While the United States has often taken the wrong path, it has rarely failed to demonstrate - at least in the long run - the courage to reverse its steps.
It's hard to overstate the lasting harm Mr. Tillerson's tenure will do to America's diplomacy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses concern about the negative impact of Rex Tillerson's time as Secretary of State on the United States' diplomatic relationships.
Antony Blinken highlights the detrimental effects of Rex Tillerson's tenure as Secretary of State, suggesting that his actions and policies may have lasting repercussions on America's ability to engage effectively in diplomacy. This underscores the critical role that leadership in foreign affairs plays in shaping international relations and the importance of continuity and trust in diplomatic efforts.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of foreign policy, a speaker may reference this quote to illustrate how leadership decisions can have long-term consequences.
More from Antony Blinken
All quotes βWhen it comes to climate change, I think that success at home is directly tied to our ability to lead effectively abroad.
Some friends of Israel believe that the Palestinians will never, in their hearts, accept a Jewish state in Palestine. Yet Germans and French, Chinese and Japanese, Mexicans and Americans have overcome their once insurmountable differences. Palestinians and Jews also have much to gain from peaceful coexistence.
By virtually every metric, the liberal international order has made the world healthier, wealthier, wiser, more secure and more tolerant than it has ever been.
I don't think anyone in the 1990s, the late '90s, anticipated that the Putin they knew then would become the Putin we know now.
My father's father fled a pogrom in Russia in the early 20th century and was welcomed to the United States. So was my stepmother, who escaped as a young girl from Communist Hungary in 1950.
Similar quotes
I've been very sensitive for a long time to the repeated pattern, during economic hard times or after a war, of the United States' essentially unilaterally disarming.
Government can do something for the people only in proportion as it can do something to the people.
Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.
A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.
We have over a hundred political detainees, men against whom we are unable to prove anything in a court of law. Nearly 50 of them are men who gave us a great deal of anxiety during the years of Confrontation because they were Malay extremists. Your life and this dinner would not be what it is if my colleagues and I had decided to play it according to the rules of the game.
Today's average American is more apt to rebel against a tennis shoe not coming in the right color than against the slow erosion of our democratic freedom.