Theodore C. Sorensen Quotes

I have always thought that foreign-policy idealism has to be tempered with realism.

Almost everything Truman did in foreign affairs I approve of.

They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.

Watching foreign affairs is sometimes like watching a magician; the eye is drawn to the hand performing the dramatic flourishes, leaving the other hand - the one doing the important job - unnoticed.

Great nations need organizing principles, and 'Don't do stupid stuff' is not an organizing principle.

I shall have to depend upon you for taking care of these matters of foreign affairs, of which I know so little, and with which I reckon you are familiar.

Personal pique is not a foreign policy.

Congress cannot—nor should it—run foreign policy on a day-to-day basis. That is a truism.

The ability of the Congress of the United States to have any strategic view [of foreign policy] is virtually nil.

It is the President alone who must make the major decisions of our foreign policy.

What is to-day the foreign policy of all States – namely, a policy of robbery or barter, where every State tries to swindle the other in its own interest – this foreign policy cannot be controlled by an assembly consisting of several hundred people. A Parliament can certainly lay down the lines on which foreign policy must go, but it cannot control the carrying out of its wishes; it cannot prevent the aims of the policy being changed in the process of execution. A Cabinet that represents the interests of the dynasty and the ruling classes against foreign countries can never show the cards to Parliament, while they are cheating or trying to cheat the foreigners

People tend to leave foreign affairs to governments because they think the leaders of government have all the information and know better.

The very nature of executive decisions as to foreign policy is political, not judicial.

When it comes to foreign policy, the American people will ultimately reward not the party with the most ambitious vision but the party with the most sober and realistic one.

President [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt always had a wider point of view, of necessity, than I did.

People think that it only takes an American decision to solve this or that problem [in foreign affairs].

You can't wing foreign policy.

I think Haig will be foolish, but perhaps not quite as foolish as Kissinger was, because Haig doesn't have the education Kissinger had. Haig is a little more dangerous because, I fear, he believes what he says, whereas I never got that impression from Kissinger.

Barack Obama, foreign policy wizard. I just have to laugh.

Foreign policy exactly suits Obama's strong points as a leader, which turn out not to be giving the masses a clear sense of direction and hope, but instead exercising good judgment on a case-by-case basis while thinking many steps ahead of the present moment.

Foreign policy is about the execution of ideas as much as their formulation.

I don't think that experience is a very useful or convincing attribute for a sensible foreign policy. Henry Kissinger had a lot of experience.

I work with the president and speak with him multiple times a week. This is a man, he didn't become the president by accident. And as much as everyone wants to talk about stability, was he unstable when he passed the tax reform? Was he unstable when we finally hit back at Syria and said no more chemical weapons?

Donald Trump himself actually said during his campaign that he essentially thinks being unpredictable is a good thing. Maybe that's a good thing in domestic politics, but in foreign policy, that is really stupid.

I'm a good leader. I'm a good executive. I've been outside the U.S. a few times, and I've done a little bit of foreign policy. But most importantly, I'm smart enough to be in charge of this country.