Martti Ahtisaari Quotes

The countries that share this conception should be able to go further together, without excluding the others, since they can still live in a greater community of exchange and co-operation.

Nations are not thugs. They are bodies of intelligent people.

The United States … has never been isolated, never can be isolated, and has no desire to be isolated. The people of the United States are not only ready but willing and desirous to help their fellow-men, especially those of western civilization, in any way that is possible.

The Olympics is a time primarily for sport and celebration, but diplomacy does not stop at the door of the U.N., and for it to work, it must be sustained and consistent.

The world is waiting for us, the world wants to engage with us, the world wants to be friendly with us, the world wants to be our partner in prosperity, and the world admires India in many ways.

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

Isolationism is over.

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

Our policy is to deepen the relations with all the countries in the world - monarchies, kingdoms, large powers - we want to respect all differences and have our relationships based on mutual respect.

There are differences in the world community. But we have a common interest in a strong multilateral system.

We encourage China to engage as a good global citizen and we are clear-eyed about where differences do lie.

And in this community, as in all others, the Golden Rule still applies - we must be act toward other nations as we would have them act towards America.

Turkey wants a policy of engagement exactly like President Obama's new approach. Policy of engagement, less confrontation, less tense attitude, especially in the region.

All nations are not ready for this.

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.

Great nations have much to learn from each other.

Listen to others. Do not conduct foreign policy only according to your own ideology. Do not conduct foreign policy only with an eye on domestic politics.

Engagement is better than non-engagement except in the case of some really horrible countries.

It is simply not feasible for sovereignty to be exercised unilaterally by individual nation-states, however powerful. It is a principle which will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the imperatives of global environmental cooperation.

There must of course always be separate interests of different nations which their governments are bound to maintain, but there are also common interests in which all civilized nations share. These common interests arise from the interdependence of civilized peoples and they are a product of developing civilization.

I do not want Britain to turn its back on Europe or the rest of the world.

I believe mutual respect for one another and cooperation should be the basis for relationships with foreign nations.

When I became secretary of state, I felt one of my primary jobs was building relationships around the world.

Isolationism is not leadership.

We have always argued that attempts to isolate Belarus, like other countries, lead to a dead end. In this situation, everyone loses.