Quotes by Lee Hamilton

• This nation is never finished. It has to be re-created in each generation.
• Now the difficulty with those warnings is that they were not specific.
• One half of the world's people live on less than two dollars a day. This should concern our national security policy as well as our conscience.
• Our democracy is not a product but a continual process. It is preserved not by monuments but deeds. Sometimes it needs refining; sometimes it needs amending; sometimes it needs defending. Always, it needs improving.
• President George W. Bush is the first American president to call openly for two-states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.
• Protecting Americans from nuclear terrorism rises above politics.
• I can assure you, public service is a stimulating, proud and lively enterprise. It is not just a way of life, it is a way to live fully.
• So much of our attention is trained on the Middle East these days, but we cannot ignore East Asia.
• China's ability to deliver nuclear warheads on American cities is expanding.
• The U.S has acquired reservoirs of goodwill around the globe over many years. But it is clear - from polling data and ample anecdotal evidence - that America is losing its allure in much of the world.
• Events often move faster than our ability to comprehend them.
• Foreign aid is neither a failure nor a panacea. It is, instead, an important tool of American policy that can serve the interests of the United States and the world if wisely administered.
• Democracy fascinates me.
• The U.S. should support the historic Gaza withdrawal as a first step toward a final settlement: a permanent Palestinian state in Gaza and nearly all of the West Bank.
• The temptations are great to simply retreat to the domain of private life and give up on our public problems.
• Democracy makes us articulate our views, defend them, and refine them.
• A likely source for terrorists seeking to buy or steal nuclear materials is the former Soviet Union.
• Addressing global resentment cannot be put off. If we do not learn to use our predominant power with great restraint, we will antagonize the world.
• Aid can work where there is good governance, and usually fails where governments are unable or unwilling to commit aid to improve the lives of their people.
• But despite this breathtaking pace, I believe in the capacity of our democracy to meet these challenges.
• But in the end our government usually - not unfailingly - is responsive to the people; and usually - not always - will try to do what is right.
• For decades the American people have had an addiction to oil and gas.
• U.S. officials and outside experts agree that China is undertaking a comprehensive modernization of its military. The Chinese military has gotten smaller but smarter.
• We cannot do everything in Africa, but doing nothing is not an option.
• We should insist that governments receiving American aid live up to standards of accountability and transparency, and we should support countries that embrace market reforms, democracy, and the rule of law.
• When you're talking with a person at this level of the government, at the very highest level, I think you have to be very discreet because he, President Clinton, is very aware that anything he says publicly can have a profound impact on American politics and on world politics.
• You'll remember Dr. Rice said that several times: It was not a warning about the place and the method and the time - it was a general warning. And that points out the imperfection, if you would, of our intelligence.