Quotes from Henry A. Kissinger

The public life of every political figure is a continual struggle to rescue an element of choice from the pressure of circumstance.

The idea of abstract power only exists for academics, not in real life.

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

Over time even two armed blind men in a room can do enormous damage to each other, not to speak of the room.

I want to thank you for stopping the applause. It is impossible for me to look humble for any period of time.

Let us fashion together a new world order.

There are only two reasons to sit in the back row of an airplane: Either you have diarrhea, or you're anxious to meet people who do.

It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true.

If I should ever be captured, I want no negotiation - and if I should request a negotiation from captivity they should consider that a sign of duress.

[Nixon] wants a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. He doesn't want to hear anything about it. It's an order, to be done. Anything that flies on anything that moves.

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.

The Russian people, at least the ones I know, have pride in being a Russian. And, therefore, they want to be taken seriously in international affairs.

One thing I don't want around me is a military intellectual. I don't have to worry about you on that score.

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

You should not go to war for the privilege of withdrawal. You need to define your objective and the outcome, and it cannot be the removal of one man.

Donald Rumsfeld is the most ruthless man I have ever met? and I mean that as a compliment.

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.

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

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

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.

Most foreign policies that history has marked highly, in whatever country, have been originated by leaders who were opposed by experts.

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

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

Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.