When somebody underestimated me, it made me want to prove them wrong.

If you're always in the company of people who agree with you, you're going to think of people who don't agree with you as venal or stupid. I constantly tell my students that if they're in the company of people who always say "amen" to what you say, find other company. And that is the source of illiberalism, when you are unable to listen to someone who thinks differently. That's when democracies are in trouble.

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

If the strong exploit the weak, democracy will not be stable.

The political face of Europe is one that has said very clearly that it wants cooperation and friendship with the United States.

When are we going to stop making excuses for the terrorists and saying that somebody is making them do it? No, these are simply evil people who want to kill.

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.