Order always requires a subtle balance of restraint, force, and legitimacy.
HENRY KISSINGERFor Roosevelt, if a nation was unable or unwilling to act to defend its own interests, it could not expect others to respect them. Inevitably,
More Henry Kissinger Quotes
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If Chinese exceptionalism represented the claims of a universal empire, Japanese exceptionalism sprang from the insecurities of an island nation borrowing heavily from its neighbor, but fearful of being dominated by it.
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It’s a pity both sides can’t lose (commenting on Iran-Iraq war, 1980 – 1988)
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Behind the slogans lay an intellectual vacuum.
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Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.
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The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
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It is one of history’s ironies that Communism, advertised as a classless society, tended to breed a privileged class of feudal proportions.
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Yet freedom cannot be secured or sustained without a framework of order to keep the peace.
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When statesmen want to gain time, they offer to talk.
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Poor old Germany. Too big for Europe, too small for the world
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A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.
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Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor states with spies.
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Policy is the art of the possible, the science of the relative.
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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.
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Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
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Because complexity inhibits flexibility, early choices are especially crucial.
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Don’t be too ambitious. Do the most important thing you can think of doing every year and then your career will take care of itself.
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Power without legitimacy tempts tests of strength; legitimacy without power tempts empty posturing.
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A country whose security depends on producing a genius in each generation sets itself a task no society has ever met.
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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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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.
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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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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.
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Americans have a tendency to believe that when there’s a problem there must be a solution.
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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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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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in international affairs a reputation for reliability is a more important asset than demonstrations of tactical cleverness.
HENRY KISSINGER