145 Foreign Affairs Quotes
Following is our list of foreign affairs quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about foreign policy.
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Famous Foreign Affairs Quotes
We have the responsibility to ensure that our first impulse in foreign affairs is one of bipartisanship. — Richard Lugar
So far as it depends on the course of this government, our relations of good will and friendship will be sedulously cultivated with all nations. — John Tyler
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. — George Washington
Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. — George Washington
Foreign policy will require a strategic agility that, whenever possible, gets ahead of problems, strengthens U.S. security and alliances, and promotes American interests and credibility. — Chuck Hagel
Our national determination to keep free of foreign wars and foreign entanglements cannot prevent us from feeling deep concern when ideals and principles that we have cherished are challenged. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. — Thomas Jefferson
Relations between States, as between individuals, must be regulated not by armed force, but in accordance with...truth, justice and vigorous and sincere co-operation. — Pope John XXIII
History and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. — George Washington
Conferences at the top level are always courteous. Name-calling is left to the foreign ministers. — W. Averell Harriman
The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia. — Otto von Bismarck
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence . . . the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake. — George Washington
A standing army is like a standing member. It's an excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure. — Elbridge Gerry
The spirit of seeking understanding through personal contact with people of other nations and other cultures deserves the respect and support of all. — Gerald R. Ford
A nation is defined not by its borders, but by its interests. — Tim Marshall
Short Foreign Affairs Quotes
- Foreign powers do not seem to appreciate the true character of our government. — James K. Polk
- Diplomacy: the art of restraining power. — Henry A Kissinger
- Every government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck. — Guy de Maupassant
- National security is vital for economic and social progress. — Paul Kagame
- Unity should be the cornerstone of relations — Haile Selassie
Foreign Relations Quotes
How could a state be governed, or protected in its foreign relations if every individual remained free to obey or not to obey the law according to his private opinion. — Thomas Hobbes
No matter to what degree China opens up to the outside world and admits foreign capital, its relative magnitude will be small and it can't affect our system of socialist public ownership of the means of production. — Deng Xiaoping
The Council on Foreign Relations is the American branch of a society which originated in England ... [and] ... believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule established. — Carroll Quigley
If the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) raises the hackles of the conspiracy theorists, the Bilderberg meetings must induce apocalyptic visions of omnipotent international bankers plotting with unscrupulous government officials to impose cunning schemes on an ignorant and unsuspecting world. — David Rockefeller
Having a comic in the White House will assure stability in foreign relations. The world will continue to respond to foreign initiatives by saying, 'You must be joking.' — Pat Paulsen
To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say 'Cast down your bucket where you are.' — Booker T. Washington
The truth is the Federal Reserve Board has usurped the Government of the United States. It controls everything here and it controls all our foreign relations. It makes and breaks government at will. — Louis Thomas McFadden
Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can throw the rascals out at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy. — Carroll Quigley
The one thing man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by a World Government, a New World Order. — Henry A. Kissinger
In a world of increasing interdependence, energy security will depend much on how countries manage their relations with one another. That is why energy security will be one of the main challenges of foreign policy in the years ahead. Oil and gas have always been political commodities. — Daniel Yergin
Foreign Policy Quotes
Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence. — Alexander Hamilton
The honor of a nation is its life. Deliberately to abandon it is to commit an act of political suicide. — Alexander Hamilton
You know, I've never believed, in anything, that you had to have role models who looked like you to do something. If I'd been waiting for a black, female, soviet specialist role model, I'd be still waiting. — Condoleezza Rice
Depopulation should be the highest priority of foreign policy towards the third world, because the US economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries — Henry A. Kissinger
Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy. — Henry A. Kissinger
North Korea continues to play the crazed, powerful weakling to good effect. Its foreign policy consists of being suspicious of everyone except the Chinese, who provide 84% of the country’s imports and buy 85% of its exports. — Tim Marshall
If you know a country's geography, you can understand and predict its foreign policy. — Napoleon Bonaparte
It doesn't matter who you vote for we get the same damn policies. We have this thing in Washington called the Uniparty. The Uniparty is owned by various corporate, foreign and pharmaceutical lobbyists. This has to go away!! — Douglas Macgregor
We Communists have got to string along with the capitalists for a while. We need their agriculture and their technology. But we are going to continue massive military programs. . . (soon) we will be in a position to return to a much more aggressive foreign policy designed to gain the upper-hand. — Leonid Brezhnev
We should cease to talk about vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better. — George F. Kennan
Foreign Countries Quotes
The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity. — Steven Biko
The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment under neo-colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and poor countries of the world. — Kwame Nkrumah
War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it. — George Orwell
After traveling through fourteen foreign countries and appearing before all the royalty and nobility I have only one wish today. That is that when my eyes are closed in death that they will bury me back in that quiet little farm land where I was born. — Annie Oakley
Our children should be taught to beware of everything foreign and not to disclose any state or party secrets to foreigners... for foreigners are eyes for their countries, and some of them are counterrevolutionary instruments [in the hands of imperialism]. — Saddam Hussein
Icelanders are grateful to meet foreigners who have heard of their country. And even more grateful to hear someone say it deserves better. — Halldór Laxness
The past is a foreign country. — Annie Jacobsen
Javier Milei has legalised the use of all foreign currencies in Argentina, including Bitcoin. Not every country has to make Bitcoin legal tender; each country will have their own unique path. All roads lead to Bitcoin. — Samson Mow
We should teach the foreigners and colonialists that Somalia cannot be led by other people and that the traitors who fled the country will never lead Somalia. — Siad Barre
We must open our eyes and see that modern civilization has become so complex and the lives of civilized men so interwoven with thelives of other men in other countries as to make it impossible to be in this world and out of it. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
International Relations Quotes
The world is now too small for anything but brotherhood. — A. Powell Davies
Educational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanizing of international relations — J. William Fulbright
We have no eternal allies, and we have not perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow. — Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
I encounter one example after another of how relative truth is. — Raoul Wallenberg
United States is a great Country and has its effective role on the international arena, so we have to boost our relations with it, in order to achieve peace and stability in our region and the world. — Ali A. Saleh
If China continues to rise, you better be very careful, because that will drive the United States stark raving crazy. — John Mearsheimer
United States is a great Country and has its effective role on the international arena, so we have to boost our relations with it, in order to achieve peace and stability in our region and the world. — Bill Vaughan
According to the first image of international relations, the locus of the important causes of war is found in the nature and behavior of man. Wars result from selfishness, from misdirected aggressive impulses, from stupidity. — Kenneth Waltz
Every aspect of the world today - even politics and international relations - is affected by chemistry. — Linus Pauling
War gives the right to the conquerors to impose any condition they please upon the vanquished. — Julius Caesar
World Affairs Quotes
This world crisis came about without women having anything to do with it. If the women of the world had not been excluded from world affairs, things today might have been different. — Alice Paul
The man who is kind and who practices righteousness, who remains passive against the affairs of the world, who considers all creatures on earth as his own self, he attains the Immortal Being; the true God is ever with him. — Kabir
Absorption in worldly affairs breeds darkness in the heart, and absorption in the affairs of the next world enkindles light in the heart — Uthman ibn Affan
The physical realities that underpin national and international politics are too often disregarded in both history and contemporary world affairs. — Tim Marshall
My politics are wildly different from hers, but someone who has been good for women in politics, stamped her authority on European and world affairs, is Angela Merkel. — Nicola Sturgeon
I was fascinated, long before I joined the SNP, in the world around me; current affairs really interested me. — Nicola Sturgeon
Despite my solitary life, I have found infinite joy in books and writing, and am by far too much interested in the affairs of the world to quit the scene before Nature shall claim me. — H. P. Lovecraft
We are in a world of irredeemable paper money - a state of affairs unprecedented in history. — John Exter
Do we eagerly long for the coming of Christ? Or do we want him to wait while our love affair with the world runs its course? That is the question that tests the authenticity of faith. — John Piper
We must develop huge demonstrations, because the world is used to big dramatic affairs. They think in terms of hundreds of thousands and millions and billions... Billions of dollars are appropriated at the twinkling of an eye. Nothing little counts. — A. Philip Randolph
American Foreign Policy Quotes
We need American foreign policy that tells the world very clearly that it is bad to be our enemy and good to be our friend. — Marco Rubio
Foreign aid is neither a failure nor a panacea. It is, instead, an important tool of American policy that can serve the interests of the United States and the world if wisely administered. — Lee H. Hamilton
I can think of no faster way to unite the American people behind George W. Bush than a terrorist attack on an American target overseas. And I believe George W. Bush will quickly unite the American people through his foreign policy. — Henry A. Kissinger
We shall listen, not lecture; learn, not threaten. We will enhance our safety by earning the respect of others and showing respect for them. In short, our foreign policy will rest on the traditional American values of restraint and empathy, not on military might. — Theodore C. Sorensen
The reason I made women's issues central to American foreign policy, was not because I was a feminist, but because we know that societies are more stable if women are politically and economically empowered. — Madeleine Albright
Our foreign policy has made a wreck of this planet. I'm always in Africa... And when I go to these places I see American policy written on the walls of oppression everywhere. — Harry Belafonte
The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy. And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern. — Henry A. Kissinger
Asking Senator Fulbright's advice on foreign policy is like asking the Boston Strangler to massage your neck. — Spiro T. Agnew
Words summarize the American philosophy of life: Live and let live; Let's make a deal. 8 words summarize American foreign policy: We're better than you; Do it our way. — Gary North
I think Americans should have a policy of love. That should be the foreign policy, love. Export Love. — Ziggy Marley
Foreign Trade Quotes
No extension of foreign trade will immediately increase the amount of value in a country, although it will very powerfully contribute to increase the mass of commodities and therefore the sum of enjoyments. — David Ricardo
What generates war is the economic philosophy of nationalism: embargoes, trade and foreign exchange controls, monetary devaluation, etc. The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war. — Ludwig von Mises
So prominent was the Jewish role in the foreign commerce of Europe that those nations that received the Jews gained and the countries that excluded them lost in the volume of international trade. — Will Durant
Our two-party system is a fraud, a sham, a delusion. On foreign policy, trade, immigration, Big Government, we have one-party government, one party press; and conservatives are being played for suckers. — Pat Buchanan
In response to a suggestion that total free trade would end in cheaper foreign products flooding the market and causing unemployment. — Milton Friedman
That foreign trade should be fair rather than free. — Lyn Nofziger
Unless the trade deficit shrinks, the combination of the trade deficit and the interest and dividend payments to foreigners will grow ever more rapidly. — Martin Feldstein
Other powers will continue to enjoy an equal right to trade in and develop the natural resources of the occupied territory, for the economic development of which the investment of foreign capital is very desirable. — Koki Hirota
Conflicting commercial regulations of the different States shackled and diminished both foreign and domestic trade; hence the power to regulate commerce was conferred. — Robert Toombs
I expect to see trade wars, foreign policy disasters, a few race riots, a decrease in personal liberty, higher taxes, higher inflation and probably, economic collapse. The silver lining is, secession will probably become more feasible. — Charley Reese
Foreign Service Quotes
If I am selling to you, I speak your language. If I am buying, dann müssen sie Deutsch sprechen. — Willy Brandt
Colonialism is known in its primitive form, that is to say, by the permanent settling of repressive foreign powers, with an army, services, policies. This phase has known cruel colonial occupations which have lasted 300 years in Indonesia. — Ahmed Ben Bella
You try various things when you're growing up. I was an attache in the Foreign Service for a while and then I drove a bulldozer, but neither of those panned out for me so it had to be stand-up. — Dylan Moran
To great sections of the church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the 'program.' This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us. — Aiden Wilson Tozer
On Foreign Secretary Robin Cook: If a man cannot keep a measly affair secret, what is he doing in charge of the Intelligence Service? — Frederick Forsyth
The humanitarian would, of course, have us meddle in foreign affairs as part of his program of world service. — Irving Babbitt
We wouldn't turn over our customs service or our border patrol to a foreign government. We shouldn't turn over the ports of the United States, either. — Robert Menendez
The State Department desperately needs to be vigorously harnessed. It has too big a role to play in the formulation of foreign policy, and foreign policy is too important to be left up to foreign service officers. — Evan G. Galbraith
There's something about the Foreign Service that takes the guts out of people. — Evan G. Galbraith
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
People Writing About Foreign Affairs
More Foreign Affairs Quotes
If I were a dictator, religion and state would be separate. I swear by my religion. I will die for it. But it is my personal affair. The state has nothing to do with it. The state would look after your secular welfare, health, communications, foreign relations, currency and so on, but not your or my religion. That is everybody's personal concern! — Mahatma Gandhi
There can never be peace in Ireland until the foreign oppressive British presence is removed, leaving all the Irish people as a unit to control their own affairs and determine their own destinies as a sovereign people, free in mind and body, separate and distinct physically, culturally and economically. — Bobby Sands
The de facto censorship which leaves so many Americans functionally illiterate about the history of US foreign affairs may be all the more effective because it is not official, heavy-handed or conspiratorial, but woven artlessly into the fabric of education and media. No conspiracy is needed. — William Blum
If there is one lesson for U.S. foreign policy from the past 10 years, it is surely that military intervention can seem simple but is in fact a complex affair with the potential for unintended consequences. — Fareed Zakaria
The limitations imposed by democratic political practices makes it difficult to conduct our foreign affairs in the national interest. — Dean Acheson
What I am concerned about in this fast-moving world in a time of crises, both in foreign and domestic affairs, is not so much a program as a spirit of approach, not so much a mind as a heart. A program lives today and dies tomorrow. A mind, if it be open, may change with each new day, but the spirit and the heart are as unchanging as the tides. — Owen D. Young
The people [in the USA] are not very well informed. They certainly don`t know history. They certainly are not interested in foreign affairs very much, unless it comes right to their doorstep. They all learn history through wars. They learn geography through wars. — Bill Maher
Most vagabonds i knowed don't ever want to find the culprit that remains the object of their long relentless quest. The obsession's in the chasing and not the apprehending, the pursuit you see and never the arrest" - Tom Waits "Foreign Affairs — Tom Waits
One of the most important secret societies of the 20th century is called the Round Table. It is based in Britain with branches across the world. It is the Round Table that ultimately orchestrates the network of the Bilderberg Group, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission and the Royal Institute of International Affairs. — David Icke
Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great sadness that I announce that I will resign as Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs. I am sad because I love this job. I'm totally dedicated to the work that we are doing in Australia's name around the world, and I believe that we have achieved many good results for Australia, and I'm proud of them. — Kevin Rudd
The very phrase 'foreign affairs' makes an Englishman convinced that I am about to treat of subjects with which he has no concern. — Benjamin Disraeli
Americans are inclined to see the world and foreign affairs in black and white. — Richard Kerry
Nixon had some large achievements in foreign affairs. They will be remembered. But a president probably gets remembered for one thing, and Watergate will head the Nixon list, I suspect. — Bob Woodward
To divine the course of world events, you'd do as well to probe the entrails of dead animals. Better still, ask your hairstylist. She will be at least as insightful and probably more entertaining a prophet than anyone you can read in Foreign Affairs or the op-ed page of the Washington Post. — Andrew Bacevich
I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq. Those who want to come and help are welcome. Those who come to interfere and destroy are not. — Paul Wolfowitz
We're in an illusion about what our role is in world politics and foreign affairs, and our policies are killing and destroying and doing a lot of things that we are not aware of. — Talib Kweli
The U.S. public is depoliticised, poorly informed on foreign affairs... and strongly patriotic in the face of a struggle with another Hitler. Even though the public is normally averse to war, even with modest propaganda efforts... the public can be quickly transformed into enthusiastic supporters of war. — Edward S. Herman
Watching foreign affairs is sometimes like watching a magician; the eye is drawn to the hand performing the dramatic flourishes, leaving the other hand - the one doing the important job - unnoticed. — David K. Shipler
I don't believe I'll ever get credit for anything I do in foreign affairs, no matter how successful it is, because I didn't go to Harvard. — Lyndon B. Johnson
I fully, fully concede that Secretary Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of State for four years, has more experience - hat is not arguable - in foreign affairs. — Bernie Sanders
When the San Francisco Democrats treat foreign affairs as an afterthought, as they did, they behaved less like a dove or a hawk than like an ostrich - convinced it could shut out the world by hiding its head in the sand. — Jeane Kirkpatrick
In foreign affairs, the president can do what he wants unless Congress says no. In domestic policy, the president can't do anything unless Congress says yes. — Bill Vaughan
Nowhere have women been more excluded from decision-making than in the military and foreign affairs. When it comes to the military and questions of nuclear disarmament, the gender gap becomes the gender gulf. — Eleanor Smeal
Some reasonable term ought to be allowed to enable aliens to get rid of foreign and acquire American attachments; to learn the principles and imbibe the spirit of our government; and to admit of a probability at least, of their feeling a real interest in our affairs. — Alexander Hamilton
...foreign policy is a matter of costs and benefits, not theology. — Fareed Zakaria
I studied political science and international relations and had the intention of becoming a journalist or work in foreign affairs. I had no intention of making a film. — Philippe Falardeau
If the estimate of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs is correct, then Russia has lost the cold war in western Europe. — Walter Lippmann
Hillary Clinton is going to find common ground with the Republicans on foreign and military affairs. They both want to enhance the military budget. — Ralph Nader
Our best presidents have really combined domestic leadership with heroic achievements in foreign affairs or war. — Allan Lichtman
Five daily newspapers arrive in my California driveway. The New York times and the Wall Street Journal are supplemented by three local papers. As for magazines, I read, or at least skim, Business Week, Forbes, The Economist, INC; Industry Week, Fortune. Other subscriptions include Sales and Marketing Management, Modern Health Care, Progressive Grocer, High Tech Business, and Slaon Management Review from MIT. I religiously read Business Tokyo, Asia Week, and Far Eastern Economic Review. I glance at Newsweek and Time ... but I devour the New Republic, Policy Review, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Monthly, and Public Interest. How about books? A dozen or more each month. — Thomas J. Peters
I think he's informing himself, reaching out and getting ideas and information and advice. I haven't the slightest doubt that internally taking shape in that marvelous brain of his is a philosophy of foreign affairs. But it would be premature to say that one is fully formed. — Theodore C. Sorensen
This is the devilish thing about foreign affairs: they are foreign and will not always conform to our whim. — James Reston
People are always asking me in interviews, 'What do you think of foreign affairs?' I just say, 'I've had a few.' — Dolly Parton
Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. — Donald Trump
The United States has made serious mistakes in the conduct of its foreign affairs, which have had unfortunate repercussions long after the decisions were taken. — Nelson Mandela
The left, led by the news media, has been telling us practically from the day that Donald Trump announced his candidacy that he would be a complete disaster, particularly in foreign affairs and foreign relations around the world, and even more particularly in the Middle East. And, instead, we see the rave reception that President Trump is getting everywhere he is going, the profound respect. — Rush Limbaugh
My every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families. — Donald Trump
On foreign affairs, we've already begun enormously productive talks with many foreign leaders, much of it you've covered, to move forward toward stability, security and peace in the most troubled regions of the world, which there are many. — Donald Trump
There are a few instances that arise in the unique context of domestic equal-protection challenges to governmental actions that are facially neutral but produce substantial discriminatory impacts on groups of people, based on such suspect classifications as race, nationality, ethnic origin, etc. This doctrine has never been used in foreign affairs. — David B. Rivkin
Thus, in view of what I have said, we could not officially hack [Hillary's Clinton mail]. It would require certain intuition and knowledge of the U.S. domestic policy peculiarities. I am not sure that even our experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have such intuition. — Vladimir Putin
Decision-making power, whether it's on foreign affairs or domestic affairs, is concentrated in the White House in a reasonably small circle. — David Brooks
None of what we [as country] have done is credited. None of the good works. Our foreign affairs budget, foreign aid budget, none of it is ever thanked. — Rush Limbaugh
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