I’ve never really been a workaholic. I work very hard, but I also enjoy playing. I think it’s important to have a balanced and well-rounded life.
When you’re in government, of course, you have protection and you have people who are looking out for your wellbeing, but you can’t live in a state of fear. If you do, you’re not going to do your job very well and you’re going to give yourself high blood pressure, which probably isn’t worth it.
People may oppose you, but when they realize you can hurt them, they’ll join your side.
Once a month I play with a chamber music quartet. I play almost no solo music anymore because I so enjoy the interaction. The members of my quartet have become some of my best friends and so I really enjoy it now in ways that I didn’t before.
This is the democratic process at work, What you’re seeing with this process is the Iraqi people embracing American-style democracy.
My job is to try to advance American foreign policy, to try to advance the president’s agenda on democracy and human rights.
We are at war, and our security as a nation depends on winning that war.
The quicker we get about the business of reducing our reliance on oil the better.
For the United States, supporting international development is more than just an expression of our compassion. It is a vital investment in the free, prosperous, and peaceful international order that fundamentally serves our national interest.
Everyone wants Russia to be a prosperous, democratic state that is fully integrated.
This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten its neighbors, occupy a capital, overthrow a government, and get away with it. Things have changed.
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’m a terrible long-term planner.
In any country, if you don’t have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development.
Today’s headlines and history’s judgement are not the same.
We’ve been a country that’s been fortunate to be protected by two oceans, to not have serious attacks on our territory for most of our history. And we were unfortunately reminded in a very devastating way of our vulnerability.
We know that there are unaccounted-for Scud and other ballistic missiles in Iraq. And part of the problem is that, since 1998, there has been no way to even get minimal information about those programs except through intelligence means.
There’s no doubt that it’s still a dangerous place, Afghanistan. The fortunate thing is that the United States was helping to provide security for Chairman Karzai. And it shows that the United States is committed to that regime.
Working very closely with the Department of Homeland Security to match up what is available with what is needed.
Diplomacy, if properly practiced, is not just talking for the sake of talking.