Quotes By John Bolton

The U.N. is one of many competitors in a marketplace of global problem solving.

Don't get me wrong: I would love to be president.

Obviously, you make preparations before you engage in any meeting.

There's no doubt that Iran funds and supplies Hamas with weapons.

Negotiation is not a policy. It's a technique. It's something you use when it's to your advantage, and something that you don't use when it's not to your advantage.

Politicians, like generals, have a tendency to fight the last war.

You don't need to spend tens of millions of dollars on political consultants to tell you what you think when you already know what you think.

I'm not sure history has ended.

I've been surrounded by some of the best economic minds in the country, and hopefully I've absorbed some of that.

There's no such thing as the United Nations. If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference.

I would not run as a one-issue candidate. Anybody who does that is declaring himself to be marginal.

I am all in favour of democracy in Iraq.

Just as the Security Council was largely irrelevant to the great struggle of the last half of the twentieth century - freedom against Communism - so too it is largely on the sidelines in our contemporary struggles against international terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

There is no such thing as the United Nations.

It's very personal in its politics, very bitter and very negative.

Well, you could take several stories off the buildings of most U.S. government agencies and we'd all probably be better for it too.

I think some of this fascination with the 'Arab Spring' is just a grand experiment with Israel's survival.

Reform is not a one-night stand.

Every country has an aspect to it that rubs up people the wrong way.

I am pro-American.

In the United States, there is a broadly shared view that the U.N. is one of many potential instruments to advance U.S. issues, and we have to decide whether a particular issue is best done through the U.N. or best done through some other mechanism.

People don't like to talk about victory and defeat anymore.

When you have a regime that would be happier in the afterlife than in this life, this is not a regime that is subject to classic theories of deterrence.

I'm obviously aware that people are quite focused on the economy rather than foreign policy issues, but that is something that should and can be altered as people see the nature of the threats around the world that we face.

My philosophy is not a bean-counting, accounting 'look at this.' It is a philosophy that smaller government is better government, and government that is closer to the people is best of all.

A lot of people have said to me, 'That's a great idea, running for president. You'll get booked for more speeches. You can write a book.'

I have decided not to run for president.

Diplomacy is not an end in itself if it does not advance U.S. interests.

If Iran obtains nuclear weapons, then almost certainly Saudi Arabia will do the same, as will Egypt, Turkey and perhaps others in the region.

Everybody pursues their national interests. The only one who gets blamed for it is the United States.