Quotes on International relations, War,

Foreign Policy and Diplomacy

Some of the quotes I found on International relations , War, Foreign policy and Diplomacy
which could be used in Essay and Others. Best of these are highlighted in color.

“There is some self interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self interests.
This is a bitter Truth” ― Chanakya

“When diplomacy ends, War begins.” ― Adolf Hitler

“It might be a good idea if the various countries of the world would occasionally swap history
books, just to see what other people are doing with the same set of facts.” ― Bill Vaughan,
journalist

“If it’s wrong when they do it, it’s wrong when we do it.” ― Noam Chomsky

“…..foreign policy is a matter of costs and benefits, not theology.” ― Fareed Zakaria

“He who wishes to serve his country must have not only the power to think, but the will to
act” ― Plato

“International politics, like all politics, is a struggle for power” ― Hans J. Morgenthau

“War made the state, and the state made war” ― Charles Tilly

“The “compleat diplomat” of the future should remain cognizant of realism’s emphasis on the
inescapable role of power, keep liberalism’s awareness of domestic forces in mind, and
occasionally reflect on constructivism’s vision of change.” ― Stephen M. Walt

“A great deal of world politics is a fundamental struggle, but it is also a struggle that has to be
waged intelligently.” ― Zbigniew Brzezinski

“Even as individuals become families and families become communities, and communities
become nations, so eventually must the nations draw together in peace.” ― Marjorie Watts

“We have not eternal allies and we have not perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and
peretual and those interests it is out duty to follow.” ― Lord Palmerston, British Prime
Minister

“Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.” ―John Adams

”It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it.
One must work at it.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

“Whoever has an army has power, and war decides everything.”― Mao Tse Tung

“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” ― Mao Tse Tung

“War gives the right to the conquerors to impose any condition they please upon the
vanquished.” ― Julius Caesar

“The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.” ―
George S. Patton, General

“To be prepared for War is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” ― George
Washington

“There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run, the sword will
always be conquered by the spirit.” ― Napoleon Bonaparte

”Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other
than your own comes first.” ― Charles de Gaulle

“To call war the soil of courage and virtue is like calling debauchery the soil of love.” ― George
Santayana

“Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in
it.” ― G.B. Shaw

“Today the real test of power is not capacity to make war but capacity to prevent it.” ― Anne
O’Hare McCormick

“Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at
stake.” ― Viktor Frankl

“The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and
ethical infants.” ― Gen. Omar Bradley

“He who does not attempt to make peace when small discords arise, Is like the bee’s hive which
leaks drops of honey .Soon, the whole hive collapses.” ― Nagarjuna (c. 100-200 A.D.)

“To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless
act of a single day.” ― Sir Winston Churchill

“The world is now too small for anything but brotherhood.” ― Arthur Powell Davies
“We hear war called murder. It is not; it is suicide.” ― James Ramsay MacDonald, British
Prime Minister

“The world must learn to work together, or finally it will not work at all.” ― Dwight
Eisenhower

“A wise man does not try to hurry history. Many wars have been avoided by patience, and many
have been precipitated by reckless haste.” ― Adlai Stevenson

“Trade is the natural enemy of all violent passions because it loves moderation, delights in
compromise and is most careful to avoid anger.” ― Alex de Tocqueville

“The meat of the buffalo tastes the same on both sides of the border.” ― Sitting Bull

“People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity.” ― John Adams

“I love my country far too much to be a nationalist.” ― Unknown

“Hatred is a feeling which leads to the extinction of values.” ― Jose Ortega y Gasset

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves,
but wiser people so full of doubts.” ― Bertrand Russell

“The grim fact is that we prepare for war like precocious giants and for peace like retarded
pygmies.” – Lester Pearson

“Patriotism corrupts history.” ― Goethe

“The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.” ― Dean Acheson

“Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.” ― Charles de Gaulle

“Our modern wars make many unhappy while they last and none happy when they are over.” ―
Goethe

“At bottom, every state regards another as a gang of robbers who will fall upon it as soon as
there is an opportunity.” ― Schopenhauer

“There’ll be a growing disparity between economics and politics. An economy that grows so
rapidly is intractably global. On the other hand, the current political system is intractably
national. So there is a growing dichotomy between a global economy and locally based
politics.” ― Walter Wriston
The more dubious and uncertain an instrument of violence has become in international relations ,
the more it has gained in reputation and appeal in domestic affairs , specifically in the matter of
revolution – Hannah Arendt

A lot of people think international relations is like 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 – Madeleine Albright

Law is the essential foundation of stability and order both within societies and in international
relations . – J.William Fulbright

Domestic policy can only defeat us ; foreign policy can kill us – John F.Kennedy

Maybe we ought to consider a golden rule in foreign policy : Don’t do to other nations what we
don’t want happening to us.We endlessly bomb these countries and then we wonder why they get
upset with us ? – Ron Paul

No foreign policy , no matter how ingenious has any chance of success if it is born in the minds
of a few and carried in the hearts of none – Henry A.Kissinger

Foreign policy is really domestic policy with its hat on – Hubert H. Humphrey

“A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection
nor security” ― Henry Kissinger

“The question shouldn’t be what we ought to do, but what we can do.” ― Rory Stewart

” When a diplomat says yes he means perhaps; when he says perhaps he means no; when he says
no he is no diplomat.” – Unknown

“The principle of give and take is the principle of diplomacy – give one and take ten” – Mark
Twain

“Diplomacy means the art of nearly deceiving all your friends, but not quite deceiving all your
enemies.” – Kofi Busia

“A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look
forward to the trip.” – Caskie Stinnett

“A real diplomat is one who can cut his neighbor’s throat without having his neighbor notice it.”
– Trygve Lie

“To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.” – Will Durant

“Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of
politeness.” – Otto von Bismarck
“Diplomacy is to do and say the nastiest things in the nicest way.” – Isaac Goldberg

“A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age.”
– Robert Frost

“Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way.” – Daniele Vare

“Diplomacy: The business of handling a porcupine without disturbing the quills”. – Unknown

“All war represents a failure of diplomacy” – Tony Benn

“Diplomacy is a disguised war, in which states seek to gain by barter and intrigue, by the
cleverness of arts, the objectives which they would have to gain more clumsily by means of
war.” – Randolph Bourne

“Diplomacy: The art of saying “nice doggie” until you can find a rock.” – Wynn Catlin

“Diplomacy – The art of letting other people achieve your ends” – Unknown

“DIPLOMACY – the patriotic art of lying for one’s country.” – Ambrose Bierce

“In archaeology you uncover the unknown. In diplomacy you cover the known.” – Thomas
Pickering

“Ambassadors are the eye and ear of States.” – Guicciardini

“An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.” – 
 Sir Henry
Wotton

“In a world where war is everybody’s tragedy and everybody’s nightmare, diplomacy is
everybody’s business.” – 
 Lord Strang

“Foreign policy is what you do; diplomacy is how you do it. Of course the two get mixed up
especially when a diplomat is advising on policy or a member of the Government normally
engaged in policy decision takes over a diplomatic operation which seems to merit top level or
summit discussion. But generally speaking the task of a government is to decide and the task of a
diplomat at any level is to try to make the decision work”. -
 Lord Gore-Booth

“We live in a modern world in which nation states are interdependent. In that modern world
foreign policy is not divorced from domestic policy but a central part of any political
programme”. -
 Robin Cook

“Our foreign policy must have an ethical dimension and must support the demands of other
peoples for the democratic rights on which we insist for ourselves”. – Robin Cook