Richard Holbrooke Quotes

• 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.

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in System, Stop

• 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.

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Generation, Themselves

• 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.

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Tolerance, Muslims

• 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.

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Directly, Problems

• I think history is continuous. It doesn’t begin or end on Pearl Harbor Day or the day Lyndon Johnson withdraws from the presidency or on 9/11. You have to learn from the past but not be imprisoned by it. You need to take counsel of history but never be imprisoned by it.

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Pearl, Continuous

• I think Americans understand that in Afghanistan, unlike in Iraq and Vietnam, we are fighting an enemy allied with the people who attacked us on 9/11.

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Afghanistan, Attacked

• 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.

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Persevering, United States

• 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.

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Side, Plenty

• The United States supports the reintegration of people who have fought with the Taliban into Afghan society provided they: one, renounce al Qaeda, two, lay down their arms and renounce violence, and three, participate in the public political life of the country in accordance with the constitution.

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in United States, Taliban

• People in uniform are not sacrosanct. They don’t have all the answers. The use of force is a political decision at its core, in terms of its objectives; then the military, as the experts, must be brought in to tell you how to do it.

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Experts, Core

• I’m not a wide-eyed imperialist who wants to see Americans manning outposts all over the world. Not outposts to freedom in the cold war cliche, but islands of stability and seas of ethnic strife. That is not what anyone should feel comfortable seeing Americans doing.

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Islands, Strife

• Our enemy is Al Qaeda and its allies, people who have publicly said they wish to attack the United States again, people who have publicly called on nuclear physicists and engineers to help them gain access to nuclear weapons, which, as the whole world knows, Pakistan has.

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Weapons, Attack

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

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Certainty, Dangerous

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

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Democracy

  Tags in Countries, Imperfect

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

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Vietnam, Generation

• The male elites that run most countries are exceedingly uncomfortable with the subject of AIDS because it’s a s*xually transmitted disease.

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Run, Countries

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

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Foreigner, Complicated

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

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Heat, Chosen

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

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Deadline, Define

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

  Richard Holbrooke

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Aids, Greater

Richard Holbrooke (29)

Birth:	24th April, 1941
Death:	13th December, 2010
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Author, Banker, Diplomat, Editor, Politician, Professor

About

Richard Holbrooke was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world. From 1993 to 1994, he was U.S. Ambassador to Germany. Holbrooke was a leading contender to succeed the retiring Warren Christopher as Secretary of State but was passed over on 1996 as President Bill Clinton chose Madeleine Albright instead. From 1999 to 2001, Holbrooke served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

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