Alliances and international organizations should be understood as opportunities for leadership and a means to expand our influence, not as constraints on our power.

History has shown that a country most effectively speaks with one voice. When nationally elected officials work together, build consensus, and provide leadership, the American people will follow.

If America is to succeed in responding to these 21st Century challenges, our political system cannot continue to bog down in the mire of partisan gamesmanship.

Politics or ideology must not get in the way of sound planning.

You can't just drop the 82nd Airborne into Baghdad and it will all be over.

Foreign policy will require a strategic agility that, whenever possible, gets ahead of problems, strengthens U.S. security and alliances, and promotes American interests and credibility.

Engagement is not appeasement. Engagement is not surrender.

I took an oath of office to the Constitution, I didn't take an oath of office to my party or my president.

And this - this board was - was impanelled in 1951. And it's gone through ups and downs in how the secretaries have used it. But I have put a premium on that advisory board.

Peace comes through dealing with people. Peace doesn't come at the end of a bayonet or the end of a gun.

No one person leads alone - can't do it, it's impossible. It doesn't make any sense. You need a team.

It is terribly amusing how many different climates of feelings one can go through in one day.

One of the most difficult and ironic murder weapons is the life jacket.

No one has a corner on depression, but housewives are working on it.

When your kids accomplish something it means much more than anything you've done.

Babies are not brought by storks and poets are not produced by workshops.

People who try to predict the future by extrapolating in a line of more of what exists - they are always wrong.

I'm not big into the caveman look like some guys are. But I think it's pretty awesome that guys are more attuned to themselves and making beards a part of their style.

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.

If you're playing the bad guy, you have to find what you like about them.

Smooth words in place of gifts. [Lat., Dicta docta pro datis.]