Sourced and curated.

The world must be made safe for democracy.

Woodrow Wilson

1917

★ 5.4

The attitude above all others which I feel sure is no longer valid is the arrogance of power, the tendency of great nations to equate power with virtue and major responsibilities with a universal mission.

J. William Fulbright

The Arrogance of Power · 1966

★ 5.1

Outside the Kingdom of the Lord there is no nation which is greater than any other…God and history will remember your judgment.

Haile Selassie I

1936

★ 4.5

Letter · Papal encyclical · Religious literature

The social progress, order, security and peace of each country are necessarily connected with the social progress, order, security and peace of all other countries.

Pope John XXIII

Pacem in Terris · 1963

★ 4.3

Novel · Adventure novel

I asked Tom if countries always apologized when they had done wrong, and he says: "Yes, the little ones does."

Mark Twain

Tom Sawyer Abroad · 1894

★ 3.9

Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world.

1796

★ 3.8

Observe good faith and justice toward all Nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all... The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.

Washington's Farewell Address · 1796

★ 3.7

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little Political connection as possible.

Washington's Farewell Address · 1796

★ 3.7

The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.

1796

★ 3.7

No nation is fit to sit in judgment upon any other nation.

Woodrow Wilson

1915

★ 3.7

In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

First Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1933

★ 3.7

Press conference

This will not stand. This will not stand, this aggression against Kuwait.

George H.W. Bush

Press Conference, August 5, 1990 · 1990

★ 3.7

Film · Spy (film) · Thriller (film) · Spy · Thriller

The hard part about playing chicken is knowing when to flinch.

Capt. Bart Mancuso

The Hunt for Red October · 1990

★ 3.6

Essay

A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security.

Henry Kissinger

Reflections on Containment · 1994

★ 3.6

The collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.

Vladimir Putin

2005

★ 3.6

We have no eternal allies and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and these interests it is our duty to follow.

Henry John Temple

1848

★ 3.5

A general association of nations must be formed... For the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

Woodrow Wilson

1918

★ 3.5

Newspaper

Gratitude, like love, is never a dependable international emotion.

Joseph Alsop

1952

★ 3.5

You have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

1954

★ 3.5

Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table.

George Shultz

1986

★ 3.5

We have before us the opportunity to forge for ourselves and for future generations a new world order-a world where the rule of law, not the law of the jungle, governs the conduct of nations.

George H.W. Bush

1991

★ 3.5

Political literature

Little do they know that they meet under an empty sky from which the gods have departed.

Hans Morgenthau

1948

★ 3.5

Freedom is pitted against slavery; lightness against the dark.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

First Inaugural Address of Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1953

★ 2.1

Excessive dealings with tyrants are not good for the security of free states.

Demosthenes

343 BC

★ 2.0

Interview · Magazine

As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable.

Albert Einstein

1945

★ 2.0

We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other Nations, far away... We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Fourth Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1945

★ 2.0

Political literature · Philosophical literature

The history of power politics is nothing but the history of international crime and mass murder.

Karl Popper

The Open Society and Its Enemies · 1945

★ 1.9

The first half of this century has been marked by unprecedented and brutal attacks on the rights of man, and by the two most frightful wars in history. The supreme need of our time is for men to learn to live together in peace and harmony.

Harry Truman

Second Inaugural Address of Harry Truman · 1949

★ 1.9

No nation can longer be a fortress, lone and strong and safe. And any people, seeking such shelter for themselves, can now build only their own prison.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Second Inaugural Address of Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1957

★ 1.9

Newspaper

The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.

Stanley Kubrick

1963

★ 1.9

An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.

Henry Wotton

1604

★ 1.9

Diplomacy is to do and say The nastiest thing in the nicest way.

Isaac Goldberg

1927

★ 1.9

What is at stake is more than one small country; it is a big idea: a new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind-peace and security, freedom and the rule of law.

George H.W. Bush

1991 State of the Union Address · 1991

★ 1.9

Letter · Political literature

His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done whech may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

Arthur James Balfour

Balfour Declaration · 1917

★ 1.8

Our foreign policy must have an ethical dimension and must support the demands of other people for the democratic rights on which we insist for ourselves.

Robin Cook

1997

★ 1.7