Empires have no interest in operating within an international system; they aspire to be the international system.
HENRY KISSINGERI want to thank you for stopping the applause. It is impossible for me to look humble for any period of time.
More Henry Kissinger Quotes
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The issues are too important to be left for the voters.
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in international affairs a reputation for reliability is a more important asset than demonstrations of tactical cleverness.
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Politicians are like dogs, Their life expectancy is too short for a commitment to be bearable
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If history teaches anything it is that there can be no peace without equilibrium and no justice without restraint.
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Policy is the art of the possible, the science of the relative.
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Later I learned to improve my forecasting—if necessary by asking the visitor in advance what subjects he intended to raise with Nixon.
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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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Order always requires a subtle balance of restraint, force, and legitimacy.
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If chess is about the decisive battle, wei qi is about the protracted campaign. The chess player aims for total victory. The wei qi player seeks relative advantage.
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Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.
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Since Peter the Great, Russia had been expanding at the rate of one Belgium per year.
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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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It is not often that nations learn from the past, even rarer that they draw the correct conclusions from it.
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A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.
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Americans hold that every problem has a solution; Chinese think that each solution is an admission ticket to a new set of problems.
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Power without legitimacy tempts tests of strength; legitimacy without power tempts empty posturing.
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Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There is too much fraternizing with the enemy.
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The nice thing about being a celebrity is that if you bore people they think it’s their fault.
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It’s a pity both sides can’t lose (commenting on Iran-Iraq war, 1980 – 1988)
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The art of crisis management is to raise the stakes to where the adversary will not follow, but in a manner that avoids a tit for tat.
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I want to thank you for stopping the applause. It is impossible for me to look humble for any period of time.
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Postcolonial countries. All have sought to overcome the legacy of colonial.
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The reason that university politics is so vicious is because stakes are so small
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A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security
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The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.
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The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
HENRY KISSINGER