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Power without legitimacy tempts tests of strength; legitimacy without power tempts empty posturing.

Henry Kissinger

It is one of history’s ironies that Communism, advertised as a classless society, tended to breed a privileged class of feudal proportions.
HENRY KISSINGER

Class History Oneself
Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God
HENRY KISSINGER

Blessing Destiny Eyes God Leadership People Play
A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security
HENRY KISSINGER

Moral Perfection Policy Security
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 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.
HENRY KISSINGER

Greatness History Leadership Peace Problem
Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.
HENRY KISSINGER

Difficult Problem Success
History is the memory of States.
HENRY KISSINGER

History Memories
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
In effect, none of the most important countries which must build a new world order have had any experience with the multi-state system that is emerging. Never before has a new world order had to be assembled from so many different perceptions, or on so global a scale.
HENRY KISSINGER

Experience Important World
There can’t be a crisis next week, my schedule is already full.
HENRY KISSINGER

Funny Future
Poor old Germany. Too big for Europe, too small for the world
HENRY KISSINGER

Big World
For Roosevelt, if a nation was unable or unwilling to act to defend its own interests, it could not expect others to respect them. Inevitably,
HENRY KISSINGER

Expectation Nation Respect
Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
HENRY KISSINGER

One Liner Power
For nations, history plays the role that character confers on human beings.
HENRY KISSINGER

Character History Human Nation Play
A Harvard study has shown that in fifteen cases in history where a rising and an established power interacted, ten ended in war.
HENRY KISSINGER

End Establishment History Power Rise War
The reason that university politics is so vicious is because stakes are so small
HENRY KISSINGER

Politics Reason

Power without legitimacy tempts tests of strength; legitimacy without power tempts empty posturing.

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Power without legitimacy tempts tests of strength; legitimacy without power tempts empty posturing.

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