145 Famous International Relations Quotes To Inspire You
International relations are the connections and interactions between countries across the globe. Quotes about international relations offer insights into the dynamics, challenges, and importance of diplomacy and cooperation among nations. These quotes can shed light on the complexities of maintaining peace, resolving conflicts, and fostering mutual understanding between different countries.
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Famous International Relations Quotes
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
To build a theory of international relations on accidents of geography and history is dangerous. — Kenneth Waltz
Unity should be the cornerstone of relations — Haile Selassie
Right human relations is the only true peace. — Alice A. Bailey
The physical realities that underpin national and international politics are too often disregarded in both history and contemporary world affairs. — Tim Marshall
Educational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanizing of international relations — J. William Fulbright
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
A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations. — Dwight D. Eisenhower
Diplomacy: the art of restraining power. — Henry A Kissinger
The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia. — Otto von Bismarck
How does MINDEF intend to reduce uncertainties, enhance understanding, and improve coordination in the region and beyond through defence diplomacy apart from conferences and meetings? — Low Thia Khiang
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
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
Every aspect of the world today - even politics and international relations - is affected by chemistry. — Linus Pauling
Peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between individuals. — Mahatma Gandhi
Short International Relations Quotes
- All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means. — Zhou Enlai
- Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. — George Washington
- The sovereignty of states must be subordinated to international law and international institutions. — George Soros
- Diplomacy without military might is like music without instruments. — Frederick the Great
- Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions. — Winston Churchill
Value Relations Quotes
Religion is so frequently a source of confusion in political life, and so frequently dangerous to democracy, precisely because it introduces absolutes into the realm of relative values. — Reinhold Niebuhr
It requires a genuine fight to produce one well designed object of relatively permanent value — George Nakashima
As in most markets, there are areas of overvaluation and of undervaluation, with the bulk of shares appearing to hover in the area of fair value relative to their prospects. — Bill Miller
I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. — David Livingstone
There’s an inherent message in my work relating to recycling and the nature of value, but my artistic inspiration is fired by the qualities within the raw materials… I come across many things which have been abandoned and find something more in them than their intrinsic worthlessness. — Ptolemy
If human values were relative, all laws-whether those based on revealed religions or those devised by man-would become meaningless. — Anwar Sadat
The value of a man resides in what he gives — Albert Einstein
I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price. — Vince Lombardi
The whole visible universe is but a storehouse of images and signs to which the imagination will give a relative place and value; it is a sort of pasture which the imagination must digest and transform. — Charles Baudelaire
Humanists hold that ethical values are relative to human experience and need not be derived from theological or metaphysical foundations. — Paul Kurtz
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
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
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
World Politics Quotes
The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. — Hermann Goring
We live in a country that talks about being the home of the brave and the land of the free, and we have the highest incarceration rate in the world. — Bryan Stevenson
We hear a constant clamor for rights, rights, always rights, but so very little about responsibility. And we have forgotten God. The need now is for selflessness, for a spirit of sacrifice, for a willingness to put aside personal gains for the salvation of the whole Western world. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I propose getting rid of conventional armaments and replacing them with reasonably priced hydrogen bombs that will be distributed equally throughout the world. — Idi Amin
The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. — Woodrow Wilson
The world is now too small for anything but brotherhood. — A. Powell Davies
People often say, with pride, 'I'm not interested in politics.' They might as well say, 'I'm not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future.' ... If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics. — Martha Gellhorn
If man is not made in the image of God, nothing then stands in the way of inhumanity. There is no good reason why mankind should be perceived as special. Human life is cheapened. We can see this in many of the major issues being debated in our society today. — Francis Schaeffer
From where many of us in the U.K. sit, American politics is hopelessly polarized. All kinds of issues get bundled up into two great heaps. The rest of the world, today and across the centuries, simply doesn't see things in this horribly oversimplified way. — N. T. Wright
We live in a world where our social system is old, our language is old, the way we acquire goods and services is outdated, our cities are detrimental to our health, chaotic and a tremendous waste of resource, and most of all our politics and values no longer serve us. — Jacque Fresco
International Law Quotes
There will definitely be a tribunal for this crime [attack on peaceful Ukrainian Cities]. Internationally. This is a violation of all conventions. — Volodymyr Zelenskyy
I am still profoundly troubled by the war in Nicaragua. The United States launched a covert war against another nation in violation of international law, a war that was wrong and immoral. — Bianca Jagger
If I were doing the Security Council today, I'd have one permanent member, the United States, because that's the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world. All international laws are invalid, meaningless attempts to constrict American power. — John Bolton
Abused in this way, law becomes a tool – both domestically and internationally – by which the powerful can coerce and control the powerless, rather than a system for ensuring that all are subjected to common rules. Nowhere. — Glenn Greenwald
Every success in limiting armaments is a sign that the will to achieve mutual understanding exists, and every such success thus supports the fight for international law and order. — Ludwig Quidde
International law says people fighting for self-determination can use force in order to achieve their independence. — Norman Finkelstein
The security of which we speak is to be attained by the development of international law through an international organization based on the principles of law and justice. — Ludwig Quidde
I am convinced that when the history of international law comes to be written centuries hence, it will be divided into two periods: the first being from the earliest times to the end of the nineteenth century, and the second beginning with the Hague Conference. — Ludwig Quidde
Global markets must be balanced by global values such as respect for human rights and international law, democracy, security and sustainable economic and environmental development. — Anna Lindh
Together with international unity and resolve we can meet the challenge of this global scourge and work to bring about an international law of zero tolerance for terrorism. — Manmohan Singh
Foreign Affairs Quotes
We have the responsibility to ensure that our first impulse in foreign affairs is one of bipartisanship. — Richard Lugar
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
And so class will some day supplant race in world affairs. Race war will then be merely a side-show to the gigantic class war which will be waged in the big tent we call the world. — Ralph Bunche
Diplomatic Relations Quotes
If the North Korean side shows no sincerity in solving the nuclear weapon, abduction and missile issues, then the likelihood of normalization of diplomatic relations is very slim. — Koichi Haraguchi
Foe means enemy. Now, will we have differences of opinion with the Russians? Yes. Will they get mad at us from time to time, and we get mad at them? That's part of the normal diplomatic relations. — Colin Powell
Divorce. A resumption of diplomatic relations and rectification of boundaries. — Ambrose Bierce
Players have a great deal of flexibility when conducting diplomatic relations with their allies. — Michael K. Simpson
As has been pointed out with Libya, the debate over Libya, sometimes we allow diplomatic relations with imperfect regimes because progress can best be made through engagement instead of isolation. — Earl Blumenauer
I am for free commerce with all nations; political connection with none; and little or no diplomatic establishment — George Washington
The reason for having diplomatic relations is not to confer a compliment, but to secure a convenience. [On diplomatic recognition of the People's Republic of China] — Winston Churchill
My proposal to re-establish diplomatic relations - not necessarily friendly relations, but diplomatic relations - is a sensible, simple, and straightforward approach that will finally get us off dead center. — Cyrus Vance
Fifty years of isolating Cuba had failed to promote democracy, setting us back in Latin America. That's why we restored diplomatic relations, opened the door to travel and commerce, and positioned ourselves to improve the lives of the Cuban people. — Barack Obama
In terms of the nature of the continuation of the Cold War, which has gone on so long between Cuba and the United States, I applaud the president for aggressively trying to end it and I hope we will have not only full diplomatic relations, but that the trade embargo will end. — Bernie Sanders
People Writing About International Relations
| Name | Quotes | Likes |
|---|---|---|
 Pope John XXIII |
54 | 1763 |
 Kenneth Waltz |
24 | 390 |
 Haile Selassie |
81 | 12933 |
 Tim Marshall |
149 | 1 |
 J. William Fulbright |
71 | 588 |
 John Tyler |
16 | 788 |
More International Relations Quotes
A pattern of shared basic assumptions invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that have worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems. — Edgar Schein
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
We have comprehensively promoted major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics ... and unswervingly opposed any unilateralism, protectionism and bullying. We have promoted the construction of a new type of international relations, actively participated in the reform and construction of the global governance system. China's international influence, appeal and shaping power have been significantly improved. — Xi Jinping
I encounter one example after another of how relative truth is. — Raoul Wallenberg
Chinese involvement is an attractive proposition for many African governments. Beijing and the big Chinese companies don't ask difficult questions about human rights, and they don't demand economic reform or even suggest that certain African leaders stop stealing their countries' wealth, as the IMF or World Bank might. For example, China is Sudan's biggest trading partner, which goes some way to explaining why China constantly protects Sudan at the UN Security Council and continued to back its president even when there was an arrest warrant issued for him by the International Criminal Court. — Tim Marshall
If China continues to rise, you better be very careful, because that will drive the United States stark raving crazy. — John Mearsheimer
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
The withdrawal of a State from a league has no revolutionary or insurrectionary characteristic. The government of the State remains unchanged as to all internal affairs. It is only its external or confederate relations that are altered. To term this action of a Sovereign a 'rebellion' is a gross abuse of language. — Jefferson Davis
War gives the right to the conquerors to impose any condition they please upon the vanquished. — Julius Caesar
Internationalism is a social and political theory, a certain concept of how human society ought to be organized, and in particular a concept of how the nations ought to organize their mutual relations. — Christian Lous Lange
I was like, 'What is this?' Until I found out it was stress related. That's how I internalized it. I don't do that anymore. My favorite saying in the world is, 'The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.' I am telling you, I have spent so much of my life not feeling comfortable in my skin. I am just so not there anymore. — Viola Davis
I never planned on being an actress, just as I never planned on being a model. I went to law and international-relations school. It wasn't my direction. It kind of happened to me. And because it wasn't my dream when I started, I wasn't starstruck. — Gal Gadot
To call war the soil of courage and virtue is like calling debauchery the soil of love. — George Santayana
He who wishes to serve his country must have not only the power to think, but the will to act — Plato
I always felt that a scientist owes the world only one thing, and that is the truth as he sees it. If the truth contradicts deeply held beliefs, that is too bad. Tact and diplomacy are fine in international relations, in politics, perhaps even in business; in science only one thing matters, and that is the facts. — Hans Eysenck
Education is a slow-moving but powerful force. It may not be fast enough or strong enough to save us from catastrophe, but it is the strongest force available for that purpose and in its proper place, therefore, is not at the periphery, but at the center of international relations. — J. William Fulbright
The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. — Omar N. Bradley
People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity. — John Adams
A war not only arises, but derives its nature , from the political ideas, the moral sentiments, and the international relations obtaining at the moment when it breaks out. This amounts to saying:;: try and know why and with the help of what you are going to act; then you will find out how to act. — Ferdinand Foch
What is... disturbing to me is that many of these pro-Israeli lawmakers sit on the House International Relations Committee despite the obvious conflict of interest that their emotional attachments to Israel cause... The Israeli occupation of all territories must end, including Congress. — Cynthia McKinney
I've led three lives: the acting part, wife and mother - which is a career - and international relations. I'm proud of my career, the first one, and I'm proud of the other two, too. — Shirley Temple
Honesty is the best policy in international relations, interpersonal relations, labor, business, education, family and crime control because truth is the only thing that works and the only foundation on which lasting relations can build. — Ramsey Clark
Hostility towards China distorted Australia's international affairs for 20 years until 1972, but reconciliation with China 30 years ago had produced a quarter century of constructive bipartisan relations with our region and the world, unmatched in Australian history. — Gough Whitlam
We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today's complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos. The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. — Vladimir Putin
For China to continue to enjoy economic prosperity, it needs to foster trusting international relationships, not tensions ... and it is important for China to understand this. — Shinzo Abe
The matter of international relations is very subtle and exquisite. — Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Why does the U.S. care which flag will be hoisted on a small piece of land thousands of miles away? — Ron Paul
We hear war called murder. It is not; it is suicide. — Ramsay MacDonald
The more dubious and uncertain an instrument violence has become in international relations, the more it has gained in reputation and appeal in domestic affairs, specifically in the matter of revolution. — Hannah Arendt
Above all, it behooves us to repress, and if possible to extinguish once and for all, our inveterate tendency to judge others by the extent to which they contrive to be like ourselves. — George F. Kennan
We always have hoped that American diplomacy deploys itself in dialogue and persuasion rather than by ultimatums. That is the path we want in international relations. — Mahmoud Abbas
Because of new technologies, new wealth, new conditions of domestic life and of international relations, unprecedented criteria and issues are coming up for national decision. — Herman Kahn
The regime of globalization promotes an unfettered marketplace as the dynamic instrument organizing international relations. — William Greider
Fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. — Bertrand Russell
As a conservative power, the United States has a vital interest in upholding and expanding the reign of law in international relations. — J. William Fulbright
If you cloned JFK and Abraham Lincoln and made them president it wouldn't matter. Our system is just too corrupt and too broken. I think that science is corrupt and broken. I think health and nutrition. I think the economic systems, the international relations, the environment, everything, the engines of everything are broken. — Rainn Wilson
Whoever has an army has power and that war decides everything. — Mao Zedong
I don't like hypocrisy-even in international relations. — Kofi Abrefa Busia
In Conclusion
These quotes often emphasize the significance of dialogue, respect, and collaboration in international relations. They highlight the need for open communication, negotiation, and compromise to address global issues and promote harmony among nations. Quotes about international relations can serve as reminders of the shared responsibilities we have in the interconnected world we live in and the potential for positive change that exists through diplomatic engagement.
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