John Kerry Quotes

Japan is a great nation. It should begin to act like one.

Nixon was an awful president in many ways, including in some of his foreign-policy choices. But he left no doubt that foreign policy and America's leadership in the world outside its borders was of paramount importance to him.

In international relations, in foreign policy, a great deal has to do with historical circumstances, a great deal has to do with the sense and perception of people.

You will never see President Bachmann step one toe out of the United States and apologize for this country.

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

Britain has lost an empire and not yet found a role in the world.

The Presidency is not an extension of a Congressional campaign. The Presidency, we must come to understand, is about the larger issues of national destiny, which depend in turn upon our economic power and productivity and America's mission in the world.

We have a tendency in America to deal with foreign affairs on a day by day basis. We are so saturated with facts that we do no look at a longer, broader picture.

World opinion is not the same thing as your own [country's] public opinion.

You cannot have individual foreign policy. You cannot have celebrity foreign policy.

Foreign policy should be strategic, not tactical.

Nor should we assume that a nation's foreign policy is simply the logical outgrowth of general national conceptions. It is rather the result of many diverse forces, practical as well as patriotic.

President [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt always had a wider point of view, of necessity, than I did.

Making the case for sustained U. S. [world] leadership is not always easy. Unilateralism or isolationism often make for better sound bites.

There is no substitute for American leadership and exceptionalism.

I don't think that experience is a very useful or convincing attribute for a sensible foreign policy. Henry Kissinger had a lot of experience.

I think George H.W. Bush was confronted with some huge challenges - the invasion of Kuwait, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the Soviet Union - that he managed with great aplomb.

There is an issue of what does the U.S. expect abroad and what does the U.S. give at home. I think there's a reconciliation there that needs to be done.

From John Kennedy to Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, presidents have rhetorically opened the door to the frontier for us, and each time, we have turned away to fight over destinations, technologies, and timing.

I'm not a fan in a rock concert, you see. I am a political leader in a great nation of the world. What interests me are France's interests.

I would say that foreign policy is a place where intelligence, resolve, clarity, and confidence in cause, is of extraordinary importance.

I think Donald Trump should cool down a little bit. To pay more attention to the history. To really understand what U.S.'s value is about. I think, as a president, those things you always have to ask.

I think more to the point, these pivotal times means something other than a politician. I understand the economy. I understand the world. I have a lot of foreign policy experience. I understand bureaucracies. I understand technology, and I understand leadership.

I want to act in America's interest and stop making shallow, sweeping claims about countries we don't fully understand and hope everything will be fine in the end. I saw that happen and it didn't work.

Ideas really do matter. But in any organization a good idea will only go so far unless its proponents are willing to fight the political games to get the idea adopted.