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 KISSINGERA turbulent history has taught Chinese leaders that not every problem has a solution and that too great an emphasis on total mastery over specific events could upset the harmony of the universe.
More Henry Kissinger Quotes
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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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Because complexity inhibits flexibility, early choices are especially crucial.
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Policy is the art of the possible, the science of the relative.
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A diamond is a chunk of coal that did well under pressure.
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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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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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Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.
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Poor old Germany. Too big for Europe, too small for the world
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The reason that university politics is so vicious is because stakes are so small
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If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.
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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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Politicians are like dogs, Their life expectancy is too short for a commitment to be bearable
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When statesmen want to gain time, they offer to talk.
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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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It is not often that nations learn from the past, even rarer that they draw the correct conclusions from it.
HENRY KISSINGER