Winston Churchill Quotes

Diplomacy is the lowest form of politeness because it misquotes the greatest number of people. A nation, like an individual, if it has anything to say, should simply say it.

It will be quite satisfactory if you open them gradually, as the circumstances may require; but the President assures you that this will not be the case if you make a treaty with England first.

The world of high-stakes international diplomacy can be rough and tumble, but it's more often than not a procession of suits and summits, protocol sessions and photo ops.

As far as we were concerned, we were operators, we were administrators. I don't ever recall going to Dean Acheson and asking for any counsel or advice on administration, but I had the greatest respect for him, as I have today.

During the past few years I have led a sometimes hard battle for German foreign policy.

And we ought to work our diplomacy first and I think it's a reason it's going to respond increasingly to our diplomacy particularly with the president's direct involvement in the peace process, and I think that's extraordinarily important.

I think that the president of Iran has the authority wherever which - where - wherever the national interests of the country are involved and, when it is necessary and expedient and required to speak and talk with others in order to promote the rights of its nation, that the president can take that initiative.

We are going to have to discuss with and seek the opinions of other countries. We don't wish to offend anyone, least of all a country we hold in such deep regard as the United Kingdom.

The way you change foreign policy is by raising the domestic political cost of the policy.

The first thing a diplomat has to do is understand the domestic politics of foreign states.

I’d be happy to take any of your questions and with the advantage of no longer being Secretary of State so that I can actually answer them.

We won’t be very successful with the Chinese leadership [on human rights issues] if we’re in their face all the time.

One of the things a Secretary of State shouldn't do is try to characterize foreign leaders. We have to take them as they are.

Vacillation and inconsistency are as incompatible with successful diplomacy as they are with the national dignity.

The Republics of Colombia, of Mexico, and of Central America have already deputed plenipotentiaries to … a meeting, and they have invited the United States to be also represented there by their ministers. The invitation has been accepted, and ministers on the part of the United States will be commissioned to attend at those deliberations, and to take part in them so far as may be compatible with that neutrality from which it is neither our intention nor the desire of the other American States that we should depart.

One is treading on very delicate ground when you have to consider the public opinion in China, Japan, the League of Geneva, and at home. It is pretty hard to avoid using a word which may arouse unintended repercussions in one or the other of those half a dozen localities

You say different things to a foreign country in public than you say in public.

States should engage [negotiate] with other states, but only so long as their diplomats reflected the will of elected officials.

The British and French cabinets … presented a front of two overripe melons crushed together, when what was needed was a gleam of steel.

John Kerry is going to have a rough tenure as secretary of state. But let's face it: whoever came after Hillary Clinton was going to have to deal with a foreign affairs press corps that has been sleeping for four years. From the moment Hillary entered Foggy Bottom, political reporters have treated their beloved secretary of state with kid gloves.

President Obama has been on the world stage for 10 years, and people know what he believes. He doesn't single out individual countries and doesn't say, 'I believe in LGBT rights because I want to embarrass the political leadership in India.'

Hillary Clinton supported concessions to the Castro brothers and got almost nothing in return for ending the embargo.

Sarah Palin has already had an effect on foreign relations... The new president of Pakistan, Ali Zardari, is in hot water, because last week, Sarah was on a class trip to New York, where she met foreign leaders... And one of the leaders she met was Zardari, and he was gushing over her. He said, oh, you're more gorgeous in person than you are on TV. And so the people in his home country of Pakistan, the Islamists, they issued a fatwa on him, for being too 'flirty.' And when Sarah today was told that Zardari had gotten a fatwa because of her, she said, 'I know, I felt it when he hugged me.'

What is it between Obama and Iran? That's the question we all ought to have. Because it sure seems to me like Obama's got some sort of affection for that nation.

For the first time since 1979, we are talking to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Obama says talking to him is probably pointless, but it's a hell of a relief from Mitch McConnell.