Frederick the Great Quotes

I do not believe that diplomacy equals weakness…. If you are going to use force you better make sure that it is effective.

Guns and blockades are not conducive to meaningful dialogue.

Diplomacy [is] ... the art of restraining power.

In relations with other nations, there is neither right nor wrong; there is only strength and weakness.

UN administrators ... think that no problem in the world is too intractable to be solved by negotiation. These mandarins fail to grasp that men with guns do not respect men with nothing but flapping gums ... Just as the US Marine Corps breeds warriors, so the UN’s culture breeds conciliators.

We will be no worse if we try diplomacy and fail.

Making coercive diplomacy work requires a mix of threats and promises—sticks and carrots.

The way that you get your diplomats listened to in an imperfect world is you make certain you back them up with hard power. The reason I say that is, as much as I’d like to live in a world where people who are out to do others harm would be willing to listen to rational thought, not everyone is.

There are no military solutions - dialogue and diplomacy are the only guarantee of lasting peace.

I think that we, as a civilization, need to sit down and figure out how to solve political problems over a table, not over a battlefield.

There should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat.

I hope everybody will go back to the negotiating table. I've always said this is the only way forward.

Number one, that it is smart to communicate and negotiate with your enemy instead of just waging war with bombs and weapons of mass destruction.

Peace is purchased from strength. It's not purchased from weakness or unilateral retreats.

All world conflicts will be resolved if people listen to my advice.

Force is not inevitable. Diplomacy is still the desired means. Pressure is an element of the means.

Let us move from the era of confrontation to the era of negotiation.

Governments and nations should sit together and resolve issues. Reforms must be reached through understanding. But others should not interfere.

I have always believed in dialogue and in nonviolence, and if you look at my background you will see that it has always been my policy to talk to everyone.

Better talk than fight, if nothing of sovereign value is anyway lost. Dialogue has achieved more than confrontation in many parts of the world.

The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue.

Negotiating with the Taliban must be done from a position of strength. Negotiating from a position of weakness would be a disaster.

Reasonable, even intelligent people can, and frequently do, disagree on how best to achieve peace in the Middle East, but, peace must be the goal of our foreign policy tools, whether they be by the stick or by the carrot.

It is absolutely unacceptable to talk to Russia - or anyone for that matter - in the language of ultimatums and coercive measures.

What you need to do in conflict resolution is to bring the people who believe that the answer to their political ambitions will be achieved through violence into a frame of mind that they accept that their political ambitions will be delivered by politics.