Henry Kissinger
A diamond is a chunk of coal that is made good under pressure.
Henry KissingerPeople think responsibility is hard to bear. It's not. I think that sometimes it is the absence of responsibility that is harder to bear. You have a great feeling of impotence.
Henry KissingerThe longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.
Henry KissingerThe 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.
Henry KissingerEach success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.
Henry KissingerThe illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
Henry KissingerIn relations with many domestically weak countries, a radio transmitter can be a more effective for form of pressure than a squadron of B-52's.
Henry KissingerIf you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.
Henry KissingerNinety percent of all politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
Henry KissingerIf peace is equated simply with the absence of war, it can become abject pacifism that turns the world over to the most ruthless.
Henry KissingerThe task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.
Henry KissingerPower is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
Henry KissingerNobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There's too much fraternizing with the enemy.
Henry KissingerThe absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
Henry KissingerLeaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.
Henry KissingerModeration is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative.
Henry KissingerUniversity politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.
Henry KissingerHistory knows no resting places and no plateaus.
Henry KissingerThe nice thing about being a celebrity is that when you bore people, they think it's their fault.
Henry KissingerEvery civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed.
Henry KissingerThe real distinction is between those who adapt their purposes to reality and those who seek to mold reality in the light of their purposes.
Henry KissingerThere cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.
Henry KissingerA crisis does not always appear to a policymaker as a series of dramatic events. Usually it imposes itself as an exhausting agenda of petty chores demanding both concentration and endurance.
Henry Kissinger
