Quotes by
Henry Kissinger |
1923-2023 , American politician
American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. | 42 quotes | 2,005 visits |
Quotations
| • | The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer. 7 |
| • | There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full. 7 |
| • | Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. 7 |
| • | The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously. 6 |
| • | Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative. 4 |
| • | Since Peter the Great, Russia had been expanding at the rate of one Belgium per year. 4 |
| • | The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been. 3 |
| • | Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately. 3 |
| • | Because complexity inhibits flexibility, early choices are especially crucial. 3 |
| • | The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision... Of course, over time, even two armed blind men can do enormous damage to each other, not to speak of the room. |
| • | America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests. |
| • | If you believe that their real intention is to kill you, it isn't unreasonable to believe that they would lie to you. (on doubts about PLO sincerity about recognition of Israel) |
| • | A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security. |
| • | Empires have no interest in operating within an international system; they aspire to be the international system. |
| • | Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There is too much fraternizing with the enemy. |
| • | It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true. |
| • | In the process we lost sight of one of the cardinal maxims of guerrilla war: the guerrilla wins if he does not lose. The conventional army loses if it does not win. |
| • | Don't be too ambitious. Do the most important thing you can think of doing every year and then your career will take care of itself. |
| • | The nice thing about being a celebrity is that if you bore people they think it's their fault. |
| • | Poor old Germany. Too big for Europe, too small for the world. |
| • | It is not often that nations learn from the past, even rarer that they draw the correct conclusions from it. |
| • | A diamond is a chunk of coal that did well under pressure. |
| • | Intellectuals are cynical and cynics have never built a cathedral. |
| • | I've always acted alone. Americans like that immensely. |
| • | A turbulent history has taught Chinese leaders that not every problem has a solution and that too great an emphasis on total mastery over specific events could upset the harmony of the universe. |
| • | You can't make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can't make peace without Syria. |
| • | It's a pity both sides can't lose. (comment on Iran-Iraq war, 1980 – 1988) |
| • | I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850. |
| • | Facts are rarely self-explanatory; their significance, analysis, and interpretation – at least in the foreign policy world – depend on context and relevance. |
| • | Any people who have been persecuted for two thousand years must be doing something wrong. |
| • | In Washington...the appearance of power is therefore almost as important as the reality of it. In fact, the appearance is frequently its essential reality. |
| • | In the end, peace can be achieved only by hegemony or by balance of power. |
| • | Americans have a tendency to believe that when there's a problem there must be a solution. |
| • | History is the memory of States. |
| • | Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem. |
| • | A Harvard study has shown that in fifteen cases in history where a rising and an established power interacted, ten ended in war. |
| • | To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it. |
| • | The Trump phenomenon is in large part a reaction of Middle America to attacks on its values by intellectual and academic communities. There are other reasons, but this is a significant one. |
| • | In crises the most daring course is often safest. |
| • | The essence of Richard Nixon is loneliness. |
| • | Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God. |
| • | Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. |
