Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

We are not going to be satisfied by politicians saying ‚we support you‘ and then walking away. We won’t be satisfied until they meet our demands and act. That’s why simply taking a selfie or posting support on Twitter isn’t enough. That’s why we have to keep striking.

There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate, upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

It isn’t generally the case that liberals dominate entire hierarchies. That isn’t generally how it works, because the hierarchies are usually set up so that conservatives fill up the hierarchies; it’s in the nature of hierarchy.

Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.

I’m not somebody that just wants to hold up a white flag and say, ‚Let’s all just get along.‘ I think people that do horrible things should be held accountable.

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.

The U.S. couldn’t even get rid of Saddam Hussein. And we all know that the EU is just a passing fad. They’ll be killing each other again in less than a year. I’m sick to death of all these fascist lawsuits.

There is no gambling like politics.

Fortunately, we have help from the media. I have to say this: I’m very grateful for the support and kindness that we’ve gotten. People have respected their privacy and in that way, I think, you know, no matter what people may feel about my husband’s policies or what have you, they care about children and that’s been good to see.

I always tell people that religious institutions and political institutions should be separate. So while I’m telling people this, I myself continue with them combined. Hypocrisy!

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

Always remember that your calmness under fire is your best defense in any argument or discussion.

The best way to resolve any problem in the human world is for all sides to sit down and talk.

I’ve never fought with anyone. A lot of people talk to me, and they’re like, ‚Oh, you would have been fighting all the time when you were younger,‘ but I’m like, ‚I never fought with anyone because I always knew that if I hurt myself, I might lose important time in my cricket career,‘ so I never got into any fight, ever in my life.

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.

My position has always been, along with many other people, that any differences be resolved in a nonviolent way.

I think America has always been polarized.

Politics I supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow.

The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument… an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.

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

I don’t think it is so difficult to solve the problems between Cuba and the United States; it all depends on whether there is a dialogue, a discussion, or if the prejudices and hatred of people like the extremists and terrorists from the Cuban community, who try to impose their policies, prevail.

Ethics and power are separate.

True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.

Obama has succeeded in descending even below George W. Bush in approval in the Arab world. It’s minuscule, few percent.

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that oral teachers and sign teachers found it difficult to sit down in the same room without quarreling, and there was intolerance upon both sides. To say ‚oral method‘ to a sign teacher was like waving a red flag in the face of a bull, and to say ‚sign language‘ to an oralist aroused the deepest resentment.

I never accepted Communist dogma or theory.

China and the U.S. need each other very badly. Yes, we should argue about some things, but it’s not an ‚us versus them,‘ it’s an ‚us and them‘ type scenario.

I’ve known and continue to know every one of these major world leaders by their first names, and I have access to them.

If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.

I have decided in 2020 to run for president.

If there was less sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the world.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.

Passive aggressors who are adept at this will have trained themselves to remain calm, while you get irritated and emotional.

I am making a collection of the things my opponents have found me to be and, when this election is over, I am going to open a museum and put them on display.

A war is a horrible thing, but it’s also a unifier of countries.

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

Politics is a noble activity. We should revalue it, practise it with vocation and a dedication that requires testimony, martyrdom, that is to die for the common good.

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

Ronald Reagan used to alarm his Soviet counterparts by saying that surely they’d both unite against an invasion from Mars.

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.

Obama himself has been highly supportive of Mubarak.

I’m going to be so much better a president for having been at the CIA that you’re not going to believe it.

I almost laughed about the Machiavellian plans of the presidents of the United States.

Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

But do I think that our actions in anyway violate the War Powers Resolution, the answer is no.

Politics is a profession; a serious, complicated and, in its true sense, a noble one.

Governments are supposed to lie to their citizens.

The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

One of the most pervasive political visions of our time is the vision of liberals as compassionate and conservatives as less caring.

Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

People do not make wars; governments do.

There’s no political point worth my son’s life.