Diplomatic Restraint Quotes

America has never been an empire. We may be the only great power in history that had the chance, and refused - preferring greatness to power and justice to glory.

When one's greatest 'world stage' ambition is a non-voting seat on the U.N. Security Council five years down the road, one would not want to say anything to hurt the feelings of the veto holders in Moscow or Beijing. We get it. But let's at least be honest about all this, please. Enough of the 'Canada is back' slogans already.

I am a soldier and accustomed to risking my life every day. I am full of the fire of youth; I cannot act with the restraint of an accomplished diplomat.

I'm very mindful that I am representing the Philippines, so I cannot voice an opinion that contradicts that of our leader, Pres. Duterte.

I thought this must be obvious to everyone else, as it seemed obvious to me; and that, if once it became apparent that we were on the edge, all the Great Powers would call a halt and recoil from the abyss.

The example afforded before the Great War by Germany - which, if only it had exercised forbearance for another five or ten years, would by now be unrivaled in Europe - suggests that the task facing us now is to build up our strength calmly and with circumspection.

I would not presume from this distance, nor would America presume to say who should be the leader of the Iraqi nation.