National Affairs Quotes

Historically, we were always complaining about others interfering in our domestic and national issues.

In the affairs of nations, too much hard power ends up breeding not submission but resistance. Likewise great soft power does not bend hearts; it twists minds in resentment and rage.

Whoever feels the amount of interest in the government of his country which befits a freeman, has some convictions on national affairs which are like his life-blood; which the strength of his belief in their truth, together with the importance he attaches to them, forbid him to make a subject of compromise, or postpone to the judgment of any person, however greatly his superior.

U.S. imperialism will be compelled to withdraw its troops, and to allow the people of Vietnam to settle their national affairs as they wish.

Certainly, no church should be involved in trying to set the affairs of the nation.

I've got five years of experience as a national security staffer in the U.S. Congress.

I can't stress enough how strongly I am against any state intervention in a sovereign nation's affairs.

That there are important defects in the system of the Federal Government is acknowledged by the Acts of all those States, which have concurred in the present Meeting; That the defects, upon a closer examination, may be found greater and more numerous, than even these acts imply, is at least so far probable, from the embarrassments which characterize the present State of our national affairs, foreign and domestic, as may reasonably be supposed to merit a deliberate and candid discussion, in some mode, which will unite the Sentiments and Council's of all the States

I should esteem it the extreme of imprudence to prolong the precarious state of our national affairs, and to expose the Union to the jeopardy of successive experiments, in the chimerical pursuit of a perfect plan. I never expect to see a perfect work from imperfect man. The result of the deliberations of all collective bodies must necessarily be a compound, as well of the errors and prejudices, as of the good sense and wisdom, of the individuals of whom they are composed.

No man ought to be hindered saying or writing what he pleases on the conduct of those who undertake the management of national affairs, in which all are concerned, and therefore have the right to inquire, and to publish their suspicions concerning them. For if you punish the slanderer, you deter the fair inquirer.

Reforms are national affairs and national affairs have to be dealt with in domestic disputes and not with disputes with other partners in Europe.

Running a government as chief minister and managing affairs of the nation are different 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.

The ordinary affairs of a nation offer little difficulty to a person of any experience.

[Libel is] the unavoidable inconvenience attendant upon a high station, which he who dislikes must avoid, and keep himself private…. No man ought to be hindered saying or writing what he pleases on the conduct of those who undertake the management of national affairs, in which all are concerned, and therefore have the right to inquire, and to publish their suspicions concerning them. For if you punish the slanderer, you deter the fair inquirer.

Everything we do is very, very touched by what happens in Washington.

It's painfully obvious to see that as Americans we can sometimes be wrapped up in our own affairs.

What a man does in his own house cannot concern the nation.

Because man and woman are the complement of one another, we need woman's thought in national affairs to make a safe and stable government.

Now if there is one thing that we do worse than any other nation, it is try and manage somebody else's affairs.