Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God
HENRY KISSINGEROrder always requires a subtle balance of restraint, force, and legitimacy.
More Henry Kissinger Quotes
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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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It is not often that nations learn from the past, even rarer that they draw the correct conclusions from it.
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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 without legitimacy tempts tests of strength; legitimacy without power tempts empty posturing.
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Because complexity inhibits flexibility, early choices are especially crucial.
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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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I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.
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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 Soviet Union would never be bound by agreements, Deng warned; it understood only the language of countervailing force.
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Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.
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For nations, history plays the role that character confers on human beings.
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Chinese thinkers developed strategic thought that placed a premium on victory through psychological advantage and preached the avoidance of direct conflict.
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The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
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What distinguishes Sun Tzu from Western writers on strategy is the emphasis on the psychological and political elements over the purely military.
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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