In 1963, the U.N. Security Council declared a voluntary arms embargo on South Africa. That was extended to a mandatory embargo in 1977. And that was followed by economic sanctions and other measures – sometimes officials, countries, cities, towns – some organized by popular movements.

I believe mutual respect for one another and cooperation should be the basis for relationships with foreign nations.

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.

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

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

Although I don’t like the way the Chinese do business, I continue to do business in China. I have to. They’re the next world power.

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.

The Green Revolution focused on the big three – maize, rice and wheat – and the Green Revolution did not adapt the big three to African conditions, other than South Africa, as much as they should have.

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.

Putin sought to keep Ukraine weak through corruption.

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

I consider myself to be as informed on American foreign policy as anyone in America.

Unlike Europe, China can’t be intimidated. Europe backs down if the United States looks at it the wrong way. But China, they’ve been there for 3,000 years and are paying no attention to the barbarians and don’t see any need to.

Leadership is absolutely vital if there are comparable countries which can affect the security of the world you live in. Between Lincoln and Roosevelt’s time, America was protected by huge oceans and, in practice, by the British navy. Today, it’s different, and the obsession of the Obama administration has been for retrenchment.

Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.

Saudi Arabia has allowed training on its soil of American forces.

I have always seen the United States as a force of good. And I have learned that there is the idealistic part about what we can do at the U.N. and there is a doable part. And I have learned what is more doable.

Popular struggles to bring about a freer and more just society have been resisted by violence and repression, and massive efforts to control opinion and attitudes. Over time, however, they have met with considerable success, even though there is a long way to go, and there is often regression.

If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.

The global importance of the Middle East is that it keeps the Far East and the Near East from encroaching on each other.

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

Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul, and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative.

Russia isn’t going to start a war. They can’t afford it. I think Mr. Putin can be dealt with if we stop screaming at him. You can work with the guy. You just have to know who he is.

From my intimate discussions with President Obama, it is evident that India figures significantly in American geo-political, economic and strategic thinking. India is the largest democracy in the world.

Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the West will follow all the rules.

I have a scheme for stopping war. It’s this – no nation is allowed to enter a war till they have paid for the last one.

For a sitting U.S. president to see our allies as freeloaders is nuts.

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

War is not an exercise of the will directed at an inanimate matter.

In Romania, American forces have found a devoted NATO ally.

The only defensible war is a war of defense.

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

The Oslo Accords in 1993 determined that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are a single territorial entity which cannot be divided. Immediately, the United States and Israel set about separating the two and making sure that they would not be united.

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

There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.

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.

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.

Israel is a pretty crazy state.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

It cannot be too often stressed that Israel had no credible pretext for its 2008-9 attack on Gaza, with full U.S. support and illegally using U.S. weapons.

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

The U.N. charter bars the threat of force.

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.

A world without nuclear weapons would be less stable and more dangerous for all of us.

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

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

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.

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.

Now if there is one thing that we do worse than any other nation, it is try and manage somebody else’s affairs.

Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.

The minute you got the Nobel Peace Prize, things that I said yesterday, with nobody paying too much attention, I say the same things after I got it – oh! It was quite crucial for people, and it helped our morale because apartheid did look invincible.

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.

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

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.

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

I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.

I was first imprisoned in Pretoria, and then, thereafter, I was taken to Robben Island. I stayed there for a couple of weeks. I was taken back to Pretoria when I was charged in the Rivonia trial, when I was then sent to Robben Island for life.

People are finding it harder and harder to relate to foreign policy.

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

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