Realpolitik Quotes

• America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Friendship, America, Enemy

  "The White House Years". Book by Henry Kissinger, 1979.

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• Forgiveness and reconciliation are not just ethereal, spiritual, other-worldly activities. They have to do with the real world. They are realpolitik, because in a very real sense, without forgiveness, there is no future.

  Desmond Tutu

  Forgiveness, Spiritual, Real

  "The Truth About Forgiveness" by Wendy Strgar, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 27, 2010.

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• There is always an element of realpolitik that has to be present in the conduct of any nation's national security affairs. At the same time, we have to also have a balance between realpolitik and Wilsonian principles of freedom and democracy and human rights. And maintaining that balance is the greatest challenge that we in the West, including the Federal Republic of Germany, have to face because it's many times a very difficult decision-making process.

  John McCain

  Rights, Decision, Challenges

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.

  Marianne Williamson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Forgiveness

  Marianne Williamson (1992). “A return to love: reflections on the principles of "A course in miracles"”

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• In fact in politics, sometimes the thing that will never happen actually starts to happen. And there have to be people who hold out for that, and who accept that they are idealists and that they are operating on principle as opposed to realpolitik.

  Judith Butler

  People, Principles, Facts

  Source: www.opendemocracy.net

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• Human relations tend to be more difficult when you're dealing with someone who weighs 30 kilograms more than you do. That's when you worry about whether a well-meaning gesture could produce complications. We have no problems with countries like Madagascar or Bolivia, for example. But Germany is our neighbor and we have a shared past. Besides, Germany is powerful and ambitious and more than four times as large as we are. It makes complete sense that we would act cautiously. It's simply Realpolitik.

  Vaclav Klaus

  Country, Powerful, Past

  "'The Past Is the Past'". Interview with Christian Neef and Jan Puhl, Renata Hanusova, www.spiegel.de. March 13, 2006.

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• [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is an adherent of realpolitik. He knows that international relations are not built on the strength of unilateral demands, but on solutions that are in everybody's best interest.

  Martin Schulz

  Demand, Erdogan, Relation

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Americans need to educate themselves, from elementary school onward, about what their country has done abroad. And they need to play a more active role in ensuring that what the United States does abroad is not merely in keeping with a foreign policy elite's sense of realpolitik but also with the American public's own sense of American values.

  Mohsin Hamid

  Country, School, Play

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• The issue has two dimensions. One is the legal dimension and the other one is the issue at the realpolitik. [In the] legal realm, we believe in equal rights for all people in all nations. If Israel, the United States, Russia, Pakistan, other countries, China, have the right to have a nuclear program and nuclear bomb, Iran, too, must have that same right. Now, at the realm of realpolitik, because there is a global consensus against Iran, and because there are all manner of dangers facing Iran, I am opposed to this program.

  Akbar Ganji

  Country, Believe, Two

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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