John Kerry Quotes

We have tried to make it clear that the United States is not just an old cow that gives more milk the more it is kicked in the flanks.

We want to give them more than a choice between capitulation and strangulation.

The Mexicans bowed down when we talked about removing their foreign aid, and then they began cooperating with our country.

Rogue regimes never respond to anything less than hardball.

In international affairs, you never threaten things you're not prepared to do.

Sanctions and boycotts would be tied to serious political dialogue.

All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

Appeasement was never a very clever policy, and it should not be our option today.

I've been arguing this for months. This is not our war. This is not a war we should be in. Australia's better spending its time negotiating with North Korea.

This president failed so miserably in diplomacy that we are now forced to war.

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

Power alone is respected and ... in order to gain peace, the United States has no alternative but to wield it

Great powers engage.

Threats must be credible if they are to influence the behavior of other states.

Embargo is not war.

If I am elected President I will immediately issue an ultimatum to the leaders in Chechnya. If they do not capitulate within 10 days, Chechen villages and the entire Chechnya will be covered with blue clouds of smoke from missiles and projectiles.

In the affairs of nations, too much hard power ends up breeding not submission but resistance. Likewise great soft power does not bend hearts; it twists minds in resentment and rage.

Iran is for negotiations…. This is the principle of Iranian Foreign Policy…. Iranians should make sure that the United States is not using pressure on Iran for negotiations.

Is a military solution the only way to stop nations from doing bad things?

Soft power … cannot accomplish much in the absence of a willingness to use hard power.

Sanctions are not diplomacy; they are a precursor to war.

War is always an option. Peace is not.

I'm against lifting any sanctions on the Russians.

Daesh will not give up their weapons unless we force them to give up their weapons.

We can pursue peaceful diplomacy with the Iranian regime while also continuing our maximum economic pressure campaign, while also defending ourselves... To say that it's a war with Iran or nothing is just a fundamental misunderstanding of how foreign policy actually works.