For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible – and no one can now doubt the word of America.

We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times… and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.

But more than anything else, for the British folks Irish people were all terrorists. So when we went to Britain, it was always a lot of resistance to U2. And that’s why we came to America.

America is not just a country, it’s an idea, and real Americans are getting busy.

President Assad, I worked with. I know him reasonably well, met with him a few times, and he’s a liar.

America thrived in the 20th century because we made high school free. We sent a generation to college. We cultivated the most educated workforce in the world.

Persuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

America is the student who defies the odds to become the first in a family to go to college – the citizen who defies the cynics and goes out there and votes – the young person who comes out of the shadows to demand the right to dream. That’s what America is about.

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.

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.

America’s experience, like many others, teaches us that fostering entrepreneurship is not just about crafting the right economic policy or developing the best educated curricula. It’s about creating an entire climate in which innovation and ideas flourish.

The most effective way to do it, is to do it.

In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.

We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe.

You think that the heads of state only have serious conversations, but they actually often begin really with the weather or, ‚I really like your tie.‘

Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.

Well, the thing that I learned as a diplomat is that human relations ultimately make a huge difference.

There is nothing wrong with America that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure.

Selling an electric sports car creates an opportunity to fundamentally change the way America drives.

I guess I wanted to leave America for awhile. It wasn’t that I wanted to become an expatriate, or just never come back, I needed some breathing room. I’d already been translating French poetry, I’d been to Paris once before and liked it very much, and so I just went.

In Britain, like most of the developed world, stem-cell research is regarded as a great opportunity. America will be left behind if it doesn’t change policy.

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.

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

I’m not a reality-TV kind of guy. But it’s almost like we’re living in a reality show. Every day in this country, everybody keeps worrying about the deterioration of America, and it’s like a big reality show.

No one gives a damn what Iran thinks on any significant issue. The only reason Iran is at the big boys‘ table is because of their nuclear weapons program.

We have practiced diplomacy since the very beginning of the nation. Sometimes it has not worked, and we’ve had to go to war. I always believe you should try to find peace and reconciliation before conflict. That has been the approach I’ve taken.

Chicago gave me more music than any other city in America.

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

In 1962, war was avoided by Khrushchev’s willingness to accept Kennedy’s hegemonic demands.

War is the continuation of politics by other means.

On the way back from Mumbai to go meet with President Xi in China, I stopped in Singapore to meet with a guy named Lee Kuan Yew, who most foreign policy experts around the world say is the wisest man in the Orient.

More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars – yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.

I think it is important for Europe to understand that even though I am president and George Bush is not president, Al Qaeda is still a threat.

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

Did you know there’s a difference between being busy and being fruitful? Did you ever stop to think that just being busy – running around in circles all day but not accomplishing anything – is the same as wasting your time? It’s frustrating to expend so much energy and time and not have any fruit from your effort!

Let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s. It will be a strong friend of Israel’s under a McCain administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel’s under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change.

Free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don’t attack each other. Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction.

I have found out in later years that we were very poor, but the glory of America is that we didn’t know it then.

Fifty years of isolating Cuba had failed to promote democracy, setting us back in Latin America. That’s why we restored diplomatic relations, opened the door to travel and commerce, and positioned ourselves to improve the lives of the Cuban people.

In America today, we are nearer a final triumph over poverty than is any other land.

Ladies and gentlemen, god bless America – land of the free, home of the brave.

Effective action is always unjust.

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.

I think that America’s recovery of a global strategic view is an absolutely essential element of our foreign policy.

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.

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

The United States prefers that Iraq meet its obligations voluntarily, yet we are prepared for the alternative.

America isn’t Congress. America isn’t Washington. America is the striving immigrant who starts a business, or the mom who works two low-wage jobs to give her kid a better life. America is the union leader and the CEO who put aside their differences to make the economy stronger.

NATO’s essentially run by the United States.

There is obviously a gap between the public’s perception of the role of U.S. foreign policy and the elite’s perception.

Unfortunately, after Sept. 11, there was an outburst in America of intense suffering and patriotism, and the Bush administration was very shrewd and effective in painting anyone who disagreed with the policies as unpatriotic or even traitorous.

The only definition by which America’s best days are behind it is on a purely relative basis.

The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America.

Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.

I will never relent in defending America – whatever it takes.

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

Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.

The United States is a violent military state. It’s been involved in military action all over the place.

America has tossed its cap over the wall of space.

Laughter is America’s most important export.