71+ Daniel Fried Quotes On Freedom, Friendship And Education

Daniel Fried is an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Poland from 1997 to 2000. He was also the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from 2005 to 2009. Fried is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Daniel Fried on leadership, freedom, friendship.

Top 10 Daniel Fried Quotes

1. Nationalism is like cheap alcohol. First it makes you drunk, then it makes you blind, then it kills you.
2. At least in my country, we have come to accept the flags burning, but what we cannot accept is violence, burning of embassies and intimidations, and there is no excuse for that.
3. Ronald Reagan reached out to Gorbachev. At the same time, we were pushing back against the Soviets all over the world. He was able to do two things at once, and it worked out very well for us.
4. Partisanship is not part of my professional makeup.
5. Think of Europe in the 20th century. Two World Wars generated by nationalism. France, Germany, Britain fighting with each other.
6. The world should contemplate a nuclear weapons-armed Iran with the greatest of concern.
7. We did really well for a generation after 1989 and the fall of communism. Our liberal values expanded in the world, our prosperity expanded.
8. The sense the great democracies of the world - Europe, the United States, Japan, others - are going to set the agenda for the world. [Russians] want to bring that down.
9. Both the Bush people and [Barack] Obama people had no problem working with the holdovers. They weren`t out to get them.
10. The Civil War was fought, in a sense, over whether that sentence - all men are created equal - is to be taken literally. And the southerners in the 1850s argued that it was not.

Daniel Fried Short Quotes

• They [Russians] are the adversary, they - we`re the adversary they love to hate.
• There are a lot of policies that don't work out that are nevertheless worth doing.
• [Donald Trump administration] didn`t ask me to stay and 40 years seemed like enough.
• I think the West is in a low point we haven`t seen since the 1930s.
• Don't mistake the Russia you want to exist for the Russia that there actually is. Be realistic.
• America is not an ethnostate. We are not rooted in blood and soil.
• Internal reform in Russia would require a better relationship with the West.
• Russia despises the West. And is doing what it can to weaken the West.
• America is not a white man's republic.
• No great power is ever satisfied with its sphere of influence. They never are.

Daniel Fried Famous Quotes And Sayings

Realism is important in foreign policy. You have to be realistic about what you can achieve, and about the pitfalls, and problems along the way, of which there are plenty. Nothing is easy. It's always rough. — Daniel Fried

We`re a little bit low in the 1970s, right, post-Vietnam, Watergate era, malaise, all that, but this is more like the 1930s where the very notion of liberal democracy is being questioned, and that is disturbing. — Daniel Fried

We are a new nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. That's what makes us Americans. When we sign onto that belief, we sign onto the core American identity, and that's very deep in us. — Daniel Fried

I'm one of the many people who has said that the Hillary Clinton we know in private was effective, strong, courageous, and funny. And the campaigner we saw was less so, more scripted. Many people have made that observation, and it was my observation, too, but I'm grateful for what she did. — Daniel Fried

The European Union, ok, right, it has a bureaucracy, right. It`s sometimes difficult to deal with but so what? You hire a couple of people like me to work the European Union, and it can be done. It`s pretty good. — Daniel Fried

Be careful about a policy generated with enthusiasm in the rush of a moment. It usually doesn't turn out well. — Daniel Fried

[Russians would like to] undermine the West and its institutions, create doubts about NATO, create doubts about the European Union, support nationalists on the right just as the Soviet communists supported communists on the left. Weaken the West in general and create an atmosphere in which we`re uncertain about ourselves. — Daniel Fried

My 40 years in the foreign service and the careers of many of my friends became associated with the fall of the Soviet Empire and the putting in order of what came after - the building of a Europe whole, free, and at peace. It`s hard to recall today how improbable victory in the Cold War appeared. — Daniel Fried

John Kerry tried to work with the Russians on Syria, and the man was honorable, because he was trying to do the right thing, and frankly, playing a very weak hand, a hand that was weak not because of him, okay. He did the best he could, but I will say this to his enormous credit: he never offered a dirty deal. You can have Ukraine if you only help us out on Syria. Never - he never did that. — Daniel Fried

Realism as a foreign policy doctrine means basically you don't care about values; you consider them a luxury, and it leads to a kind of acquiescence in spheres of influence. Now, spheres of influence sound good if you're a graduate student, or a certain kind of - an academic with a certain habit of mind. But in fact, spheres of influence don't work out very well, certainly not for the victims, and there are always victims. — Daniel Fried

Lincoln is quoted more often than he's understood, and he understood that the founding principle of our nation is, in fact, the Declaration of Independence. — Daniel Fried

I think that President George W. Bush was ahead of most of his government, in realizing that Putin was not the person we thought he was. — Daniel Fried

Russia committed an act of aggression in Ukraine, and that's the first time since 1945 a European country has seized the territory of another European country. That's serious business. They started a war with their neighbor. Their troops as well as the separatists funded and controlled by Russia are killing people just about every day. — Daniel Fried

We intend to leave it without further discussion. We respect this request by the government of Uzbekistan — Daniel Fried

Sanctions are a strong and agreed element of the West's response to Russia's aggression. It is puzzling to me that there is so much skepticism about the sanctions. I don't understand it. — Daniel Fried

Two World Wars are sufficient and we are the ones who supported this notion of a united Europe, so there would never be another set of civil wars in Europe again, ever. That was a fabulous success. It was so fabulous that people now take it for granted. — Daniel Fried

There is nothing wrong when the Trump administration says it wants to find areas of common ground to work with Russia - perfectly reasonable. The question is, are you willing to pay the Russians in advance for the privilege of working with them in areas that are supposed to be of common interest, and that - I don't see the American interest in doing so. — Daniel Fried

Russia comes from a place of deep resentment against the West, in general, and the United States in particular. They are rapacious, because they want back as much of their empire as they can grab. And we need to resist that. At the same time, we should be able to look for areas of common interest. — Daniel Fried

Our mistakes, blunders, flaws, and shortcomings notwithstanding, the world America made after 1945 and 1989 has enjoyed the longest period of general peace in the west since Roman times, and decades of prosperity. — Daniel Fried

That was pretty smooth, because you don`t want something to go wrong when you have a whole senior level of actings. That`s not a position you want to be in. It`s OK to replace your team, but usually you want them to be in place until the new people are confirmed. — Daniel Fried

The Russians are using the tools at their disposal to weaken Western solidarity, to create doubt, to support nationalist parties, just as the old Soviets supported leftist parties. We need a united Western response to this multi-pronged threat. — Daniel Fried

The usual practice is that the people in their jobs keep their jobs until their successors are named. Now, that`s the way the [George] Bush administration treated the [Bill] Clinton people. And that`s the way the [Barack] Obama administration treated the [George W.] Bush people. — Daniel Fried

America's grand strategy did not come from nowhere. It followed from our deeper conception of ourselves, and our American identity. Who are we, Americans? What is our nation? We are not an ethnostate with identity rooted in shared blood. The option of a white man's republic ended at Appomattox. — Daniel Fried

I am not one of these people that believes that Russia is doomed, or somehow, you know, inevitably disposed to act according to its worst traditions. But all the more reason, therefore, to resist their aggression and take it seriously. — Daniel Fried

Putinsim is not necessarily the end state for Russia. Russia has moved in many directions since the early 1980s. — Daniel Fried

If we blunt Russian efforts now to be aggressive, we may be pleasantly surprised by the policy options that become available to us, in terms of working with a better Russia. — Daniel Fried

I think that Hillary Clinton has an appreciation that American power needs to be put in the service of American values, which is an American tradition and a pretty good one, and I think she was willing to do that. — Daniel Fried

Nothing can be taken for granted and this great achievement is now under assault by Russia. But what we did in my time is no less honorable. It is for the present generation to defend. — Daniel Fried

I am not against working with Russia in areas of common interests at the same time. We're smart enough, or we should be smart enough to have a dual track policy. You know, walk and chew gum at the same time. — Daniel Fried

It was my honor to have done what I could do to help. I learned to never underestimate the possibility of change, that values have power and that time and patience can pay off, especially if you`re serious about your objectives. — Daniel Fried

Russia could be, in fact, it would have to be a different Russia, but it could be a splendid ally. I will say this for the Russians: on their - in their favor, they have the intellectual capacity and the habits of mind to act in the world on a strategic scale, and were they do to so in service of a better cause than their current set of grievances, they would be a natural partner. — Daniel Fried

The United States comes in 1945 and we basically blow the whistle. — Daniel Fried

America's security and prosperity didn't work unless other nations were also secure, and prosperous. There had to be something in it for them, so we weren't looking simply to grab territory, or widen our sphere of influence, or anything like that. We wanted to make the world a better place, and get very rich in the process. — Daniel Fried

What [Russians] want to do is undermine the Western liberal order. — Daniel Fried

Diminish us across the board. They [Russians] do not wish us well. — Daniel Fried

The same people the Americans sent over - that we sent over to advise the Russians, we also sent over to advise the Poles about how to build a post-communist economy. Same people, same advice, with radically different results, which leads to suspicion it's not our advice which was the crucial variable. It was the Poles, on one hand, and the Russians on the other. The Poles succeeded; the Russians didn't. Don't blame us. — Daniel Fried

I think, Russia is pushing against the West in general, not just the United States but the institutions of the West, the key governments in the West using a variety of tools, as well as military assault on Ukraine. — Daniel Fried

The West in its modern form since 1945 is a miracle, and that`s in our American interests. It`s its good that the West is strong and at peace, and we should want more of that, not less. — Daniel Fried

[Russians] want to bring us down to make them feel better about the failure of the Soviet Union. I don`t mean bring us down as in collapse, but bring us down a notch in a big way. — Daniel Fried

Republicans - Reagan but also George W. Bush - believed in freedom, and they believed in America's role. To have the governing party speak in terms of a zero-sum world, or speak in terms of America's purpose as no more than grabbing the largest share possible in the short run, goes against our foreign policy tradition that goes back to 1900, really. — Daniel Fried

In my view, [Vladimir] Putin despises the West in general and the United States in particular, both for who we are, our liberal values, and for what we`ve done, which is to take down the Soviet Empire. — Daniel Fried

America's sanctions policy remains intact, and it will remain intact until it changes, if it does, and I'm not sure it will. — Daniel Fried

There are lots of secretaries who send off special envoys and yes, say, "Do a great job," and that's fine until it costs you something. And then they cut you off. — Daniel Fried

Russia is an aggressive revisionist power. And they are working - there's evidence they're working to interfere not just in our electoral process, but the electoral processes of Europeans with the same toolkit - money, fake news, propaganda, and what those Soviets used to call aktivniye meropriyatiya, active measures. This is serious. — Daniel Fried

Remember, the American grand strategy works when other countries feel secure. But it doesn't work if we acquiesce in the aggression of other countries. — Daniel Fried

We should not assume that Russia is doomed to live according to its worst traditions. In fact, in Russian history, failed efforts at external aggression, when they fail, usually bring on areas of internal reform. — Daniel Fried

Diplomacy is not merely talking somebody into something; it's talking to somebody from a position of strength. You put your power on the table to open up the conversation; that's diplomacy. — Daniel Fried

We have a deep sense of American equality and opportunity, and that informs the way in which we brought our American power to the world, because we thought that other nations were entitled to that same opportunity in a rules-based system. — Daniel Fried

9/11 was a genuine trauma, and President George W. Bush rallied the country. I think the Iraq war was ill-considered, but there - it was done in the wake of a national trauma. And that the errors made under such circumstances are different than errors made in the cold. — Daniel Fried

We Americans are focused on Russia`s attacks with our electoral system and we`re consumed with that. But Russia is pushing against the West generally. — Daniel Fried

It's said that Putin can't stand Hillary Clinton. I don't know that for a fact, but it certainly looks that way, but I think her approach to Russia stands up pretty well. — Daniel Fried

Life Lessons by Daniel Fried

1. Daniel Fried's work as an American diplomat demonstrates the importance of having a clear and consistent diplomatic strategy when dealing with foreign powers.
2. He also showed the value of taking a long-term approach to international relations, and how careful diplomacy can help to create a more secure and stable world.
3. Finally, Fried's work serves as a reminder of the need for strong leadership and the ability to build relationships and trust with foreign partners.