Accept everything about yourself - I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end - no apologies, no regrets.

What political leaders decide, intelligence services tend to seek to justify.

In the hands of a determined Secretary, the Foreign Service can be a splendid instrument, staffed by knowledgeable, discreet, and energetic individuals. They do require constant vigilance lest the convictions that led them into a penurious career tempt them to preempt decision-making.

In my particular case foreign policy happens to be my hobby, my consuming interest. I had spent decades studying it.

You become a superpower by being strong but also by being wise and by being farsighted. But no state is strong or wise enough to create a world order alone.

You can't make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can't make peace without Syria.

I think an appeal to American idealism and willingness to sacrifice would be an important contribution, because what is happening now in many countries, not yet in the United States, but in many European countries, it's the inability of government to ask for sacrifices of its people.