I see Libya as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and a sovereign State of the nearly 200 members of the United Nations.

No matter how hard we might wish, we will not be able to transform China’s behavior overnight.

It is my view that we cannot conduct foreign policy at the extremes.

The Iranians have shot down drones. They tried to destroy the Saudi oil fields. They tried to storm our embassy. So, when my Democratic friends say we need appeasement, well appeasement hasn’t worked. And I think that we’ve learned, with respect to Iran, that weakness invites the wolves.

We prefer world law in the age of self-determination to world war in the age of mass extermination.

For somebody who loves foreign policy, being Secretary is the best job in the world – but it doesn’t happen twice.

We should pass the U.N.’s Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. At least it will clearly establish whom you view as a terrorist and whom you don’t. We need to delink terrorism from religion – to isolate terrorists who use this interchange of arguments between terrorism and religion.

There’s not going to be a World War III, because there is no one to have World War III with.

Foreign policy is like human relations, only people know less about each other.

A very large majority of the U.S. population is in favor of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba and has been for a long time with some fluctuations. And even part of the business world is in favor of it, too. But the government won’t allow it.

In America, there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world.

For more than four decades, the Libyan people have been ruled by a tyrant – Moammar Gaddafi. He has denied his people freedom, exploited their wealth, murdered opponents at home and abroad, and terrorized innocent people around the world – including Americans who were killed by Libyan agents.

No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.

I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid.

Quite frankly, Russian aggression in Ukraine and its illegal occupation of Crimea remind us that we still have a good deal more work to do to guarantee the strategic vision of a Europe whole, free and at peace.

If the United Nations once admits that international disputes can be settled by using force, then we will have destroyed the foundation of the organization and our best hope of establishing a world order.

The governments of the present day have to deal not merely with other governments, with emperors, kings and ministers, but also with the secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments‘ plans.

No nation should threaten its neighbors by massing troops along the border.

Each nation feels superior to other nations. That breeds patriotism – and wars.

History shows that, more often than not, loss of sovereignty leads to liberalisation imposed in the interests of the powerful.

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?

I am confident my Hindutva face will be an asset when dealing with foreign affairs with other nations.

More understand China, then more people will have interest in China and more people will come to China to visit us because I am a tourist ambassador.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

So while I will never minimize the costs involved in military action, I am convinced that a failure to act in Libya would have carried a far greater price for America.

Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.

Unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. In this world, fear has no place. Only strength respects strength.

The list of U.S. vetoes at the Security Council to protect Israeli aggression and occupation is huge.

As a nuclear power – as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon – the United States has a moral responsibility to act.

The United States supports a strong, united Ukraine with productive and peaceful relationships with both the East and the West, with both Russia and Europe.

I don’t see any possibility of Britain and the U.S. allowing a sovereign independent Iraq; that’s almost inconceivable.

We can not play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.

Putin sought to keep Ukraine weak through corruption.

When I was 18, I went to the Soviet Union. I kept hearing that America was planning to bomb them – lots of bombs were going to come down on these people. I went there not knowing anything, except that I thought the whole thing was stupid and that I wanted to see who these people were that we were going to bomb.

International summits and organisations like WTO take decisions, which will bind us, and if we are not present in such summits, we may be hurt by the decisions taken.

Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it… You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.

I want the troops from Great Britain and the U.S. to be successful, but by the same token, Afghanistan has always been a screw-up.

I do not believe we will have a war with Iran.

The idea that putting Americans ‚first‘ requires a withdrawal from the world is simply wrongheaded because a retreat would achieve exactly the opposite for our citizens.

I have spoken to Chinese leaders occasionally on human rights, but I’ve always done it in private.

The truth of the matter is that Iran is a cancer.

I used to wish there was a useful term for those of us who thought American power should be used to remove psychopathic dictators.

Everybody has forgotten that Russia helped start the Second World War.

I think, under President Obama, who was a really bright guy – I didn’t agree with a lot of his politics – but we got to the point internationally where our friends didn’t trust us. They were confused. And our enemies didn’t quite respect us.

When George W. Bush came into office, North Korea had maybe one nuclear weapon and verifiably wasn’t producing any more.

The target of preventive war must have several characteristics. It must be virtually defenceless; it must be important enough to be worth the trouble; it must be possible to portray it as the ultimate evil and an imminent threat to our survival.

We live in an inter-dependent world. An isolated India is not in our interest.

What’s important in Libya is, first of all, it has a good deal of oil. A lot of the country is unexplored; there may be a lot more. And it’s very high-quality oil, so very valuable.

I said that America’s role would be limited; that we would not put ground troops into Libya; that we would focus our unique capabilities on the front end of the operation, and that we would transfer responsibility to our allies and partners.

Israel is a pretty crazy state.

It’s a near miracle that nuclear war has so far been avoided.

Foreigners don’t want to invest any more in France – and this is not working.

The United States is supplying the most modern and sophisticated weaponry to Israel to the tune of billions of dollars every year.

America’s promises do not come with a price tag. We meet our commitments. We bear our burdens. That’s one of the reasons why almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago when I took office.

In February 2004, the two traditional torturers of Haiti – France and the United States – combined to back a military coup and send President Aristide off to Africa. The U.S. denies him permission to return to the entire region.

This was not an act of terrorism, but it was an act of war.

Many things shall change in Cuba, but they shall change because of our efforts and despite the United States. Perhaps that empire shall crumble first.

Saddam’s goal is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed.

The U.S. and its allies will do anything they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world.

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

Foe means enemy. Now, will we have differences of opinion with the Russians? Yes. Will they get mad at us from time to time, and we get mad at them? That’s part of the normal diplomatic relations.