Mitt Romney Quotes

(A Foreign Secretary) is forever poised between the cliche and the indiscretion.

My interest in foreign policy is above the average voter's interest. That doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it.

There are legitimate, even powerful arguments, to be made against the Bush administration's foreign policy. But those arguments are complicated, hard to explain, and, in the end, not all that sensational.

The President of the United States was untutored in foreign policy. He didn’t know Slovenia from Slovakia.

There isn't any rule in diplomacy that can't be broken.... There are times when diplomatic principles should be violated, but when you violate them you ought to know you're violating them.

We have a new President who knows nothing about foreign affairs and a Vice President who thinks he knows everything about foreign affairs.

At home you always have to be a politician. When you're abroad you almost feel yourself a statesman.

President William Clinton is a man who thinks international affairs means dating a girl from out of town.

Foreign policy mandarins often wish the public would leave them alone so that they can get on with the serious business of statecraft.

Yes, sir, from Constantinople, or from the Brazils; from Turk or Christian; from black or white; from the dey of Algiers or the bey of Tunis; from the devil himself, if he wore a crown, we should receive a minister.

If Ambassador Grenell is unwilling to refrain from political statements, he should be recalled immediately.

You don't go to some other country and bash our president.

I think there is a diplomatic stance that would fit me and I will stick to my own style, while also seeking assistance from the Foreign Ministry.

President Barack Obama benefits from the shared experience and wisdom of top national security and foreign policy advisers, many of them career professionals.

The evidence does look like this wasn't just a casual - world leaders don't just pick up the phone and call each other. It does appear that the Donald Trump phone call with the president of Taiwan was a deliberate move, a deliberately provocative move.

In the hands of a determined Secretary, the Foreign Service can be a splendid instrument, staffed by knowledgeable, discreet, and energetic individuals. They do require constant vigilance lest the convictions that led them into a penurious career tempt them to preempt decision-making.

Well, the most important thing a president will be is commander-in-chief. And that requires having an understanding of the complex issues on foreign policy. Foreign policy presents us often with hard choices, not black or white choices.

All these think tank experts in Washington at the Woodrow Wilson Center say, "It's really, really a dangerous thing. It's just not right. The president of the United States should never, ever make his first foreign trip to the Middle East! Never, ever. Because it's too fraught with potential disaster. Because President Trump clearly is not sophisticated enough to know the idiosyncrasies, the customs, and the requirements." That's right, no president ever has. Do you know that there has never by a direct flight from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Tel Aviv until Donald Trump did it? Never.

I had differences of opinion with President Obama and most well-known, of course, is Iran.

I often speak with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. When I speak with the Turkish president, I defend European positions. That is how we European partners must do things.

There is some of the paradox of foreign policy polling. So on Iraq and Syria, the President is pretty much doing what Americans want, he's not very engaged, but they don't like the results, his polling numbers are going down. Americans may be ambivalent and disengaged with the world, they don't want a President who is ambivalent and disengaged with the world.

To be sure, President Clinton reached an accord called "The Agreement" in 1994 that purports to address some of President Reagan's concerns.

I would have oriented myself in case of Donald Trump according to what former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said to then - U.S. President George W. Bush when the Americans launched a war that was in violation of international law. Schröder showed that a German chancellor can act in a clear and self-confident manner toward a U.S. president.

A Foreign Secretaryand this applies also to a prospective Foreign Secretaryis always faced with this cruel dilemma. Nothing he can say can do very much good, and almost anything he may say may do a great deal of harm. Anything he says that is not obvious is dangerous; whatever is not trite is risky. He is forever poised between the cliche and the indiscretion.

Every damn President since I can remember has been so in love with foreign policy that they're just like a schoolboy with a new girl.