Mary Robinson Quotes

The United States plays, for the most part, a constructive global role, and to the extent that that role shrinks, other countries, even those most critical of what America does abroad, will suffer.

At the United Nations, that's the number one comment I get is they're just so happy to see the United States lead again.

I believe that American engagement, through our embassy, our businesses, and most of all through our people, is the best way to advance our interests and support for democracy and human rights.

I think that it's very important to have the United States' engagement in many situations we have around the world, be it in Syria, be it in the African context. The United States represents an important set of values, human rights, values related to freedom, to democracy. And so the foreign policy engagement of the United States is a very important guarantee that those values can be properly pursued.

An isolationist America is no bloody use to anyone.

My priority is to give the United States the kind of influence it should have.

How have relations with Iran and Belarus benefited Venezuela? We are interested in countries that have democracies, that respect human rights, that we have an affinity with. What affinity do we have with Iran?

The interests of the United States are better served by demanding reform and seeing that reform takes place than by removing our influence from the UN.

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.

I wish we could begin a new period of normal relations with the government of the United States.

America's support for human rights and democracy is our noblest export to the world.

I cite these events because I think they underline two very disturbing phenomena - the loss of U.S. international credibility, the growing U.S. international isolation.

We won’t be very successful with the Chinese leadership [on human rights issues] if we’re in their face all the time.

The relations of our two countries rest on traditional bases, quite other than those with other nations, and are of commanding influence on the whole of the world!

What frustrates U.S. officials is that China sometimes seems more comfortable accommodating a strong United States, as it did in past decades, than partnering with an America that's less dominant.

Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have left the U.S. with better relations with Iran and Cuba and worse relations with allies like Israel.

I think it's fair to say that diplomacy today requires much more of that if you're the United States of America than it did 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago.

The U.S. government understands the importance of Nigeria in Africa and the world at large.

Because of Obama's ill-advised actions, the world has lost American leadership.

There's a good lesson for policymakers: It's not the presence of the U.S. that is a problem for many people in the Arab region; it's the type of presence we bring.

President Obama has been on the world stage for 10 years, and people know what he believes. He doesn't single out individual countries and doesn't say, 'I believe in LGBT rights because I want to embarrass the political leadership in India.'

It is, for me, clear that the world needs a United States that is engaged in security issues, in development issues, in human rights issues. The contribution of the United States for global affairs is absolutely crucial. And the cooperation with the U.N. is very important from our perspective.

My job is to try to advance American foreign policy, to try to advance the president's agenda on democracy and human rights.

As president, I will stand up to the great human rights tests of our time - in China, Russia, and the Middle East. We must send a signal to our allies and adversaries that America is back in the leadership business.

If you want Russia to be a real fully developed partner, then America should invest in Russia and activate Russia as a strong nation.