National Interests Quotes - Page 2

• I would dodge, not lie, in the national interest.

  Larry Speakes

  Lying, Political, Politics

  "Speakes Defines His Role In Shaping Events" by Leslie H. Gelb, www.nytimes.com. October 10, 1986.

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• The Prime Minister [Shindzo Abe] and I will negotiate proceeding from our national interests: the interests of Russia and the interests of Japan. We should find a compromise.

  Vladimir Putin

  Russia, Japan, Compromise

  Source: www.rt.com

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• One of the things that we have to change in this country is the idea that people can't disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism. I have never suggested that Sen. McCain picks his positions on national security based on politics or personal ambition. I have not suggested it because I believe that he genuinely wants to serve America's national interest. Now, it's time for him to acknowledge that I want to do the same. Let me be clear: I will let no one question my love of this country.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Believe, Ambition

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• We must surely appear to the world as exactly what we are: a nation that organizes its economy around consuming twice as much oil as it produces, and around the profligate wastefulness of the wars and campaigns required to defend such consumption. In recent years we have defined our national interest largely in terms of the oil fields and pipelines we need to procure fuel.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  War, Years, Oil

  Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “Small Wonder”, p.33, Faber & Faber

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• Britain could make her own way in the world, outside the EU, if we chose to do so. So could any other Member State. But the question we will have to ask ourselves is this: is that the very best future for our country? We will have to weigh carefully where our true national interest lies.

  David Cameron

  Country, Lying, World

  "The speech that was the start of the end of David Cameron". www.independent.co.uk. June 24, 2016.

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• By statute, Congress has given the president the authority to suspend immigration - any class of immigration if he deems it in the national interest.

  Ted Cruz

  Class, President, Immigration

  Source: time.com

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• For some reason, our media are fascinated by stories that appear to harm American National interests.

  Bob Tyrrell

  Media, Stories, Reason

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• Diplomacy has been exhausted .. Continued instability in the Balkans threatens important U.S. national interests,.

  Tom Daschle

  Important, Exhausted, Balkans

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• Is it in our national interest to overheat the planet? That's the question Obama faces in deciding whether to approve Keystone XL, a 2,000-mile-long pipeline that will bring 500,000 barrels of tar-sand oil from Canada to oil refineries on the Gulf of Mexico.

  Jeff Goodell

  Oil, Long, Keystone Pipeline

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• I do here in the most solemn and bitter manner curse the Prime Minister of England [sic] for having cumulated all his other betrayals of the national interest and honour, by his last terrible exhibition of dishonour, weakness and gullibility. The depths of infamy which our accurst "love of peace" can lower us are unfathomable.

  Enoch Powell

  Betrayal, Weakness, Depth

  "Like the Roman. The Life of Enoch Powell" by Simon Heffer, (p. 47), 1999.

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• Another longstanding foreign policy flaw is the degree to which special interests dictate the way in which the "national interest" as a whole is defined and pursued.... America's important historic relationship with Israel has often led foreign policy decision-makers to defer reflexively to Israeli security assessments, and to replicate Israeli tactics, which, as the war in Lebanon last summer demonstrated, can turn out to be counter-productive.

  Samantha Power

  Summer, War, Israel

  Interview with in Molly Lanzarotta, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, March 14, 2007.

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• If I were a German today, I would be proud, proud but also worried. I would be proud of the magnificent achievement of rebuilding my country, entrenching democracy and assuming the undoubtedly preponderant position in Europe. But a united Germany can't and won't subordinate its national interests in economic or in foreign policy to those of the Community indefinitely. Germany's new pre-eminence is a fact - and its power is a problem - as much for Germans as for the rest of Europe.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Country, Europe, Achievement

  Margaret Thatcher, Iain Dale (1997). “As I said to Denis--: the Margaret Thatcher book of quotations”, Robson Book Ltd

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• Our system provides for a winner to take office on January 20th, and he is expected to take command of the ship of state. Failure to do so, characterized by hesitation and indecision, will harm the national interest.

  Richard V. Allen

  Office, Ships, January

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• I believe that the teachers unions are doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing. They were designed to be professional organizations that protect the rights and privileges and pay of their members. The problem is that we don't have an organized national interest group with the same heft as the teachers union that's advocating on behalf of children.

  Michelle Rhee

  Teacher, Children, Believe

  Source: www.sfgate.com

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• The notion that the UN is some sort of dispassionate body that, “does right” and just pursues everybody’s best interests is a fantasy. Each individual nation will be pursuing their best interests. That’s the normal behavior of nation-states. It shouldn’t surprise us, but neither should we go to them for permission to do what’s in our national interests.

  Mona Charen

  Doe, Body, Politics

  Interview with John Hawkins, rightwingnews.com. February 3, 2012.

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• Talk about national interests: When we went in with Operation Iraqi Freedom, some of our allies, Turkey, for example, would not let us through. How much trouble did that cause us, because we were not able to go into Iraq through Turkey?

  Roger Wicker

  Turkeys, Iraq, Allies

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• After everyone has had a chance to bluster, posture, and pontificate, we are left with one basic question: under any foreseeable circumstance, would it be in our national interest to default on our debt? The answer is unequivocally no.

  John Sununu

  Debt, Answers, Chance

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• Governments do not necessarily act in the national interest, especially when making detailed microeconomic interventions. Instead, they are influenced by interest group pressures. The kinds of interventions that new trade theory suggests can raise national income will typically raise the welfare of small, fortunate groups by large amounts, while imposing costs on larger, more diffuse groups.

  Paul Krugman

  Philosophy, Government, Political

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• The U.S. should never get involved where we have no clear national interest. We should not intervene militarily in a country like Syria, where we can’t separate friend from foe and might end up arming the very people who hate us the most.

  Rand Paul

  Country, Hate, People

  FaceBook post by Rand Paul from Jul 19, 2013

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• Look, I don't mind if the President sends a budget which he knows is not going to achieve anything. But when he prefaces his remarks as we just saw by saying we have to put politics aside, posing again as the one person in the country who rises above partisanship and party, speaks for the national interest, it's really grating.

  Charles Krauthammer

  Country, Party, Mind

  "Krauthammer: Obama budget 'not a real document'", www.foxnews.com. February 2, 2015.

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• In a situation where many national leaders do the same thing and look out for national interests, and with an issue like global warming, you're likely to get no solution, so I think you have to have some kind of ethical trump on some of those issues.

  Peter Singer

  Thinking, Issues, Leader

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• The United States-Israeli relationship is based on the broadest conception of American national interest in which our two nations are bound forever together by common democratic values and traditions. This will never change.

  Colin Powell

  Two Nations, Israel, Forever

  McConnell Center Address on U.S. Role in Arab-Israeli Conflict, delivered 19 November 2001

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• Patriotism, red hot, is compatible with the existence of a neglect of national interests, a dishonesty, a cold indifference to the suffering of millions. Patriotism is largely pride, and very largely combativeness. Patriotism generally has a chip on its shoulder.

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  Pride, Suffering, Hot

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman (2015). “Collected Works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Short Stories, Novels, Poems and Essays: The Yellow Wallpaper, What Diantha Did, Women and Economics, The Crux, Moving the Mountain, Herland and other works from the prominent American feminist, sociologist and novelist”, p.454, e-artnow

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• What remains constant for me, during the last 15 years, has been the conviction that the cold war was a calamity for the entire world, and that it can be justified by no consideration of theory, nor by any supposed national interest.

  Earl Browder

  War, Years, World

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• You have, at the same time, placed your confidence in me, and in my ability to render a free, fair judgment - to uphold the Constitution and my oath of office - and to reject any kind of religious pressure or obligation that might directly or indirectly interfere with my conduct of the Presidency in the national interest.

  John F. Kennedy

  Religious, Oath Of Office, Religion

  "To the New Frontier". www.cnn.com. July 25, 1960.

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