Quotes about Diplomacy

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

Lay waste all the settlements around... that the country may not be merely overrun, but destroyed ... listen to any overture of peace before the total ruin of their settlements is effected.

It could be another election where the alignments between Republicans and Democrats are different than they were this time and who a foreign country prefers.

I reserve the right, as president of the United States to meet with anybody at a time and place of my choosing if I think it's going to keep America safe.

Why do we have to talk about it? Why? I never saw anything like this. Every time we're going to attack somebody we explain....

Striving for peace and preparing for war are incompatible with each other, and in our time more so than ever.

I think the time has come for the United States to do even-handed justice.

My attempt and prayer are and will be for an honorable peace between belligerent nations in the least possible time.

Why should [Uncle Sam] send 20 billion dollars down there [South America], which is going to go down the drain every time you have a racial in - incident in this country?

Peace by persuasion has a pleasant sound, but I think we should not be able to work it. We should have to tame the human race first, and history seems to show that that cannot be done.

And always we had wars, and more wars, and still other wars--all over Europe, all over the world. Sometimes in the private interest of royal families, Satan said, sometimes to crush a weak nation; but never a war started by the aggressor for any clean purpose--there is no such war in the history of the race.

Third, we must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his friendship and understanding. At times we are able to humiliate our worst enemy. Inevitably, his weak moments come and we are able to thrust in his side the spear of defeat. But this we must not do. Every wood and deed must contribute to an understanding with the enemy and release those vast reservoirs of goodwill that have been blocked by impenetrable walls of hate.