Ludwig August von Rochau Quotes

[Describing Russia:] ... the most realistic regime in the world—no ideals.

I don't believe in ideology in international relations.

Bush doesn't present himself as a realpolitik politician.

Realism is important in foreign policy. You have to be realistic about what you can achieve, and about the pitfalls, and problems along the way, of which there are plenty. Nothing is easy. It's always rough.

Foreign policy is an explicitly amoral enterprise.

No nation has friends only interests.

The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles. What President Nixon and I tried to do was unnatural. And that is why we didn't make it.

A state worthy of the name has no friends—only interests. [This is a generalized expression of British Prime Minister John Henry Temple's statement a century earlier.

He who is involved in realpolitik must think only of the last twenty-four hours.

The origins of the principle of the balance of power are lost in the mists of history.

America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests

In politics, reality is that which is unseen. Politics is the art of combining a nation’s diverse or opposing factors to the benefit of its domestic well-being, and of saving the country from the open enmity or covetous friendship of other nations.

We have no eternal allies, and we have not perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.

The principle of realism means denial of the ideal.

I'm cheering for America as always. Our interest ought to come first and to the extent that making temporary alliances with other countries serve our interests, I met in favor of that. Making sweeping moral claims comparing people to Hitler advances the ball not one that blinds us to reality.

It is a maxim, founded on the universal experience of mankind, that no nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest; and no prudent statesman or politician will venture to depart from it.

There is always an element of realpolitik that has to be present in the conduct of any nation's national security affairs. At the same time, we have to also have a balance between realpolitik and Wilsonian principles of freedom and democracy and human rights. And maintaining that balance is the greatest challenge that we in the West, including the Federal Republic of Germany, have to face because it's many times a very difficult decision-making process.

...foreign policy is a matter of costs and benefits, not theology.

American presidents always avoid shaking hands with brutal dictators, except when it's advantageous to do so.

Like Prince von Bismarck in diplomacy, I have no secrets.

Someone has said that nations have interests, they don't have friends, and you see that over and over in U.S. policy.

World politics is not a kindergarten.

For four hundred years the foreign policy of England has to oppose the strongest, most aggressive, most dominating Power on the Continent …

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.

Entangling alliances have been considered worse than original sin since George Washington.