Henry Kissinger Quotes

Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.

The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles. What President Nixon and I tried to do was unnatural. And that is why we didn't make it.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.

Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

It is, after all, the responsibility of the expert to operate the familiar and that of the leader to transcend it.

The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose.

Art is man's expression of his joy in labor.

A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.

No foreign policy - no matter how ingenious - has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.

Power is the great aphrodisiac.

University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.

The nice thing about being a celebrity is that, if you bore people, they think it's their fault.

Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.

Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative.

The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision.

No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

The statesman's duty is to bridge the gap between his nation's experience and his vision.

Now when I bore people at a party they think it's their fault.

The history of things that didn't happen has never been written.

Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad.

The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room each believing himself in mortal peril from the other whom he assumes to have perfect vision.

Politicians are like dogs... Their life expectancy is too short for a commitment to be bearable

The bargaining position of the victor always diminishes with time. Whatever is not exacted during the shock of defeat becomes increasingly difficult to attain later.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God

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.

Americans have a tendency to believe that when there's a problem there must be a solution.

[T]hose who willed the means and wished the ends are not absolved from guilt by the refusal of reality to match their schemes.

A leader who confines his role to his people's experience dooms himself to stagnation a leader who outstrips his people's experience runs the risk of not being understood.

Donald Trump is a phenomenon that foreign countries haven't seen. So it is a shocking experience to them that he came in to office.

People are generally amazed that I would take an interest in any forum that would require me to stop talking for three hours.

I do not stand on protocol. If you just call me Excellency it will be okay.

The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room each believing himself in mortal peril from the other who he assumes to have perfect vision.

90% of the politicians give the other 10% a bad reputation.

America has fought five wars since 1945 and has gained its objectives in only one of them, the Gulf War.

The Vietnam War was a great tragedy for our country. And it is now far enough away so that one can study without using the slogans to see what's really happened.

A conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if it does not lose.

The nice thing about being a celebrity is that when you bore people they think it's their fault.

The illegal we do immediately the unconstitutional takes a little longer.