A diamond is a chunk of coal that did well under pressure.
HENRY KISSINGERIt is not often that nations learn from the past, even rarer that they draw the correct conclusions from it.
More Henry Kissinger Quotes
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Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.
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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.
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Since Peter the Great, Russia had been expanding at the rate of one Belgium per year.
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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 has the added advantage of being true.
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In the end, peace can be achieved only by hegemony or by balance of power.
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If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.
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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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The Art of War articulates a doctrine less of territorial conquest than of psychological dominance; it was the way the North Vietnamese fought America.
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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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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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It is not often that nations learn from the past, even rarer that they draw the correct conclusions from it.
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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 his essay, ‘Perpetual Peace,’ the philosopher, Immanuel Kant, argued that perpetual peace would eventually come to the world in one of two ways, by human insight or by conflicts and catastrophes of a magnitude that left humanity no other choice. We are at such a juncture.
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Because complexity inhibits flexibility, early choices are especially crucial.
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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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In short, the end justifies the means.
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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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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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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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It’s a pity both sides can’t lose (commenting on Iran-Iraq war, 1980 – 1988)
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Postcolonial countries. All have sought to overcome the legacy of colonial.
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There can’t be a crisis next week, my schedule is already full.
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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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The state is a fragile organization, and the statesman does not have the moral right to risk its survival on ethical restraint.
HENRY KISSINGER