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George Bernard Shaw: There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

Henry Kissinger

Woe to the statesman whose arguments for entering a war are not as convincing at its end as they were at the beginning, Bismarck had cautioned.
HENRY KISSINGER

Argument Beginning End War
Power without legitimacy tempts tests of strength; legitimacy without power tempts empty posturing.
HENRY KISSINGER

Empty Power Strength
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
Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.
HENRY KISSINGER

Action Difference
Intellectuals analyze the operations of international systems; statesmen build them.
HENRY KISSINGER

Intellectual Politics
History knows no resting places and no plateaus
HENRY KISSINGER

History Nature Place
I want to thank you for stopping the applause. It is impossible for me to look humble for any period of time.
HENRY KISSINGER

Humble Impossible Myself Praise Stop Thankful Time
The reason that university politics is so vicious is because stakes are so small
HENRY KISSINGER

Politics Reason
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
It has the added advantage of being true.
HENRY KISSINGER

True
in international affairs a reputation for reliability is a more important asset than demonstrations of tactical cleverness.
HENRY KISSINGER

Choice Important Reputation Worth
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
Policy is the art of the possible, the science of the relative.
HENRY KISSINGER

Art Policy Possible Science
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 Live Strong Time Weakness
The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
HENRY KISSINGER

Absence Mindset

George Bernard Shaw: There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

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George Bernard Shaw: There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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