Intellectuals analyze the operations of international systems; statesmen build them.
HENRY KISSINGERIntellectuals analyze the operations of international systems; statesmen build them.
HENRY KISSINGERCan 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 KISSINGERin international affairs a reputation for reliability is a more important asset than demonstrations of tactical cleverness.
HENRY KISSINGERCovert action should not be confused with missionary work.
HENRY KISSINGERA Harvard study has shown that in fifteen cases in history where a rising and an established power interacted, ten ended in war.
HENRY KISSINGERThe goal of the tribute system was to foster deference, not to extract economic benefit or to dominate foreign societies militarily.
HENRY KISSINGERIf history teaches anything it is that there can be no peace without equilibrium and no justice without restraint.
HENRY KISSINGERWhen statesmen want to gain time, they offer to talk.
HENRY KISSINGERWe 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 KISSINGERIt’s a pity both sides can’t lose (commenting on Iran-Iraq war, 1980 – 1988)
HENRY KISSINGERWoe 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 KISSINGERThe task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.
HENRY KISSINGERNinety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
HENRY KISSINGERAmericans have a tendency to believe that when there’s a problem there must be a solution.
HENRY KISSINGERWhere is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
HENRY KISSINGERThe illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
HENRY KISSINGER