Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess Salisbury Quotes

All members will refrain in their international relations from the threat or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.

The predominant yardstick of your government is not human rights but national interests.

I don't believe in ideology in international relations.

Nobody will be allowed to use Pakistan soil for any form of aggression toward any friend or foe.

Poor Wilson did not understand that a frontier which is not defended with bayonets, force and honor cannot be secured by any other principle.

I don't believe foreign policy is about altruism.

Foreign policy is not philanthropy.

In relations with other nations, there is neither right nor wrong; there is only strength and weakness.

Is a military solution the only way to stop nations from doing bad things?

...though it is England's right to enforce the law of Europe [i.e. treaties] as between contending states, she has no claim, so long as her own interests are untouched, to interfere in the national affairs of any country, whatever the extent of its misgovernment or its anarchy.

Now the situation is perilous, and the Powers are glaring at us like tigers eyeing their prey, all trying to barge into our country. Considering the financial and military situation in China today, we will of course try and avoid a war … But if our powerful enemies try and force us to yield to demands to which we cannot possibly consent, then we shall have no other alternative but to rely on the justice of our cause and to unite and fight.

The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire.

In international relations, in foreign policy, a great deal has to do with historical circumstances, a great deal has to do with the sense and perception of people.

I hope that the German people will never again make the mistake of believing that because the American people are peace-loving, they will sit back hoping for peace if any nation uses force or the threat of force to acquire dominion over other peoples and other governments.

Russia knows of the vulnerability of her frontiers in this part of the world.

A great country worthy of the name does not have any friends.

The very heart of being a sovereign nation is providing security of one's borders, of one's internal situation, and security against anyone attacking one's nation. That is the very heart of what I believe is sovereignty.

In these days of intimate relations, of economic stress and of intense desire to protect national interests and advance national opportunity, the treatment of questions which, from a legal standpoint, are domestic, often seriously affects international relations. The principle, each nation for itself to the full extent of its powers, is the principle of war, not of peace.

You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done

You can’t undo a thousand years of history by sending military troops into a country.

Power alone is respected and ... in order to gain peace, the United States has no alternative but to wield it

I never take a step in foreign policy unless I am assured that I shall be able to carry out my will by force.

The nation's mere possession of military power ready for exertion provides visible support for the nation's expression of views on foreign affairs, and that often is enough to make the expression persuasive. Thus a foreign policy which has a respectable basis in justice and morality is strengthened if it has also a respectable basis in physical force.

However much we may sympathize with a small nation confronted by a big and powerful neighbor, we cannot in all circumstances undertake to involve the whole British Empire in a war simply on her account. If we have to fight it must be on larger issues than that.

There is nothing democratic about war. It’s a straight dictatorship. The use of force to attain an end desired. We the armed forces of the USA have put a government in the position to dictate the peace. We did not come over here to acquire jurisdiction over either the people or their countries. We came to give them back the right to govern themselves.