to come into our country legally and properly vetted, and in a manner that serves the national interest.

  Donald Trump

  Country, People, Want

  "Transcript of Donald Trump’s Immigration Speech". www.nytimes.com. September 1, 2016.

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• For the United States, supporting international development is more than just an expression of our compassion. It is a vital investment in the free, prosperous, and peaceful international order that fundamentally serves our national interest.

  Condoleezza Rice

  Compassion, Expression, Order

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• The capability of negotiating... is something that means you not only have to understand fully what you believe and what your national interests are but in order to be a really good negotiator, you have to try to figure out what the other person on the other side of the table has in mind.

  Madeleine Albright

  Believe, Mean, Order

  "Madeleine Albright: Hillary's job not a party" by MJ Lee, www.politico.com. April 20, 2012.

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• I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.

  Winston Churchill

  Keys, Russia, Action

  Radio broadcast, 1 Oct. 1939

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• We are ready to engage in international co-operation against terrorism with a view to safeguarding national interests and regional security and stability.

  Li Peng

  Views, Engagement, Terrorism

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• People in Parliament occupy themselves with private animosities and petty quarrels, and think little of the national interest. It is impossible to credit the serene indifference with which they consider events outside their own country.

  William III of England

  Country, Thinking, People

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• Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

  Winston Churchill

  Russia, Mystery, Riddle

  Radio broadcast, 1 Oct. 1939

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• The corporation was originally conceived as a public institution whose purpose was to serve national interests and advance the public good.

  Joel Bakan

  Purpose, Corporations, Institutions

  Joel Bakan (2005). “The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power”, p.153, Simon and Schuster

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• Self-interest and mutual interest are inextricably linked. National interests can best be advanced through collective action, ... Calculate not just the human misery of the poor themselves. Calculate our loss: The aid, the lost opportunity to trade, the short-term consequences of the multiple conflicts; the long-term consequences on the attitude to the wealthy world of injustice and abject deprivation amongst the poor.

  Tony Blair

  Attitude, Loss, Opportunity

  "Tony Blair's Mansion House speech: full text". www.theguardian.com. November 15, 2005.

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• Do not compromise on national security for purely budgetary reasons. The world is dangerous, and we must always be prepared for anything that might threaten our national interests and security.

  Sanford Bishop

  Might, World, Compromise

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• The statesman must think in terms of the national interest, conceived as power among other powers. The popular mind, unaware of the fine distinctions of the statesman's thinking, reasons more often than not in the simple moralistic and legalistic terms of absolute good and absolute evil.

  Hans Morgenthau

  Simple, Thinking, Evil

  Hans Morgenthau (1955). “Politics Among Nations”

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• We have made mistakes! We were too late. If we had presented our national interests more clearly from the beginning, the world would still be in balance today.

  Vladimir Putin

  Mistake, Balance, World

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

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• Party is a body of men united, for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed.

  Edmund Burke

  Party, Men, Body

  Edmund Burke (1792). “The works of ... Edmund Burke [ed. by W. King and F. Laurence].”, p.498

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• I am proposing a new foreign policy focused on advancing America's core national interests - so important - promoting regional stability, and producing and easing the tensions within our very troubled world.

  Donald Trump

  America, Important, World

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• There was a deliberate decision after the failure of the League of Nations to make the next attempt to establish a global political actor sensitive to geopolitical realities. The underlying idea was to provide major states, defined in 1945 by reference to the winners in the Second World War (now an anachronism), with assurance that they could take part in the UN without jeopardising their national interests. In this regard, the UN has succeeded, as none of the big countries has withdrawn, and the Organisation has managed to achieve virtually universal membership of all sovereign states.

  Richard A. Falk

  Country, War, Reality

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• Investing in women's lives is an investment in sustainable development, in human rights, in future generations - and consequently in our own long-term national interests.

  Liya Kebede

  Rights, Long, Generations

  "Let’s Make Mother’s Day a Global Reality" by Liya Kebede, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 7, 2009.

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• We really believe our national interests are identical with European interests.

  Gerhard Schroder

  Believe, Europe, Interest

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• We must recognize that as the dominant power in the world we have a special responsibility. In addition to protecting our national interests, we must take the leadership in protecting the common interests of humanity.

  George Soros

  Leadership, Responsibility, Humanity

  George Soros (2007). “Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror”, p.25, PublicAffairs

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• A wartime Minister of Information is compelled, in the national interest, to such continuous acts of duplicity that even his natural hair must grow to resemble a wig.

  Claud Cockburn

  Hair, Duplicity, Wigs

  Claud Cockburn (1960). “Crossing the Line: Being the Second Volume of Autobiography”, Macgibbon & Kee

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• Everybody pursues their national interests. The only one who gets blamed for it is the United States.

  John Bolton

  United States, Interest, Pursue

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