Hillary Clinton Quotes

Huge numbers of embassy cables are labeled 'unclassified' or 'limited official use' and deal with mundane matters.

Most other documents leaked to WikiLeaks do not carry the same explosive potential as candid cables written by American diplomats.

In most cases, cables are marked secret not because the U.S. requires it but because those speaking to us - the foreign leaders across the table - do. They are not keeping secrets from us, but from two other groups: their enemies and their subjects.

Why are diplomatic cables secret at all?

I wanted all my visits to be official. When I sent the pass back with a note, I had no idea it would antagonize the president. I found out years later that it did.

People also don't care about the daily comings and goings of diplomats and yet we must report it.

Ambassador: In diplomacy, an officer sent into a foreign country as the visible embodiment of his sovereign's hostility.

Ambassadors are the eyes and ears of states.

I intend to ruin the Foreign Service. I mean ruin it—the old Foreign Service—and to build a new one. I’m going to do it.

Regardless of some disagreements in the past with Dr. Kissinger, I personally had a very good relationship with the secretary when I served as ambassador to the United States and later on as premier.

My big problem with Hillary and the Department of State where Benghazi is concerned is there is just no accountability.

Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.

Throughout history, ambassadors have always been symbolic incarnations of the sovereignty of their nations and the dignity of their leaders.

I won't let any ambassador have a say about my foreign travels.

There are few ironclad rules of diplomacy but to one there is no exception. When an official reports that talks were useful, it can safely be concluded that nothing was accomplished.

I was initially assigned to the American Consulate in Aden, not as Principal Officer but as a supernumerary officer to handle Yemen affairs. We had no resident diplomatic mission in Yemen at the time. People from Aden went up to Yemen regularly.

If you operate any kind of major diplomacy, you must run some risk.

There isn't any rule in diplomacy that can't be broken.... There are times when diplomatic principles should be violated, but when you violate them you ought to know you're violating them.

When the President picks up the phone and calls the Prime Minister, what does it mean to be an ambassador?

I must say I hate our diplomats. I think with few exceptions they are arrogant humbugs and I expect they know it.

Over the last 40 years, more U. S. ambassadors than generals have been killed in the line of duty. But unlike this country's military, the U. S. Foreign Service is maligned, undercut and underutilized.

Tell the Arch-Duchess that she may boss her own immigrants, but she can't boss the American consul.

'Daughters of Britannia' is a fascinating book, not least because it shines a light on a very dark corner of Foreign Office dealings. Diplomatic spouses are the Aunt Sallys of the foreign service: responsible for nearly everything, recognised for almost nothing.

After more than two decades of traveling with American presidents and chief diplomats - on visits to places that have included some of the world's most repressive nations - I am used to watching leaders disappear behind closed doors.

American diplomats meet with formal government officials, we meet with opposition protesters, not just in Hong Kong or China. This literally happens in every single country in which an American embassy is present.