Robert Kennedy Quotes

This country was the moral leader of the world until George Bush became president.

I've been saying for the last nine years, our power comes as much from - our respect in the world comes as much from the exercise of our power as it does from the power of our principles.

Are we going to lead the world with strength and in accordance with our values? That's what I intend to do.

The goal of this Nation, I so strongly believe, is to be a preeminent world power. We have to understand what comes with that: The responsibility to be strong.

The shortcomings of America's political leaders do not stop at our borders.

The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I'm not at all sure that that's what the Obama administration believes.

Surveys show our standing around the world is higher than when I was elected to this office, and when it comes to every important international issue, people of the world do not look to Beijing or Moscow to lead - they call us.

We cannot be any stronger in our foreign policy for all the bombs and guns we may heap up in our arsenals than we are in the spirit which rules inside the country. Foreign policy, like a river, cannot rise above its source.

The United States plays, for the most part, a constructive global role, and to the extent that that role shrinks, other countries, even those most critical of what America does abroad, will suffer.

A nation must be strong in spirit, knowledge, science and morals. Military strength comes last…Today it is not enough to have arms in hand in order to take one’s place in the world.

America’s power to intervene effectively overseas depends on its power to persuade and not merely coerce. The power to persuade depends on a willingness to be persuaded. And that willingness depends, ultimately, on America’s willingness to entertain the prospect that it is wrong.

The bloke who ends up sitting in the White House partially controls what we [the British] get up to.

Public diplomacy, practiced in harmony with traditional diplomacy, will enable us to advance our interest, to protect our security, and to continue to provide the moral basis for our leadership in the world.

A superpower does not have to be the bully on the block.

The United States has such an opportunity to be a leader in the world, and that opportunity has been frittered away.

Unlike President Obama, I would say that I support the long-standing bipartisan post-war belief that American global strength and leadership secures our national-security interests, and it also promotes order and stability in the world. And it gives us immense influence in the world and deters our adversaries and reassures our allies.

American influence in the world depends on the ability to act with real capacity and set an example that others will want to follow. This all takes resources.

If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us; if we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us. And our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and that's why we've got to be humble, and yet project strength in a way that promotes freedom.

The United States is the single greatest force for good in the world

I know that our country is strongest when we lead the world, when we lead strong alliances. And that's the way Eisenhower and Reagan and Kennedy and others did it.

What I'm interested in is Britain projecting itself abroad, and through that its values and the things it holds dear. And I don't think you do that by refusing to talk to the world's second-largest economy [China]. In fact, that is positively counter-productive in my view.

I believe the previous administration shrunk from some of our responsibilities as a superpower and made the world a more dangerous place.

A democrat should not rely upon the force of the arms his state could flaunt in the face of the world, but on the moral force his state could put at the disposal of the world.

It was leadership here at home that gave us strong American influence abroad, and the collapse of imperial Communism. Great nations have responsibilities to lead, and we should always be cautious of those who would lower our profile, because they might just wind up lowering our flag.

The world is a more tragic and dangerous place when American isn't leading and, under this president, we have not been leading.