Colin Powell Quotes

The transfer of power is always a test of the constitutional system, a test of its strength.

To simply demand that Assad go, and create a vacuum, could make the circumstances worse. To 'protect' Assad and his brutality is unconscionable. So you have to have a transition period here.

Bashar al-Assad needs to be replaced, but he can't be replaced with another Bashar al-Assad.

We have enough votes to run the country. And when the people say, We've had enough, we are going to take over.

We should certainly know by now that it is one thing to overthrow a dictator or repel an invader and quite another thing really to achieve a revolution. Time and time and time again, the people discover that they have merely betrayed themselves into the hands of yet another Pharaoh, who, since he was necessary to put the broken country together, will not let them go.

I do not think I have the right to determine the political future of Syria, be it with or without al-Assad. This is for the Syrians themselves to decide. Nobody has the right to claim the rights that belong to the people of another country.

I still think the world is better off and safer without Saddam Hussein.

The world is a better place because Saddam Hussein does not in Iraq.

Politics is good; when it works properly, disagreements get solved without people beating each other up. But when a regime knows its days are numbered, there's always the chance it may use its position to change the rules and make the debate it is losing irrelevant.

If democracy succeeds in Egypt, other countries will follow. Should the democratic experiment in Egypt be hijacked by the military or anti-democratic Islamist groups, the revolution will fail elsewhere.

It is easy to overthrow a government but very difficult to build a new one.

We did it. Make no mistake: We have written history. Today there's a change of guards in Denmark.

As I came to power peacefully, so shall I keep it.

From this day the presidency of Mexico ends. The dictatorship of Mexico begins.

It is doubtful that President Mubarak or the Saudi Royal family will allow elections that might sweep them from office.

I now understand that foreigners who interfere in our internal affairs will bring us nothing but harm

China was unique. It was a dictatorship with term limits.... The leadership had virtual total power, but every 10 years, the leadership had to change.... But that has now been turned In its head in the most significant political change in 35 years ....

To take over a government through military force would create instability, and it would not last for long. I do not want to leave a legacy of having taken over the government through military means. It has never occurred to me to have a coup d'etat.

People have to decide do we want our country for ourselves with the people in charge or are we going to elect the the KGB and the House Republicans to decide this election [2016].

If there are people who yearn for the days when Saddam Hussein was in power, then I am not among them.

The U.S. will ignore the opinion of the Iraqi people and it will compose the new government according to its own desires.

It is totally unacceptable for a government to interfere in the internal affairs of another government and send aid, money, and weapons, to the people who are against a certain regime in another country.

I worry a little bit about - quote - "regime change." We haven't had a great deal of success with that in years. That's just really difficult.

The world is safer without Saddam [Hussein]. Certainly the people of Iraq are better without Saddam.

Scores of Iraqi exiles met in London to discuss ways to overthrow Saddam Hussein in a grand gathering dubbed the 'Iraqi Military Alliance Meeting.' Of course, these people are no longer Iraqi, they have no military, and there is no alliance. But they did have a meeting.