Statesmanship Quotes, Quotations, and Sayings

25 Statesmanship Quotes
[1-25] 
“The cordial agreement which exists between the governments of France and Great Britain. [Fr., La cordiale entente qui existe entre le gouvernement francais et celui de la Grande-Bretagne.]”
Unattributed Author Quotes
Source: Le Charivari, review of a speech by Guizot, Jan. 1, 1844
“If one has no better method of enticement to offer, the cordial agreement seems to us to be the best compromise. [Fr., Si l'on n'a pas de meilleurs moyen de seduction a lui offrir, l'entente cordiale nous parait fort compromise.]”
Unattributed Author Quotes
Source: Le Charivari (vol. XV, no. 3, p. 4), referring to the ambassador of Morocco, then in Paris (1846)
“It is strange so great a statesman should Be so sublime a poet.”
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron Lytton Quotes
Source: Richelieu (act I, sc. 2)
“A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would by my standard of a statesman.”
Edmund Burke Quotes
Source: Reflections on the Revolution in France
“Learn to think impartially.”
Joseph Chamberlain Quotes
Source: in a speech at Guildhall, Jan. 19, 1904
“No statesman e'er will find it worth his pains To tax our labours and excise our brains.”
Charles Churchill Quotes
Source: Night (l. 271)
“The people of the two nations [French and English] must be brought into mutual dependence by the supply of each other's wants. There is no other way of counteracting the antagonism of language and race. It is God's own method of producing an entente cordiale, and no other plan is worth a farthing.”
Richard Cobden Quotes
Source: Letter to M. Michel Chevalier, Sep., 1859
“I have the courage of my opinions, but I have not the temerity to give a political blank cheque to Lord Salisbury.”
Rt. Hon. Sir William Edward Goschen Quotes
Source: in Parliament
“Spheres of influence.”
Lord G.G. Leveson-Gower Granville Quotes
Source: a version of his "spheres of action" phrase found letter to Count Munster, Apr. 29, 1884
“Ambassadors are the eye and ear of states. [It., Gli ambasciadori sono l'occhio e l'orecchio degli stati.]”
Franceso Guicciardini Quotes
Source: Storia d'Italia
“Learn to think continentally.”
Alexander Hamilton Quotes
Source: paraphrase of his words in a speech to his American countrymen
“Peace. commerce, and honest friendship with all nations--entangling alliances with none.”
Thomas Jefferson Quotes
Source: in his first inaugural address
“Nursed by stern men with empires in their brains.”
James Russell Lowell Quotes
Source: The Biglow Papers--Mason and Slidell
“Who would not praise Patrico's high desert, His hand unstain'd, his uncorrupted heart, His comprehensive head? all interests weigh'd, All Europe sav'd, yet Britain not betray'd.”
Alexander Pope Quotes
Source: Moral Essays (ep. I, l. 82)
“Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere, In action faithful, and in honour clear; Who broke no promise, served no private end, Who gained no title, and who lost no friend, Ennobled by himself, by all approved, And praised, unenvied, by the Muse he loved.”
Alexander Pope Quotes
Source: Moral Essays--To Hamilton (epistle V, l. 67)
“It is well indeed for out land that we of this generation have learned to think nationally.”
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes
Source: Builders of the State
“The statesman cannot govern without stability of belief, true or false.”
George Bernard Shaw Quotes
Source: Everybody's Political What's What
“If you wish to preserve your secret wrap it up in frankness.”
Alexander Smith Quotes
Source: Dreamthorp--On the Writing of Essays
“And lives to clutch the golden keys, To mould a mighty state's decrees, And shape the whisper of the throne.”
Lord Alfred Tennyson Quotes
Source: In Memoriam (pt. LXIII)
“And statesmen at her council met Who knew the seasons when to take Occasion by the hand, and make The bounds of freedom wider yet.”
Lord Alfred Tennyson Quotes
Source: To the Queen (st. 8)
“Why don't you show us a statesman who can rise up to the emergency, and cave in the emergency's head.”
Artemus Ward (pseudonym of Charles Farrar Browne) Quotes
Source: Things in New York
“'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world--so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it.”
George Washington Quotes
Source: in his farewell address
“Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation?--Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground?--Why by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour or caprice?”
George Washington Quotes
Source: in his farewell address
“An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the commonwealth. [Lat., Legatus est vir bonus peregre missus ad mentiendem rei publicae causae.]”
Sir Henry Wotton Quotes
Source: in the autograph album of Christopher Fleckamore (1604)
“Tell the truth, and so puzzle and confound your adversaries.”
Sir Henry Wotton Quotes
Source: advice to a young diplomat