John Selden Quotes

[Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is an adherent of realpolitik. He knows that international relations are not built on the strength of unilateral demands, but on solutions that are in everybody's best interest.

Americans tend to go for it all. In international politics you can’t have it all. You have to compromise.

Alliances and partnerships produce stability when they reflect realities and interests.

It is my view that we cannot conduct foreign policy at the extremes.

To craftsmanship we shall add statesmanship in the capitol of peace.

Statesmanship is harder than politics. Politics is the art of getting along with people, whereas statesmanship is the art of getting along with politicians.

The art of government is the art of negotiating and compromise.

Listen to others. Do not conduct foreign policy only according to your own ideology. Do not conduct foreign policy only with an eye on domestic politics.

Truth is the glue that holds government together. Compromise is the oil that makes governments go.

Diplomacy and coalition-building are hard work and not easy for any president.

The UN platform was created precisely for this, to seek compromise, to communicate with one another. So it will definitely be nice if we make use of this platform.

I believe in friendly compromise. I said over in the Senate hearings that truth is the glue that holds government together. Compromise is the oil that makes governments go.

Politics and war are remarkably similar situations.

It's so much easier to throw rocks than it is to govern.

It's a necessary quality of a diplomat or a politician that he will compromise. Uncompromising politicians or diplomats get you into the most terrible trouble.

A prime minister has to keep a certain balance when dealing with sensitive issues.

As a member of Congress, I'm often reminded that in baseball, as in diplomacy, you have to know when to hit, when to run, and when to show grace.

A constructive approach to diplomacy doesn't mean relinquishing one's rights. It means engaging with one's counterparts, on the basis of equal footing and mutual respect, to address shared concerns and achieve shared objectives.

We have the means and the capacity to deal with our problems, if only we can find the political will.

Diplomacy is fundamentally working with people, bringing people together to deal with difficult issues.

A lot of people think international relations is like a game of chess. But it's not a game of chess, where people sit quietly, thinking out their strategy, taking their time between moves. It's more like a game of billiards, with a bunch of balls clustered together.

The failure of the United Nations - My failure is maybe, in retrospective, that I was not enough aggressive with the members of the Security Council.

With the help of dedicated Americans from our party, every party, and no party at all, I intend to mount that stairway to preach peace for our nation and world.

I've often reflected on this in the past weeks as I've been following the presidential campaign: Very often, I thought it would have been great for both of these guys to sit down and be force-fed a couple of dozen episodes of Star Trek.

We don't want a president who fails at domestic and foreign policy.