Warren Christopher Quotations

It will be undertaken, of course, in the June or July summit, and then to bring NATO closer to Russia or vice versa is a way to move toward integration - toward the integration of Europe.

I've got many close friends, but there's an awful lot about friendship that is not demonstrative in my case.

Hamas, the opponents of Arafat, the opponents of peace, urged a boycott of the election, and yet there was an 85 percent turnout where Hamas is supposed to be strong. Isnt that really quite incredible?

I think there is a good deal of promise in those discussions as well. I think there is a range of matters that might be discussed between NATO and Russia that can provide a mechanism for talking through these issues, a way to give reassurance on these issues.

My father was a small-town banker. He became very ill when I was 10 years old, and we went to California three years later in an attempt to recover his health, which never happened.

We've had some fairly intensive discussions leading up to these meetings between NATO and Russia, preparing for them, and it's going to be a very important six months for NATO.

It's very important not to lose your temper in a courtroom, or in anything else you're doing.

Despite the demands of this job, one of the things my wife and I try to do is to spend time together alone. And one of the things we really enjoy doing together is seeing a good movie.

The Palestinian election is something that was really a turning point. It's a mandate for peace.

I was born in a very small town in North Dakota, a town of only about 350 people. I lived there until I was 13. It was a marvelous advantage to grow up in a small town where you knew everybody.

Let's see if we can't get this war behind us now. Certainly, the man in the street, the common person there, wants to have this war behind him. I think a lot of the soldiers are very war-weary too.

Probably the most useful thing I can do as secretary of state is to assist the president in adapting and renewing the transnational institutions that were created after World War II.

I had all of one nanosecond to savor the news before we had to move on to other problems.

I'm very skeptical about the good intentions of Milosevic.

It's been President Clinton's dream that we'll have finally a fully integrated Europe.

It's very important to always put things in their historical contexts. It teaches important lessons about the country in question.

The NATO forces will, to the extent that they have capacity, assist the war crimes tribunal.

When I was a very young lawyer, I had a senior partner who advised me never to get mad, except on purpose.

I think before 1997 is over, NATO will have taken giant strides in what's called adaptation, the discussions about bringing the French fully into the NATO forces.

I'm very much in favor of focused responsibility, and so in the main areas that I'm worried about, I try to have a single person who is basically the key person in that area.

The monitors indicated that it was a credible election, I think, in an overall sense, it apparently is a free and fair election, so it's a real milestone and one of the things we can take some little confidence in.

We've worked with President Yeltsin. He is the President of the country. He's been a reformer. We've been able to accomplish a number of things together.

Both sides were supposed to release all their prisoners, those were unconditional. There was some prisoner release that took place but it's not been satisfactory.

I don't want to talk about intelligence matters. I will say, however, that intelligence-community estimates should not become public in the way of this city and in the way of Congress.

It was helpful to have the American troops there in great strength. They knew there'd be consequences if they didn't move back. Now, there has been some removal of the foreign forces.

If we identify another nation as the source of the bombing, we should retaliate,

I am going to be running with the teachers and the farmers and the bus drivers and the hard working men and women of this country. I'm going to be running with the people, not the privileged.

I believe the situation with North Korea will be resolved peacefully,

for your steady nerves, prudent judgment and great wisdom.

Freedom of the press is a pre-requisite for the peaceful resolution of conflict, and restricting the media from carrying out its professional activities can only lead to more suspicion and misinformation.

If we were to show that we are willing to stand by and permit a military regime to overthrow this democracy, it would have bad ramifications.

It is a grave concern that an employer would stoop so low as to illegally eavesdrop on their staff during negotiations for collective agreements.

I think the country will come together, but we have a rocky four years ahead, and maybe admitting that, and not being too euphoric about that, is the best way to face this. This is going to be a very evenly divided country, and we'll need to find centrist coalitions that can get things done.

I went from this school where everybody was in the same building, to Hollywood High, a school which had about 2,000 pupils. I felt quite immature.

I think there is the basis now for a discussion at highest levels between NATO officials and Russian officials on some kind of a charter.

Restrictions on foreign journalists represent a blatant violation of this right and seriously curtail the ability of the world's media to report in West Papua.

It is essential that the role of journalists and the media is respected as independent from the conflict.

While we welcome Arroyo's rescinding of the state of emergency, we call on her to prove her commitment to the safety of journalists and a free media in the Philippines.

Without a free and independent media, true democracy is unattainable.

We have a human rights interest. Then there is the immigration problem. The human-rights violations have caused people to take to boats and flood not only the United States, but other countries in the region, creating great instability.

You know, it's been President Clinton's dream that we'll have finally a fully integrated Europe; and the steps that NATO will take to expand to the East, that's a commitment.

We urge the President of India not to give his assent to this undemocratic legislation, and initiate public debate on the complex causes of conflict, rather than treat it as a law and order problem.

There is a cruel systematic attack on the rights of individual journalists and editors under way in China. The aim is to silence voices that seek the truth.

We are sickened at the beatings and assaults on our colleagues by the RNA and police.

While this is a landmark crucial step in our campaign to abolish criminal defamation in Indonesia, we still have more work to do.

While this decision sets an important precedent in the trying of defamation cases, it is only the beginning. In order for journalists to be protected from serving jail time, the decision to use the Press Law and not the penal code when involving the media must be used by all Indonesian courts.

There can be no press freedom in the Philippines while journalists are forced to live in fear.

We are calling on the king and the authorities in Nepal to respect the rights of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and immediately desist in using violence and intimidation to silence the media in Nepal.

We certainly can never ignore the day-to-day problems of a Haiti, or a Bosnia, but for the longer term, we need to set up transnational institutions.

We are very concerned about the situation in Nepal which seems to be deteriorating rapidly. In the lead up to the one year anniversary of the February 1 coup, civil liberty abuses are still occurring and the Nepalese people's rights to freedom of expression and a free press are being violently and deplorably ignored.

We are answering in the only language that he (Saddam) understands, the language of force,

The stakes are very high for us in Haiti. We have many important interests there. Perhaps the most important to me is our interest in the promotion of democracy in this hemisphere.

On this Thanksgiving weekend our joint work has made it possible for the people of Bosnia to spend New Year's Day in peace for the first time in four years.

The repression of all those daring to resist the autocratic regime represents a severe challenge to the restoration of democracy in Nepal.

At heart, ... this is a European problem.

It's a tricky thing to deal with. Some of the foreign forces have married Bosnian woman, some of them really blended in, melted into the society.

It is unacceptable for the government to be warning media sources to report only one side of the emergency.

not succumb to suggestions or pressures that they leave.

This is a very important relationship we have with Russia, the relationship over the nuclear arsenal that they have obviously is important. They're a very powerful country.

The international community should universally condemn China's record as a repressor of journalists' rights and its misuse of laws with the aim of suffocating criticism. China wants to be a major player on the world stage but when it attacks journalists in such a concerted manner it demonstrates that it is a country where the truth is not able to be told.

Intimidation of journalists such as the searching of a newspaper office is an attempt at intimidating the media against a pro Tamil nationalism editorial stance.

The events of the last 24 hours are appalling and intolerable. The violent intervention of police and the targeting of journalists during peaceful protests is totally unacceptable.

Only two countries in this hemisphere are not democratic, but many countries in both Central and South America, and in the Caribbean, are really fragile democracies.

The United States has done more for the war crimes tribunal than any other country in the world. We're turning over all the information we have, including intelligence information.

My clerkship with Justice Douglas was tremendously important. He told me, Christopher, get out into the stream of history and see what happens. I've tried to follow that advice.

I ask the Philippines Government to put an end to journalists' killings by giving journalists' safety the priority it deserves.

We've had it very clear to the Bosnians that our obligation to equip and train their forces is completely conditional on the foreign forces being gone.

An independent and free media is essential to ensure democracy.

Sometimes you have to learn how to give the right answer to the wrong question.

I wish the meeting had been as good as the lunch.

To anyone who has served in Washington, there is something oddly familiar about [having your portrait painted]. First, you're painted into a corner, then you're hung out to dry and, finally, you're framed.

We see considerable strain in Russia, and that's obviously a matter of concern to us. It's in the very strong self-interest of Russia to continue on the reform path.

One always wonders about roads not taken.

Environmental degradation, overpopulation, refugees, narcotics, terrorism, world crime movements, and organized crime are worldwide problems that don't stop at a nation's borders.