John Bolton famous quotes

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.
-- John Bolton

#Philosophy #Government #People

Well, I'm a libertarian conservative, so I believe in limited government/maximum individual freedom.
-- John Bolton

#Believe #Government #Libertarian

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

#Country #People #Way

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

#United States #Interest #Pursue

I am all in favour of democracy in Iraq.
-- John Bolton

#Iraq #Democracy #Favour

I am not a neoconservative.
-- John Bolton

I am not a professional politician.
-- John Bolton

#Politician

I don't much believe in bumper sticker characterizations of foreign policy.
-- John Bolton

#Believe #Bumper Sticker #Foreign Policy

I don't think I would have to run a campaign that's financed like General Motors.
-- John Bolton

#Running #Thinking #Campaigns

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

#President

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.'
-- John Bolton

#Running #Book #Writing

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.
-- John Bolton

#Technique #Use #Negotiation

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

#Iran #Doubt #Weapons

I don't think Hamas will be satisfied simply ruling the Gaza Strip.
-- John Bolton

#Thinking #Ruling #Satisfied

There's no religious test under the constitution. That's what it says. Period.
-- John Bolton

#Religious #Tests #Constitution

I'm not running around the world looking for ways to create hostilities.
-- John Bolton

#Running #World #Way

I think that Ronald Reagan had it right, being against abortion except in certain limited, defined circumstances.
-- John Bolton

#Thinking #Abortion #Certain

You know, as somebody who writes op-eds and appears on the television, I appreciate as well as anybody that there is a limit to what that accomplishes.
-- John Bolton

#Writing #Appreciate #Television

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

#Problem #Problem Solving #Competitors

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.
-- John Bolton

#Afterlife #Would Be #Classic

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

#War #Fighting #Lasts

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.
-- John Bolton

#Struggle #Half #Weapons

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

#Running #Issues #Doe

I've been in the government bureaucracy, I've practiced law, I've done a lot of different things.
-- John Bolton

#Government #Law #Different

I've never attended any Tea Party functions.
-- John Bolton

#Party #Tea #Tea Party

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.
-- John Bolton

#Agency #Government #Stories

Let me ask, who died and made him king? Who gave him the authority to endanger 300 million Americans? That's not the way it works, and if he thinks he can get away with that, he's got another think coming.
-- John Bolton

#Kings #Thinking #Nsa

If I were doing the Security Council today, I'd have one permanent member, the United States, because that's the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world. All international laws are invalid, meaningless attempts to constrict American power.
-- John Bolton

#Real #Reflection #Law

The only thing that will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons is regime change in Tehran.
-- John Bolton

#Iran #Nuclear #Weapons

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

#Country #Mind #Economic

I'm not sure history has ended.
-- John Bolton

#Not Sure

Reform is not a one-night stand.
-- John Bolton

#Night #Reform #One Night Stand

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

#People #Victory #Defeat

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.
-- John Bolton

#Views #Issues #United States

I want to make sure that, not only in the Republican Party but in the body politic as a whole, people are aware of threats that remain to the United States.
-- John Bolton

#Party #People #United States

Obviously, you make preparations before you engage in any meeting.
-- John Bolton

#Preparation #Meetings

There is no excuse for waste, fraud, and abuse in the Defense Department budget.
-- John Bolton

#Abuse #Defense #Waste

My priority is to give the United States the kind of influence it should have.
-- John Bolton

#Giving #Priorities #United States

Maybe it's my libertarian philosophy: but being in government is hard.
-- John Bolton

#Philosophy #Government #Libertarian

It's not natural disasters that are to blame for the deprivation of the North Korean people, but the failed policies of Kim Jong Il.
-- John Bolton

#People #Kim #Korean

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

#Egypt #Iran #Turkeys

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

#Spring #Thinking #Israel

I have decided not to run for president.
-- John Bolton

#Running #President

I don't think there is any good answer to the question why shouldn't gays and lesbians who want to serve their country be allowed to do it.
-- John Bolton

#Country #Gay #Thinking

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.
-- John Bolton

#New York #Differences #Stories

There is no patriotic obligation to help advance the career of a politician who is otherwise pursuing interests that are fundamentally antithetical to your values. That's not the call of patriotism.
-- John Bolton

#Patriotic #Careers #Patriotism

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

#Doe #Ends #Diplomacy

North Korea is going to get away with keeping its nuclear weapons.
-- John Bolton

#Korea #Nuclear #Weapons

People say you favor assassination, what do you think war is? Except that it's assassination on a much larger scale, a much more horrific scale.
-- John Bolton

#War #Thinking #People

The Nobel Peace Prize has become hopelessly politicized. I think it cheapens the prize itself.
-- John Bolton

#Thinking #Nobel Peace Prize #Nobel

The European arguments against the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act demonstrate that "some Europeans have never lost faith in appeasement as a way of life. It is clear that Iran is cynically manipulating gullible (or equally cynical) Europeans to advance its development of weapons of mass destruction.
-- John Bolton

#Iran #Cynical #Development

As you know, I have over the years written critically about the U.N. I have consistently stressed in my writings that American leadership is critical to the success of the U.N., an effective U.N., one that is true to the original intent of its charter's framers.
-- John Bolton

#Writing #Years #Stressed

Let there be no ambiguity about the American view that Syria's lack of cooperation .. is not acceptable.
-- John Bolton

#Views #Cooperation #Ambiguity

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

#Negative #Bitter

There's no such thing as the United Nations,
-- John Bolton

#United Nations #United

Just like Sept. 11, only with nuclear weapons this time, that's the threat. I think that is the threat. I think it's just facing reality. It's not a happy reality, but it's reality and if you don't deal with it, it will become even more unpleasant.
-- John Bolton

#Reality #Thinking #Weapons

We estimate that once Iraq acquires fissile material - whether from a foreign source or by securing the materials to build an indigenous fissile material capability - it could fabricate a nuclear weapon within one year.
-- John Bolton

#Iraq #Years #Weapons

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.
-- John Bolton

#Issues #People #Around The World

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.
-- John Bolton

#Thinking #Political #Dollars

I haven't given up on the possibility that sweet reason will prevail.
-- John Bolton

#Sweet #Reason #Possibility