American national security and American economic interests, of course - every president, every secretary of state - that is the primary goal. As you are in this job and in the work, you begin to see, though, that in the long run, both American economic interests and American national security are better served when there are other decent countries in the world who are both your allies and even when your adversaries are acting more decently.

I talked about the need for American leadership, I talked about the importance of the United States to a more peaceful world, a world that has been quite turbulent in recent years, and needs a strong American anchor.

Education is of no value and talent is worthless - unless you have an unwavering aim. Never find yourself without a compass.

Our effort to build stability through authoritarians in the Middle East for 60 years had given us neither democracy nor stability.

The United States government does not authorise or condone torture of detainees. Torture, and conspiracy to commit torture, are crimes under US law, wherever they may occur in the world.

We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.

I may not agree with everything, but our President, just like President [George W.] Bush did, is trying to do his best under difficult circumstances.