Lorenzo Meyer Quotes

We can choose isolationism, withdrawal and nationalism. This is an option. It can be tempting to us as a temporary remedy to our fears. But closing the door to the world will not stop the evolution of the world. It will not douse, but inflame the fears of our citizens

Maybe Americans feel they don't need the rest of the world anymore, and they wish it would go away. We don't have that option.

Well, I think the United States first of all has to recognize the world for what it is.

Any nation that refuses to hold intercourse with other nations must expect to be excluded from this family.

Unfortunately, the real focus in this country has not been on the rest of the world. It's been on our own issues and our own problems. Fair enough. But it means that our simple hopes that everything will just work out abroad aren't really coming to pass.

Nations, like small communities, are in danger of becoming provincial, and must become so, unless they exchange commodities, theories, thoughts, and ideals. Isolation is the soil of ignorance, and ignorance is the soil of egotism; and nations, like individuals who live apart, mistake provincialism for perfection, and hatred of all other nations for patriotism.

An isolationist America would be everyone's nightmare.

In this shrinking world, it is futile to seek safety behind geographical barriers.

Nowhere on this planet today is there an impregnable fortress, a continent or island so distant that it can ignore all the outer world.

In an interdependent world …, the idea that American can have of the blessings of globalization but none of the burdens doesn’t add up.

There is no part of the world that is irrelevant to the United States anymore.

It's important that we have a global perspective and look abroad and learn from our neighbors.

You see, psychologically, Australia must understand it has to live in the region around it. Australia must find its security in Asia; it cannot find its security from Asia.

We don't want an America that is closed to the world. What we want is a world that is open to America.

To contrast national solidarity and international cooperation as two opposites seems foolish to me.

Isolationism is over.

China has no desire to replace Western imperialism in Asia with an Oriental imperialism or isolationism of its own or anyone else.

America believes what's good for us is good for the world. It's very difficult to understand that that's not necessarily true.

I'm afraid that the United States is more isolated today than at any other time in my memory.

In this age of growing interconnectedness, we understand that turning our backs on the world is simply not an option.

A globalized world is by now a familiar fact of life. Building walls or moats may sound appealing, but the future belongs to those who tend to their people and then boldly engage the rest of the world, near and far.

There's a policy now of opening the doors to the outside world.

Here we encounter two conflicting concepts with which we must come to grips in our time: the idea of national solidarity and the idea of international cooperation.

The world is far more interconnected today. Hence the need to understand each other is greater than ever before.

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