George Washington Quotes

No nation has friends only interests.

The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles. What President Nixon and I tried to do was unnatural. And that is why we didn't make it.

There is always an element of realpolitik that has to be present in the conduct of any nation's national security affairs. At the same time, we have to also have a balance between realpolitik and Wilsonian principles of freedom and democracy and human rights. And maintaining that balance is the greatest challenge that we in the West, including the Federal Republic of Germany, have to face because it's many times a very difficult decision-making process.

America is exceptional in combining standard great-power realism with extravagant idealism about the country's redemptive role in creating international order.

I don't believe in ideology in international relations.

… realpolitik

For four hundred years the foreign policy of England has to oppose the strongest, most aggressive, most dominating Power on the Continent …

A state worthy of the name has no friends—only interests. [This is a generalized expression of British Prime Minister John Henry Temple's statement a century earlier.

If we find what we need [arms] among friendly nations and if they give us what we ask, they do so for money. We are not getting anything for free. So, if things become complicated with a certain country we will find other countries, regardless of whether they are Eastern or Western.

[Describing Russia:] ... the most realistic regime in the world—no ideals.

I don't believe foreign policy is about altruism.

America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests

There is no such thing as gratitude in international politics.

It is our historical experience, that Hungary can only live in wealth and safety if Berlin, Moscow, and Ankara are on our side and also interested in our success - even if we do not always agree on certain questions.

We have no eternal allies, and we have not perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.

It is a maxim, founded on the universal experience of mankind, that no nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest; and no prudent statesman or politician will venture to depart from it.

With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, "Let's cut and run." And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies." And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.

...foreign policy is a matter of costs and benefits, not theology.

Realism is important in foreign policy. You have to be realistic about what you can achieve, and about the pitfalls, and problems along the way, of which there are plenty. Nothing is easy. It's always rough.

But the same intelligence compels Germany to practise the same policy.

Idealism that makes no distinction between areas where our national interest lies and those from which it is remote does no good for America. The weariness of the post-Versailles, post-Korea, post-Vietnam eras is never far from the national mood.

President Nixon was a pragmatic strategist. He would engage, not contain, China, but he would also quietly set pieces into place for a fallback position should China not play according to the rules as a good global citizen.

Diplomacy is not an end in itself if it does not advance U.S. interests.

The predominant yardstick of your government is not human rights but national interests.

Foreign policy is an explicitly amoral enterprise.