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

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• 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

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

  John F. Kennedy

  Defeat, Foreign Affairs, Domestic Policy

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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

  Ramsey Clark

  Peace, War, World

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

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Hate, Hats, Domestic Policy

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• 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

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• 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".

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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.

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• The honor of a nation is its life. Deliberately to abandon it is to commit an act of political suicide.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Suicide, Political, Honor

  Alexander Hamilton (1851). “Political essays [etc., 1792-1804] Contents. Index”, p.627

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• 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.

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

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Country, Geography, Knows

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• 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.

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• The principal purposes to be answered by union are these the common defense of the members; the preservation of the public peace as well against internal convulsions as external attacks; the regulation of commerce with other nations and between the States; the superintendence of our intercourse, political and commercial, with foreign countries.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Country, Political, Unions

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.111, Coventry House Publishing

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• The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Ebola, Political Will, Nwo

  The Washington Post, December 23, 1973.

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• No modern nation has ever constructed a foreign policy that was acceptable to its intellectuals

  Irving Kristol

  Modern, Acceptable, Nations

  Irving Kristol (1995). “Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea”, p.77, Simon and Schuster

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• The rights of neutrality will only be respected when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Rights, Weakness, Neutrality

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States”, p.50

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• In Haig's presence, Kissinger referred pointedly to military men as "dumb, stupid animals to be used" as pawns for foreign policy.

  Bob Woodward

  Military, War, Stupid

  Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein (2013). “The Final Days”, p.194, Simon and Schuster

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