Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

Power alone is respected and ... in order to gain peace, the United States has no alternative but to wield it

Foreign policy works best when force and diplomacy are used together.

When our vital interests are challenged, or the will and conscience of the international community is defied, we will act; with peaceful diplomacy whenever possible, with force when necessary.

A United States President should never, never, never, never threaten the use of force unless he is prepared to follow up.

...In practice it is found that International Law is always on the side of strong battalions...It is puerile...to apply to the dealings of a nation with its neighbor's territory the morality which would be applicable to two individuals possessing adjoining property, and protected from mutual wrong by a law superior to both.

There's been a deliberate and systematic effort to convey to countries around the world, friends and foes, that if they cross the United States there's a price to pay.

Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan, 'You're either with us or against us.'

We have tried to make it clear that the United States is not just an old cow that gives more milk the more it is kicked in the flanks.

You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done

Our national aims can be realized only by military means. The matter needs no further elaboration or interpretation.

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

The nation's mere possession of military power ready for exertion provides visible support for the nation's expression of views on foreign affairs, and that often is enough to make the expression persuasive. Thus a foreign policy which has a respectable basis in justice and morality is strengthened if it has also a respectable basis in physical force.

I don’t care what the international lawyers say, we are going to kick some ass.

We have a tendency in America to deal with foreign affairs on a day by day basis. We are so saturated with facts that we do no look at a longer, broader picture.

Very near the heart of all foreign affairs is the relationship between policy and military power.

All foreign policy is the intervention of one nation's domestic politics into another nation's domestic politics.

You can't get a diplomatic solution unless behind that, is the threat of force.

American foreign policy must be fashioned by the United States, not the United Nations.

You cannot have individual foreign policy. You cannot have celebrity foreign policy.

The time has come to recognize that the U.S. will continue to exercise unprecedented power in a world where international rules are still unreliable and where security and advancing of the free democratic order still depend significantly on the possession and use of military might.

We have to deal with it diplomatically if we can, militarily if we must.

I don’t think that we should ever apply our military power unilaterally…. If we cannot persuade like-minded, friendly nations of the wisdom of our policy, then maybe we should rethink the policy.

Is a military solution the only way to stop nations from doing bad things?

Soft power … cannot accomplish much in the absence of a willingness to use hard power.

Deterrence, of course, is all about the perception of power. It hinges on convincing adversaries that, with force, guile, or economic isolation, you can make the think twice about acting against American interests.