An alliance with a powerful person is never safe.

Close alliances with despots are never safe for free states.

An alliance of civilisations can be our most powerful weapon in the fight against terror.

ALLIANCE, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.

'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.

Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who cannot sleep with the window shut, and a woman who cannot sleep with the window open.