Antoine de Sartine Quotes

The British courtiers are ridiculing our situation very much and tell Mr. [John] Adams [then Secretary of State], in a sneering manner, when America shall assume some kind of government then England will speak to her.

If two fish fight, the British are behind it.

[Czechoslovakia is] ... the godchild of the great and glorious Republic of the United States.

At a period like the present, when momentous changes are occurring and every hour is preparing new and great events in the political world, when a spirit of war is prevalent in almost every nation with whose affairs the interests of the United States have any connection, unsafe and precarious would be our situation were we to neglect the means of maintaining our just rights.

No country can decide for another county.

Historically, we were always complaining about others interfering in our domestic and national issues.

When the Egyptians decide something, probably it is not appropriate for the U.S. When the Americans decide something, this, of course, is not appropriate for Egypt.

I, as prime minister, never went to Washington. Certainly never went to a presidential ranch. I hate to say this, but I wasn't going to be the pilot fish to the shark, whereas Australia quite happily bobbed along like a happy little pilot fish with a shark who was a messy eater, and I just couldn't feel like that.

Every government is in some respects a problem for every other government.

No country can be expected to make peace with a nation that denies its right to exist.

Just as the United States doesn't like others to take charge, other countries also don't like the United States to play a dominant role in the United Nations.

His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States … to be fee, sovereign, and independent states.

I do not believe that is our destiny to being engulfed into a Republican union (with the United States), renovated and inflamed with the wine of victory, of which he now drinks so freely...

The Prime Minister of Great Britain has nothing to hide from the President of the United States.

Our foreign policy is to regain our colonies. We cannot admit that the riches of the world should be divided between Powers, great and even small ones like Belgium or Holland, and that Germany should be completely deprived of them. One day or another, this colonial question will have to be settled. But, for the time being, the Governments of the countries concerned are too much under the pressure of the opposition parties to allow a free discussion.

No foreign Power can consistently yield Comfort to Rebels, or enter into any kind of Treaty with these Colonies until they [the Colonies] declare themselves free and independent.

There is no such thing as gratitude in international politics.

Such a conspiracy does not accord with the general sentiments or views of the United States to intermeddle in the domestic contests of other nations..

in their ideal forms nation and empire stand at opposite ends of a political spectrum, but in the actuality of history they influenced, reinforced, and undermined one another at different times and in different ways.

If our founding fathers wanted us to care about the rest of the world, the wouldn't have declared their independence from it.

Our position is that we do not accept conditions of any kind which may affect the independence and sovereignty of our country just with the view to solve economic problems existing between the United States and Cuba.

I am afraid if the present trend in Vietnam continues that direct confrontation, first of all between Washington and Peking, is inevitable.

Most governments lie to each other. That's the way business gets done.

I do not overlook the fact that the appearance of these new, free nations in the European political community not only celebrates the return of the prodigal son but also creates new sources of friction here and there.

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