Atal Bihari Vajpayee Quotes

Gentle persuasion succeeds where force fails.

I'm not going to Russia and tell them to go to hell and think - that's not the way things are done. You chip away at something and you hope that there will be dialogue and that the situation can get better. You don't just go in there with guns blazing and say well, to hell with you because they're going to say to hell with you and get out of the country.

Condi Rice talks tough but she cannot be tough herself.

You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done

Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy

Margaret Thatcher and John Major knew that bluff and bravado doesn't work in Brussels.

Trump has got to define what he seeks to achieve with Russia, and then use diplomacy and sometimes coercion to achieve those ends. Right now, aside from this fight with ISIS, which I would underscore, you know, the Obama administration has been trying to fight ISIS with Russia for several years now.

Diplomacy is the art of telling plain truths without giving offense.

Diplomacy is not merely talking somebody into something; it's talking to somebody from a position of strength. You put your power on the table to open up the conversation; that's diplomacy.

The art of diplomacy is to take an opportunity and turn it into something.

If somebody prefers to work by means of sanctions, he is welcome to do so. But sanctions are a temporary measure. Firstly, they contradict the international law. Secondly, tell me where this policy of sanctions proved to be effective. The answer is nowhere.

Diplomats do not know how to negotiate, they only know how to keep their job.

I think the point that we all agree upon is that we have to engage with Russia.

I think we can't be naive in dealing with the Russians or dealing with the Syrians. But at the same time, I think we could try to encourage - and I think this is what diplomacy should do - encourage the self-interests of all parties to believe that it is in their best interest to get evil actors or rogue actors such as Syria or Iran, if you try to have less belligerent and less bellicose behavior.

Yet, when one thinks of it, diplomacy without force is a but a rotten reed to lean upon.

In several speeches and interviews, Donald Trump has brought up his book 'The Art of the Deal,' and said that Obama would have negotiated a better deal with Iran if he had read it. It got even more awkward for Obama when Iran was like, 'It worked for us - you guys got screwed!'

The only treaties that ought to count are those which would effect a settlement between ulterior motives.

If the United States is accommodating, the North Koreans become accommodating. If the United States is hostile, they become hostile.

Nor is any evidence to be found, either in History or Human Nature, that nations are to be bribed out of a spirit of encroachment and aggression, by humiliations which nourish their pride, or by concessions that extend their resources and power.

Peace proposals unaccompanied by a sworn covenant indicate a plot.

We shouldn't knee jerk anything. The Iraqi government a few years back, when they had a chance to sign an agreement that would keep some of our presence there, refused to do it. So we've got to be very careful and thoughtful before we do anything.

As you can see, even when [Adolf] Hitler desires to speak for peace, he cannot dispense with threats. This is symptomatic.

Diplomacy can be a frustrating thing. I think the strategy can work, so long as the force is robust and the rules of engagement are clear.

Having a missile test is not the way for North Korea to sit down with the president Donald Trump, because he's absolutely not going to do it. And I can tell you, Kim Jong-un can sit there and say all the conditions he wants, until he meets our conditions, we're not sitting down with him.