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A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.

Henry Kissinger

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

Philosophy Power Science
In the end, peace can be achieved only by hegemony or by balance of power.
HENRY KISSINGER

Achievement End Peace Power
The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.
HENRY KISSINGER

Himself Leadership Nation People
Empires have no interest in operating within an international system; they aspire to be the international system.
HENRY KISSINGER

Goal Nation Reality
To undertake a journey on a road never before traveled requires character and courage: character because the choice is not obvious; courage because the road will be lonely at first. And the statesman must then inspire his people to persist in the endeavor.
HENRY KISSINGER

Character Choice Courage Inspirational Journey Lonely People Road Travel
The goal of the tribute system was to foster deference, not to extract economic benefit or to dominate foreign societies militarily.
HENRY KISSINGER

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

Believe Problem
The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
HENRY KISSINGER

Absence Mindset
The mindset for walking lonely political paths may not be self-evident to those who seek confirmation by hundreds, sometimes thousands of friends on Facebook.
HENRY KISSINGER

Evidence Friendship Lonely Mindset Path Walk
There can’t be a crisis next week, my schedule is already full.
HENRY KISSINGER

Funny Future
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
Because complexity inhibits flexibility, early choices are especially crucial.
HENRY KISSINGER

Choice Early Habit Important
Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.
HENRY KISSINGER

Action Difference
For nations, history plays the role that character confers on human beings.
HENRY KISSINGER

Character History Human Nation Play
The reason that university politics is so vicious is because stakes are so small
HENRY KISSINGER

Politics Reason
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 leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.

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A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.

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