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The Soviet Union would never be bound by agreements, Deng warned; it understood only the language of countervailing force.

Henry Kissinger

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
HENRY KISSINGER

Absence Mindset
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.
HENRY KISSINGER

Character Choice Courage Inspirational Journey Lonely People Road Travel
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.
HENRY KISSINGER

Argument Beginning End War
Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.
HENRY KISSINGER

Difficult Problem Success
Behind the slogans lay an intellectual vacuum.
HENRY KISSINGER

Intellectual Politics
Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.
HENRY KISSINGER

Action Difference
Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
HENRY KISSINGER

Knowledge Life Live Lost Philosophy Wisdom
Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad.
HENRY KISSINGER

Appearance Bad Politics
Americans hold that every problem has a solution; Chinese think that each solution is an admission ticket to a new set of problems.
HENRY KISSINGER

Perspective Problem Thinking
It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true.
HENRY KISSINGER

Deep Philosophy True
Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor states with spies.
HENRY KISSINGER

Nation Rule Trust
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
The Soviet Union would never be bound by agreements, Deng warned; it understood only the language of countervailing force.
HENRY KISSINGER

Force Language Understand
Because complexity inhibits flexibility, early choices are especially crucial.
HENRY KISSINGER

Choice Early Habit Important
Intellectuals analyze the operations of international systems; statesmen build them.
HENRY KISSINGER

Intellectual Politics
If history teaches anything it is that there can be no peace without equilibrium and no justice without restraint.
HENRY KISSINGER

History Justice Peace Teaching

The Soviet Union would never be bound by agreements, Deng warned; it understood only the language of countervailing force.

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The Soviet Union would never be bound by agreements, Deng warned; it understood only the language of countervailing force.

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