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Diplomacy Quotes
"Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? Is it a legacy of our colonial years? We want foreign television sets. We want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported?"
83
"I was a member of the Politburo for seven years, a foreign minister."
77
"Our strategic dialogue with China can both protect American interests and uphold our principles, provided we are honest about our differences on human rights and other issues and provided we use a mix of targeted incentives and sanctions to narrow these differences."
68
"Prospects of normalizing our relations with Russia look good."
65
"The League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out."
62
"I think my resignation was the only way to avoid bloodshed."
43
"Economic sanctions rarely achieve the desired results."
36
"A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron."
34
"Tact is the discrimination of differences. It consists in conscious deviations."
34
"I don't think that anybody should be ruling in or ruling out anything while we are conducting diplomacy."
32
"I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders."
32
"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."
31
"Let us move from the era of confrontation to the era of negotiation."
31
"Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne."
30
"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough."
29
"If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a "peace conference," you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and airplanes."
28
"Romania and Bulgaria were particularly irresponsible. If they wanted to diminish their chances of joining Europe they could not have found a better way."
27
"You learn, just as you learn good manners, how to approach things with a certain amount of diplomacy."
27
"Players have a great deal of flexibility when conducting diplomatic relations with their allies."
26
"The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it."
26
"We think it will be shortly afterwards, but it seems a terrible thing to gamble with such big stakes in diplomacy without having your master card in your hand."
25
"I think if I had to do it over again, I'd do it the same way. I would just put more resources into getting the public diplomacy part much stronger than we were able to."
25
"The world will not accept dictatorship or domination."
24
"I think there is a good deal of promise in those discussions as well. I think there is a range of matters that might be discussed between NATO and Russia that can provide a mechanism for talking through these issues, a way to give reassurance on these issues."
24
"America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy."
23
"Trotsky rises to give me his hand, then sits at his desk, gently allowing his regard to light on my person."
23
"Having viewed Europe as an extension and projection of itself, France now finds Europe developing a mind and identity of its own which embraces France but is not controlled by France."
23
"In terms of weapons, the best disarmament tool so far is nuclear energy. We have been taking down the Russian warheads, turning it into electricity. 10 percent of American electricity comes from decommissioned warheads."
23
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