Henry A. Kissinger famous quotes

Accept everything about yourself - I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end - no apologies, no regrets.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Being Yourself #Motivation #Regret

You become a superpower by being strong but also by being wise and by being farsighted. But no state is strong or wise enough to create a world order alone.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Wise #Strong #Order

The enemies you make by taking a decided stand generally have more respect for you than the friends you make by being on the fence
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Enemy #Fence

I grew up as a discriminated minority in a dictatorship, so obviously the issue of human rights is a matter of concern for me.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Issues #Rights #Matter

Would food be considered an instrument of national power? ... Is the U.S. prepared to accept food rationing to help people who can't/won't control their population growth?
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#People #Growth #Population

President Nixon in his inaugural address indicated that he wanted an era of negotiation. Our reasoning was that whatever our ideological differences, whatever our geopolitical differences, we were condemned to coexistence by nuclear weapons.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Differences #President #Nuclear

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Giving #Political #News

I also do not believe that the United States can let itself be driven into a political role by escalating terrorism, and therefore, the leaders of the Arab world and Arafat should do their utmost to put an end to this and then the United States should do its utmost to produce a political solution.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Believe #Leader #Political

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

#Leadership #Names #Doe

In my life, I have almost always been on the side of active foreign policy. But you need to know with whom you are cooperating. You need reliable partners.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Needs #Sides #Partners

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

#Freedom #Stupid #Military

I don't have a brief for every single reaction of Israel, but I think it is important that the political negotiations occur free of the threat of terrorism.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Thinking #Israel #Political

Leaders are responsible not for running public opinion polls but for the consequences of their actions.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Running #Romance #Leader

In a nuclear war, even if one side were to come out ahead by systems analytical standards, both sides would be so weakened, that it would - they would be in the position of Europe after the two World Wars.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#War #Europe #Two

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Art #Diplomacy

In the middle '50s, I had written that the point would come, inevitably, at which the relationship between the cause of conflict and political objectives would be lost.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Political #Would Be #Causes

No one will ever win the battle of the sexes; there's too much fraternizing with the enemy.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Love #Funny #Leadership

The nuclear weapons were not useful for the achievement of political objectives.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Achievement #Political #Nuclear

If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Inspiring #Success #Time

I have learned, as I wrote, that history must be discovered, not declared. It's an admission that one grows in life.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#I Have Learned #Admission #Grows

America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Friendship #America #Enemy

You should not think that you can shape history only by your will. This is also why I'm against the concept of intervention when you don't know its ultimate implications.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Thinking #Shapes #Should

For the Soul of France is masterful history, brilliantly researched, and hard to put down.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Soul #France

The British capitalize on their accent when they don't want you to know what they're saying. But if you wake them up at 4 A.M., they speak perfect English, the same as we do.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Travel #Home #Perfect

There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Inspirational #Funny #Witty

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Decision #Mind #Alternatives

In my particular case foreign policy happens to be my hobby, my consuming interest. I had spent decades studying it.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Hobbies #Study #Cases

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.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Leadership #Running #People

Many of the scientists have believed that their contribution to ending the nuclear race is not to let any new weapons to be developed.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Race #Nuclear #Weapons

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Leader #Vision #Alchemy

I believe that without Watergate we would have had an extraordinary period of success with a strong Nixon and a still vital Brezhnev in power.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Strong #Believe #Brezhnev

University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Education #Witty #Powerful

At any rate, mutually assured destruction was never our policy.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Destruction #Mutually Assured Destruction #Rate

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

#Leadership #Responsibility #Experts

When I became security advisor, I became familiar with the so-called SIOP war plans, I called in Secretary McNamara and asked him what they were hiding from me, because I couldn't believe that the National policy would foresee such a level of destructiveness.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#War #Believe #Levels

The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Office

Whenever a new president comes in, people that are used to the previous president wonder if he has the same capacity.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#People #President #Wonder

The US must carry out some act somewhere in the world which shows its determination to continue to be a world power.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Determination #World #Shows

With respect to the relationship between nuclear weapons and the advent of détente, one has to consider two things. One, the nature of nuclear weapons in themselves, and secondly, the advent of nuclear parity.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Two #Nuclear #Weapons

Depopulation should be the highest priority of foreign policy towards the third world, because the US economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Country #Ebola #Priorities

In my view, there's no doubt that the Soviets had infinitely greater trouble holding their structure together than we did.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Views #Doubt #Together

Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Power #Aphrodisiac #Definitions

To have the United States suddenly come up with a peace proposal after a whole series of terrorist attacks is going to show to the world that this sort of method is something that western societies can't stand.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#United States #World #Proposal

Don't be too ambitious. Do the most important thing you can think of doing every year and then your career will take care of itself.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Thinking #Years #Careers

One has to remember that every progress that has been made towards peace in the Middle East has come under American leadership.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Progress #Middle East #Remember

If it's going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Politics #Politician

Almost every peace process that has gone on between the Arab side and Israel, the United States has been somewhat isolated because most of the countries in the world, what they really want is to accept the Arab peace plan or so-called peace plan, which in its present form would lead to the destruction of Israel.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Country #Israel #United States

Does anyone have any questions for my answers?
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Training #Doe #Answers

I have always expressed respect for those people who make public declarations.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#People #Declaration

If eighty percent of your sales come from twenty percent of all of your items, just carry those twenty percent.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Twenties

It is an act of insanity and national humiliation to have a law prohibiting the President from ordering assassination.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Law #Insanity #President

I believe that there is a whole set of issues in the world - environment, proliferation, energy, cyberspace - that can only be dealt with on a global basis. The traditional patterns of national rivalry and national competition are not suitable for those cases.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Believe #Issues #Competition

Any fact that needs to be disclosed should be put out now or as quickly as possible, because otherwise the bleeding will not end.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Needs #Bleeding #Facts

I believe in freedom of expression, and I believe that societies thrive when they permit freedom of expression.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Believe #Expression #Permit

You can't make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can't make peace without Syria.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Easter #War #Egypt

The Israelis want security. The Arabs want dignity. And they consider the demands of each other as incompatible.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Demand #Want #Dignity

I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Country #Issues #People

Before there was the Soviet Union that could inflame matters. Now you have states not as powerful as the Soviet Union, but states like Iraq, like Iran, and to some extent Syria, having made it possible for some of these groups to operate. So it is a very difficult situation.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Powerful #Iran #Iraq

The security of Israel is a moral imperative for all free peoples.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Israel #Moral #Security

I think a resumption of the Cold War would be a historic tragedy. If a conflict is avoidable, on a basis reflecting morality and security, one should try to avoid it.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#War #Thinking #Tragedy

A diamond is a chunk of coal that is made good under pressure.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Coal #Pressure #Jewelry

It is frankly a mistake of amateurs to believe you can gain the upper hand in a diplomatic negotiation.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Mistake #Believe #Hands

Art is man's expression of his joy in labor.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Art #Men #Expression

In a diplomatic negotiation, you always meet the same the other side all the time. Even if you should succeed in outsmarting him or in pressuring him, it only sets up a cycle in which he will try to get even.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Trying #Succeed #Sides

Even a paranoid can have enemies.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Enemy #Paranoid #Security

Our problem was that in the American approach to Soviet affairs policy has oscillated between people who take an essentially psychological approach and people who take an essentially theological approach, and the two really meet. The psychologists try to "understand" the Soviet Union. And try to ease its alleged fears. The theologians say the Soviets are evil.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Two #People #Evil

Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Funny #Witty #Humorous

The Russian empire under czars and commissars has been hard to deal with for other countries.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Country #Empires #Deals

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

#Witty #Powerful #Nice

We attempted to try to solve every problem in the world, out of a sense of moral obligations, and attitudes, and our history. But no country can solve every problem without exhausting itself. Therefore, we have to establish priorities.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Country #Attitude #Priorities

Power is the great aphrodisiac.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Sexy #Power #Political

If we do what is necessary, all the odds are in our favor.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Inspirational #Odds #Favors

What we in America call terrorists are really groups of people that reject the international system
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#America #People #Groups

Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Oil #People

Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#People #Energy #World

If you control the oil you control the country; if you control food, you control the population.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Country #Oil #Population

Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Real #Grateful #Men

Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.
-- Henry A. Kissinger

#Success #Congratulations #Mistake

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

#Leadership #Motivation #People