William McKinley Quotes

Foreign policy can be the undoing of absolute rulers, tempted to foreign adventure in order to compensate for failure at home or spurred on by domestic adulation.

I have constantly preached what our opponents are pleased to call "jingo doctrines" for a good many years.

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

In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.

The English people would never consent to go to war for a cause in which England was not manifestly interested.

In both British and American history, fervent imperialism has always coexisted with bouts of fierce isolationism.

The way that Trump spoke about the outside world was the most aggressive, most hyper-nationalist, and in some ways most hostile of any inaugural address I think since the Second World War.

Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people's countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for the universal brotherhood of man - with his mouth.

Roosevelt was the one who had the vision to change our policy from isolationism to world leadership. That was a terrific revolution. Our country's never been the same since.

Venezuelan interests are to be defended by Venezuela. The U.S. should defend the interests of the U.S. Where are the U.S. people, where are the intellectuals, who could put limits on their government?

The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations.

I don't consider Americans bullies, but I do consider the American government bullying.

Remember how Margaret Thatcher came to believe that abroad was more important than at home? Didn't do her much good.

You help us pay for the war we’ll fight; we’ll launch it while you’re asleep at night. We don’t need friends all around the world; We’ll buy our friends with our flag unfurled, And spread our arms on a global scale To show the world that we still prevail. Oh, we’re not leaders inspiring peace, But we’re in power as the world’s police. So pay your tax for our little war, And we’ll not ask for any more. This year!

The policy of the United States in the Spanish war and since has given it a position of influence among the nations that it never had before.

… she [America] goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication

It seems incredible that the Russian Government should plunge Europe into war in order to make themselves the protectors of the Serbians.

I'm against war with the United States. But I am an officer of the Imperial Navy and a subject of His Majesty the Emperor.

I am somebody who respects Putin highly, but I'm not somebody who is against America.

I'm not a big fan of Putin. I'm not a big fan of Russia.

I care about national sovereignty of America.

It would be the irony of fate if my administration had to deal chiefly with foreign affairs.

No, I believe in the good will of the United States' administration.

The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire.

America... just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.