It has the added advantage of being true.
HENRY KISSINGERIn effect, none of the most important countries which must build a new world order have had any experience with the multi-state system that is emerging. Never before has a new world order had to be assembled from so many different perceptions, or on so global a scale.
More Henry Kissinger Quotes
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America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests
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It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true.
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The mindset for walking lonely political paths may not be self-evident to those who seek confirmation by hundreds, sometimes thousands of friends on Facebook.
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For Roosevelt, if a nation was unable or unwilling to act to defend its own interests, it could not expect others to respect them. Inevitably,
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It’s a pity both sides can’t lose (commenting on Iran-Iraq war, 1980 – 1988)
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Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.
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in international affairs a reputation for reliability is a more important asset than demonstrations of tactical cleverness.
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Empires have no interest in operating within an international system; they aspire to be the international system.
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Who controls the money controls the world.
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Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor states with spies.
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Order always requires a subtle balance of restraint, force, and legitimacy.
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Americans have a tendency to believe that when there’s a problem there must be a solution.
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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.
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Yet freedom cannot be secured or sustained without a framework of order to keep the peace.
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It is not often that nations learn from the past, even rarer that they draw the correct conclusions from it.
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The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
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Because complexity inhibits flexibility, early choices are especially crucial.
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The Art of War articulates a doctrine less of territorial conquest than of psychological dominance; it was the way the North Vietnamese fought America.
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The Soviet Union would never be bound by agreements, Deng warned; it understood only the language of countervailing force.
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A Harvard study has shown that in fifteen cases in history where a rising and an established power interacted, ten ended in war.
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For the balance of power is never static; its components are in constant flux.
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In his essay, ‘Perpetual Peace,’ the philosopher, Immanuel Kant, argued that perpetual peace would eventually come to the world in one of two ways, by human insight or by conflicts and catastrophes of a magnitude that left humanity no other choice. We are at such a juncture.
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Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
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It is one of history’s ironies that Communism, advertised as a classless society, tended to breed a privileged class of feudal proportions.
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Later I learned to improve my forecasting—if necessary by asking the visitor in advance what subjects he intended to raise with Nixon.
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To undertake a journey on a road never before traveled requires character and courage: character because the choice is not obvious; courage because the road will be lonely at first. And the statesman must then inspire his people to persist in the endeavor.
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