Tom Freston Quotes

I think it is important to help our country's image outside of Spain.

I wish more Americans would travel here. I always encourage my friends: 'Travel. See the Middle East. There's so much to see, so many good people.' And it's vice versa, and it helps stop problems of misunderstanding and stereotypes from happening.

I think from a personal standpoint, maybe I appreciate a little more that there are two sides to every story, and the way that the U.S. is sometimes is viewed outside of the U.S. can be pretty tough, depending on what the U.S.'s actions are.

It's important that we have a global perspective and look abroad and learn from our neighbors.

I want to use the good name of my father George Bush to build a better relationship between the U.S. and China. There are so many misunderstandings and there is a lot to do.

Whatever one thinks of President George W. Bush and his unilateralist crew, most of the people laughing at us do not think we are evil. What they think is that we are naive and incompetent.

Well, I think the United States first of all has to recognize the world for what it is.

I spend every day up at the United Nations where I have to interact with 192 other countries. I know how well the United States is viewed.

I have made more friends for American culture than the State Department. Certainly I have made fewer enemies, but that isn't very difficult.

One of the things I'm fascinated by as a traveler is watching how different countries control how they let the world encounter them.

The relationship between East and West needs to be and can be fixed via pop culture.

Friends from the press, China needs to learn more about the world, and the world also needs to learn more about China. I hope you will continue to make more efforts and contributions to deepening the mutual understanding between China and the countries of the world.

The world does not look to us in the Arab world out of a healthy desire for knowledge.

Hopefully the presence in Congress of an American who happens to be Hindu will increase America's understanding of India as well as India's understanding of America.

The United States is very good at understanding itself, and very bad at understanding others.

Khan let Polo be his eyes and ears. He was the first one to build a bridge between East and West.

One thing that we should have learned from history is to pay attention to the words of foreign leaders.

If we are going to lead the world, we have to know where it is.

I’m new and have 110 countries to deal with and all I’ve got to deal with is a little bit of foreign aid.

For most U. S. citizens, the rest of the world has scant importance. Though the lack of interest in the rest of the world is a long-standing American trait, the feeling of complete national security is relatively new.

We should not check American ideals at the door when we engage in discussions with other nations.

Japan had become a general object of distrust and misunderstanding; a fact not only deeply injurious to Japan, but very unfortunate for foreign nations, whose policy in the Far East is influenced thereby. It was the duty of the nation to inspire a spirit of confidence and good-will among its friends abroad

One is treading on very delicate ground when you have to consider the public opinion in China, Japan, the League of Geneva, and at home. It is pretty hard to avoid using a word which may arouse unintended repercussions in one or the other of those half a dozen localities

When I became secretary of state, I felt one of my primary jobs was building relationships around the world.

If you spend 72 hours in a place you've never been, talking to people whose language you don't speak about social, political, and economic complexities you don't understand, and you come back as the world's biggest know-it-all, you're a reporter. Either that or you're President Obama.