Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Antony Blinken

As the personal trajectories of Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi diverge, so too does the focus of their leadership. While Mr. Trump is obsessed with building walls, Mr. Xi is busy building bridges.

The United States must not see China or Russia through a zero-sum prism.

The liberal order led by the United States favored an open world connected by the free flow of people, goods, ideas and capital, a world grounded in the principles of self-determination and sovereignty for nations and basic rights for their citizens. It did fall short of its ideals, often in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

The contributions of refugees to the diverse mosaic of our nation are undeniable.

The best and brightest are not exactly clamoring to jump aboard the Trump bandwagon.

President John F. Kennedy demonstrated the value of presidential credibility at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, when he sent emissaries to America's allies in October 1962 to secure support for the quarantine of Cuba.

As Vietnam opens its markets and strengthens fundamental rights, the relationship between our nations will continue to grow - to the benefit of both our citizens.

Some friends of Israel believe that the Palestinians will never, in their hearts, accept a Jewish state in Palestine. Yet Germans and French, Chinese and Japanese, Mexicans and Americans have overcome their once insurmountable differences. Palestinians and Jews also have much to gain from peaceful coexistence.

President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize.' It is hard to imagine anyone other than Mr. Trump expressing that sentiment.

Mr. Putin's primary goal in the 2016 elections was to delegitimize our institutions and pit Americans against each other.

The world is not self-organizing.

If Xi Jinping is the world's most powerful man, conventional wisdom puts Vladimir Putin a close second. He's made his own bare-chested virility synonymous with a resurgent Russia.

Every time Mr. Trump provokes howls from the establishment, his base cheers and gets re-energized.

Especially when it comes to national security, there is a premium on an administration speaking clearly, consistently and precisely, starting with the president.

Visitors to a future Donald J. Trump presidential library may find a whole section dedicated to his demolition of the 2015 Iran nuclear accord: 'worst deal ever;' 'horrible' and 'one-sided;' 'major embarrassment;' 'defective at its core.'

Mr. Tillerson's obsession with downsizing our diplomacy has colored his time at the State Department.

By virtually every metric, the liberal international order has made the world healthier, wealthier, wiser, more secure and more tolerant than it has ever been.

When it comes to sowing doubt about democracy and fueling dissension among Americans, Mr. Putin is eating our lunch.

Every country has a founding mythology. For Americans, it starts with our first president's youthful encounter with a cherry tree and refusal to tell a lie. Mr. Trump would do well to find inspiration in that story, which goes to the heart of what makes America different - and our foreign policy effective - around the world.

A president is entitled to advisers of his choosing, who reflect his worldview.

As Vietnam increasingly opens its doors, it will reap the rewards of progress for its people.

Mr. Trump's travel ban has never really been about security. Rather, it's the tip of the spear in a much broader battle: to drastically curtail immigration to the United States that is changing the complexion of our country.

It fell to President Harry Truman to contain Soviet expansionism. He built America's first peacetime alliances, starting in Western Europe, then in Asia.

When we're actually modeling good behavior, and when we get results, other countries are more likely to follow our lead.

Without Madeleine Albright, our community of democracies might be smaller.

The United States took the lead in shaping the norms, rules and institutions of what became the liberal international order, including the United Nations, the international financial institutions and the Marshall Plan.

Vietnam's transformation - like that of so many nations - has been supported and even accelerated by an international, rules-based order dedicated to the progress of every nation.

Our purpose is not to contain China, to hold it back, to keep it down. It is to uphold this rules-based order that China is posing a challenge to. Anyone who poses a challenge to that order, we're going to stand up and - and defend it.

When we're in the business of picking fights with our allies instead of working with them, that takes away from our strength in dealing with China.

Mr. Trump knows that banning travel to the United States from a half dozen Muslim-majority countries would do nothing to enhance our security - and everything to undermine it.

Every day at the State Department, we tackle issues at the intersection of foreign policy and science and technology.

It is not acceptable for one country to change the borders of another by force.

Mr. Trump is a false prophet.

The National Security Act of 1947 - which established the National Security Council - laid the foundation for a deliberate, multitiered process, managed by the national security adviser, to bring government agencies together to debate and decide policy.

Many Muslims consider the United States hostile to Islam and to Arab interests. In fact, the United States saved tens of thousands of Muslims in the Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo.

It's one thing for a foreign partner to doubt a president's judgment; it's entirely more debilitating when that partner doubts the president's word.

Mr. Xi is all-in on robotics, aerospace, high-speed rail, new-energy vehicles and advanced medical products.

Beijing's foreign investments can be coercive and exploitative - using Chinese laborers and contractors instead of local ones, saddling poorer countries with enormous debts, leaving behind shoddy workmanship and fueling corruption.

I was the first senior American official to meet with Riyadh's dynamic Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after the Saudi intervention in Yemen in 2015. I reiterated the United States' commitment to defend Saudi Arabia against Houthi aggression and to help press the Houthis back to the bargaining table.

It's hard to overstate the lasting harm Mr. Tillerson's tenure will do to America's diplomacy.

It is not O.K. for one sovereignty to dictate to another which countries or organizations it may associate with.

By alienating Muslim communities and our closest allies, Mr. Trump would destroy the partnerships we need to effectively fight terror.

The Iranian regime is nothing if not resilient. It fought an eight-year-long war with Iraq to a draw despite losing hundreds of thousands of lives; it has survived decades of isolation.

The United States genuinely sought to advance Russia's integration into the West and into international institutions. We genuinely sought to support Russia. We wanted a strong, successful Russia, not a weak and contained one.

Public diplomacy was an effective Cold War weapon.

In times of crisis, credibility is an American president's most valuable currency.

Day by day, we are meant to continue the work of building a nation that better reflects the values, honors the diversity, and lives up to the aspirations of every single one of its citizens.

Mr. Putin seems to be playing on every chessboard, from what Russia calls its 'near abroad' to the Middle East, from Europe to America.

Mr. Trump seems more at home with Middle Eastern autocrats than he does with European democrats.

Interests change and diverge; values do not.

The United States can't dictate outcomes to a sovereign Iraq. But it can support, incentivize and mobilize those willing to move Iraq in the right direction.

In the absence of an engaged, diplomatically energized America, others will set the agenda, shape the rules and dominate international institutions - and probably not in ways that advance our interests or values.

In countless communities across America today, refugees are giving back to the country that has given them a new start.

We need to take actually concrete actions to make sure, for example, that none of our companies are providing China with things that they can use to repress populations, including the Uyghur population. But we also have to make sure that we are dealing with all of our interests.

Every administration suffers its share of 'what the president meant to say' moments.

It is not all right for Russia to decide Ukraine's future.

It's true that no policy fully survives first contact. But if you don't spend time anticipating the shots you are likely to take, you wind up flailing about wildly.

Even the most disciplined commander-in-chief misspeaks from time to time.

We deal, unfortunately, every single day with leaders of countries who are responsible for actions we find either objectionable or abhorrent, whether it's Vladimir Putin, whether it's Xi Jinping, whether it's any others on a long list of people I can name. But we find ways to deal with them.

Tweeting first and asking questions later is not a good way to make policy - especially in the Middle East.