I do not criticize people who take a public stand on human rights issues. I express my respect for them. But some people are more influential without a public confrontation.

The art of good foreign policy is to understand and to take into consideration the values of a society, to realize them at the outer limit of the possible.

The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose.

We have to be careful in negotiating with Iran that we don't create the impression among the Arab states and the Sunni states that we are working on a condominium between Iran and the United States, because that will panic them and drive them into making their own arrangement.

If you control the food, you control a nation. If you control the energy, you control a region. If you control the money, you control the world.

For the West, the demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one. Putin is a serious strategist – on the premises of Russian history. Understanding US values and psychology are not his strong suits. Nor has understanding Russian history and psychology been a strong point among US policymakers.’

One of the hardest things for the president is to distinguish the routine issues that come through from the essential issues that affect the long term, and not to let himself get sucked into the battles of the bureaucracy for marginal issues, and to keep them focused and to keep his mind clear on what the fundamental things are that he has to accomplish.