black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

A country whose security depends on producing a genius in each generation sets itself a task no society has ever met.

Henry Kissinger

A more immediate issue concerns North Korea, to which Bismarck’s nineteenth-century aphorism surely applies: We live in a wondrous time, in which the strong is weak because of his scruples and the weak grows strong because of his audacity.
HENRY KISSINGER

Growth Issue Live Strong Time Weakness Wonderful
In short, the end justifies the means.
HENRY KISSINGER

End Justice
Yet freedom cannot be secured or sustained without a framework of order to keep the peace.
HENRY KISSINGER

Freedom Peace Rule Secure
A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.
HENRY KISSINGER

Alone Deserve Leadership
For nations, history plays the role that character confers on human beings.
HENRY KISSINGER

Character History Human Nation Play
It’s a pity both sides can’t lose (commenting on Iran-Iraq war, 1980 – 1988)
HENRY KISSINGER

Lose War
Americans have a tendency to believe that when there’s a problem there must be a solution.
HENRY KISSINGER

Believe Problem
Power without legitimacy tempts tests of strength; legitimacy without power tempts empty posturing.
HENRY KISSINGER

Empty Power Strength
Empires have no interest in operating within an international system; they aspire to be the international system.
HENRY KISSINGER

Goal Nation Reality
The Soviet Union would never be bound by agreements, Deng warned; it understood only the language of countervailing force.
HENRY KISSINGER

Force Language Understand
Behind the slogans lay an intellectual vacuum.
HENRY KISSINGER

Intellectual Politics
Can governmental orders be invented from scratch by intelligent thinkers, or is the range of choice limited by underlying organic and cultural realities (the Burkean view)?
HENRY KISSINGER

Choice Government Intelligence Limitation Thinking
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

End Establishment History Power Rise War
order without freedom, even if sustained by momentary exaltation, eventually creates its own counterpoise; yet freedom cannot be secured or sustained without a framework of order to keep the peace.
HENRY KISSINGER

Creation Freedom Peace Rule
For the balance of power is never static; its components are in constant flux.
HENRY KISSINGER

Philosophy Power Science
If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.
HENRY KISSINGER

Path Road Success Yourself

A country whose security depends on producing a genius in each generation sets itself a task no society has ever met.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

A country whose security depends on producing a genius in each generation sets itself a task no society has ever met.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Henry Kissinger Quotes