Richard Holbrooke's Quotes

There are certain kinds of second-tier confrontations which the U.S. does not need to get directly involved in. However, even in the second tier of problems, our intervention as a friend to both sides is important.

There is a split between Muslims who want to practice their faith in peace and tolerance with other religions and other people, and these extreme, radical fundamentalists who have shown a total lack of tolerance for people with different views, starting with people who they don't think are good Muslims, and going on to include Christians and Jews.

There's no question that the next generation of terrorists, rather than going for small, little dramas, will go for the big one. They now understand that the way to get the world's attention is not strapping bombs to themselves in a pizza parlour, but to do something so horrific it gets you into the Guinness Book of World Records for terrorism.

You will never catch up with the spread of AIDS no matter how much money, no matter how many antiretrovirals are put into the system, unless you stop its growth. And the only way to stop its growth is prevention.

United Nations peacekeepers are going all over the world spreading AIDS even while they're trying to bring peace. What a supreme irony.

The United Nations is an indispensable but deeply flawed organization. It is valuable to the United States, and the United States is invaluable to it. We need to reform it.

A peace deal requires agreements, and you don't make agreements with your friends, you make agreements with your enemies.

As countries grapple with modernization, people who are left behind tend to hold firmer and firmer to their view of the evil of modernity.

Diplomacy is like jazz: endless variations on a theme.

Elections are rarely perfect.

I have worked in every - every Democratic administration since the Kennedy administration, and I know dysfunctionality when I see it.

I'm a product of the Kennedy era. Kennedy's Inaugural plus the accident of Dean Rusk brought me into the government. Those were my values.

If a country denies it has AIDS, that country will inevitably become an even greater victim.

In short, you can't let the deadline define the mission. The mission has to define the duration.

Nothing generates more heat in the government than the question of who is chosen to participate in important meetings.

Pakistani politics is complicated, and I think it's not something a foreigner can easily assimilate and understand.

The male elites that run most countries are exceedingly uncomfortable with the subject of AIDS because it's a sexually transmitted disease.

The World War II generation believed the United States could do anything - anything... And Vietnam was a shattering experience for everyone.

We should not be surprised that democracy is imperfect even in Western countries.

World War I was not inevitable, as many historians say. It could have been avoided, and it was a diplomatically botched negotiation.

You have to test your hypothesis against other theories. Certainty in the face of complex situations is very dangerous.

By the way, if you do your job on behalf of your country, you have meetings where you put your position forward strongly, and the other side does the same thing. And I've had plenty of meetings in my career that really were heated, people yelling at each other.

I still believe in the possibility of the United States, with all its will and all its strength, and I don't just mean military, persevering against any challenge. I still believe in that.