Engagement is not appeasement. Engagement is not surrender.

History has shown that a country most effectively speaks with one voice. When nationally elected officials work together, build consensus, and provide leadership, the American people will follow.

If America is to succeed in responding to these 21st Century challenges, our political system cannot continue to bog down in the mire of partisan gamesmanship.

Politics or ideology must not get in the way of sound planning.

You can't just drop the 82nd Airborne into Baghdad and it will all be over.

Foreign policy will require a strategic agility that, whenever possible, gets ahead of problems, strengthens U.S. security and alliances, and promotes American interests and credibility.

Alliances and international organizations should be understood as opportunities for leadership and a means to expand our influence, not as constraints on our power.

I took an oath of office to the Constitution, I didn't take an oath of office to my party or my president.

And this - this board was - was impanelled in 1951. And it's gone through ups and downs in how the secretaries have used it. But I have put a premium on that advisory board.

Peace comes through dealing with people. Peace doesn't come at the end of a bayonet or the end of a gun.

No one person leads alone - can't do it, it's impossible. It doesn't make any sense. You need a team.

Leaders look out for people who can criticize them constructively and rebuke them reasonably.

We can be knowledgeable with another man's knowledge, but we can't be wise with another man's wisdom.

Bailey took an exasperated breath and sat up in the seat. “You can’t reason with a teenage girl.”Elise’s eyebrow shot up. “Bailey, you’re a teenage girl.”“Exactly.

Sometimes it seemed like the whole point of life was not to die the same death as your father.

In 1970, there was a single telephone company in the United States called AT&T, and its technology was called circuit switching, and that was all any telecom engineer worried about.

The longer you live in New Orleans, the more unfit you become to live anywhere else.

Feeling alone guides the mind.

Very often, in order to bring about stillness we have to be tirelessly active in the outer world. You might suppose this would agitate the mind. It will not, if it is the dharma.

Heartbreak is life educating us.

Deliberate before you begin; but, having carefully done so, execute with vigour.