Great Throughts Treasury

"He who walks in the middle of the road gets hit from both sides."

"You've got to dream a little bit if you're going to get somewhere"

"Between 1980 and 1990, the number of countries that were classified as 'free' or 'mostly free' increased by about 50%."

"I don't know how you define 'neoconservatism,' but I think it's associated with trying to spread open political systems and democracy."

"I learned in business that you had to be very careful when you told somebody that's working for you to do something, because the chances were very high he'd do it. In government, you don't have to worry about that."

"Can we as a country, can the community of free nations, stand in a purely defensive posture and absorb the blows dealt by terrorists? I think not. From a practical standpoint, a purely passive defense does not provide enough of a deterrent to terrorism and the states that sponsor it. It is time to think long, hard, and seriously about more active means of defense- defense through appropriate preventative or preemptive actions against terrorists before they strike. We will need to strengthen our capabilities in the area of intelligence and quick reaction. Intelligence will be particularly important, since our societies demand that we know with reasonable clarity just what we are doing and against whom we are acting. Experience has taught us that one of the best deterrents to terrorism is the certainty that swift and sure measures will be taken against those who engage in it."

"If you ask me what am I, I might say 'I am a Californian,' and if George Bush were here, he would say 'I am a Texan.'"

"I think the idea that you would do everything you can to prevent what is coming at you by way of something very disruptive - a 9/11 - it's a no-brainer."

"If there are ways in which we can make Qaddafi nervous, why shouldn't we? That is not deceiving you, but just using your predictable tendencies to report things that we try to keep secret."

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

"Increasingly, the state system has been eroding. Terrorists have exploited this weakness by burrowing into the state system in order to attack it."

"My experience is that if the military didn't want to use force and was confronted with a president that did, the military would come back with what I would call the 'bomb Moscow' scenario. They would say it had to be done with conditions that were so extreme, you obviously wouldn't do it."

"It was an attempt to stick the Congress's finger in King Hussein's eye."

"Obama seems to want to do something to damage rich people."

"Nothing ever gets settled in this town ... a seething debating society in which the debate never stops, in which people never give up, including me. And so that's the atmosphere in which you administer."

"Oh, you know. I am secretary of state. My trips aren't successful. I just talk to people."

"Open political and economic systems have been gaining ground and there's a good reason for it. They work better."

"Terrorism is not a matter that can be left to law enforcement, with its deliberative process, built-in delays, and safeguards that may let the prisoner go free on procedural grounds."

"The civilized world has a common stake in defeating the terrorists."

"The minute you start talking about what you're going to do if you lose, you have lost."

"The 1986 tax act is sort of the unsung hero of the very good economic times we had for a long time. Of course, politics gums it all up again and preferences get put in."

"Those who perpetrate violence deal themselves out of the peace process."

"The higher the classification [of secrecy], the quicker you will report it."

"We should say we think a big element in the process of seeking peace [in the Middle East] is the acceptance of Israel´s existence and so we´re going to go around to all our friends in Europe and Asia and elsewhere and say let´s accept Israel´s right to exist - and a way of doing that is to move our embassy to west Jerusalem. As long as the embassy is in Tel Aviv, it sort of says we´re camping out."

"World Affairs Councils are great organizations. They help keep people throughout our country alive to important developments in world affairs and underscore that, in the country, we stay engaged and we are part of the world."

"There is no prospect that the United States will say to Israel, 'You do such and such and we'll not support you in your security.'"

"We have struggled with terrorism for a long time. In the Reagan administration, I was a hawk on the subject. I said terrorism is a big problem, a different problem, and we have to take forceful action against it. Fortunately, Ronald Reagan agreed with me, but not many others did."

"You don't get gushers of revenue by raising tax rates. You get it through expansion."