Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
America is not a white man's republic.
Partisanship is not part of my professional makeup.
America is not an ethnostate. We are not rooted in blood and soil.
Diminish us across the board. They [Russians] do not wish us well.
The United States comes in 1945 and we basically blow the whistle.
What [Russians] want to do is undermine the Western liberal order.
I think the West is in a low point we haven`t seen since the 1930s.
Russia despises the West. And is doing what it can to weaken the West.
Internal reform in Russia would require a better relationship with the West.
No great power is ever satisfied with its sphere of influence. They never are.
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.
The world should contemplate a nuclear weapons-armed Iran with the greatest of concern.
Don't mistake the Russia you want to exist for the Russia that there actually is. Be realistic.
Nationalism is like cheap alcohol. First it makes you drunk, then it makes you blind, then it kills you.
We intend to leave it without further discussion. We respect this request by the government of Uzbekistan
Be careful about a policy generated with enthusiasm in the rush of a moment. It usually doesn't turn out well.
Putinsim is not necessarily the end state for Russia. Russia has moved in many directions since the early 1980s.
Both the Bush people and [Barack] Obama people had no problem working with the holdovers. They weren`t out to get them.
America's sanctions policy remains intact, and it will remain intact until it changes, if it does, and I'm not sure it will.
Think of Europe in the 20th century. Two World Wars generated by nationalism. France, Germany, Britain fighting with each other.
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.
We did really well for a generation after 1989 and the fall of communism. Our liberal values expanded in the world, our prosperity expanded.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.