For nations, history plays the role that character confers on human beings.
HENRY KISSINGERHistory knows no resting places and no plateaus
More Henry Kissinger Quotes
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If Chinese exceptionalism represented the claims of a universal empire, Japanese exceptionalism sprang from the insecurities of an island nation borrowing heavily from its neighbor, but fearful of being dominated by it.
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The art of crisis management is to raise the stakes to where the adversary will not follow, but in a manner that avoids a tit for tat.
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Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor states with spies.
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It’s a pity both sides can’t lose (commenting on Iran-Iraq war, 1980 – 1988)
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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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I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.
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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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The war is just when the intention that causes it to be undertaken is just. The will is therefore the principle element that must be considered, not the means, He who intends to kill the guilty sometimes faultlessly shed the blood of the innocents
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When statesmen want to gain time, they offer to talk.
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Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
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The state is a fragile organization, and the statesman does not have the moral right to risk its survival on ethical restraint.
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Poor old Germany. Too big for Europe, too small for the world
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There can’t be a crisis next week, my schedule is already full.
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America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests
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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.
HENRY KISSINGER






