A biography for Henry Kissingerhasn’t been written yet.
“I think we would find, if you study the conduct of guerilla-type wars, that the Obama Administration has hit more targets on a broader scale than the Nixon Administration ever did.”
“The attitude of the West and of Russia towards a crisis like Ukraine is diametrically different. The West is trying to establish the legality of any established border. For Russia, Ukraine is part of the Russian patrimony.”
“The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.”
“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.”
“The tragedy of America is that it entered all the wars with a consensus in favor of them, but within a defined period, the legitimacy of the war became a major domestic issue, with some people arguing that withdrawal was the only legitimate objective.”
“Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.”
“Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There is too much fraternizing with the enemy.”
“Most foreign policies that history has marked highly, in whatever country, have been originated by leaders who were opposed by experts.”
“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.”
“It is, after all, the responsibility of the expert to operate the familiar and that of the leader to transcend it.”
“It's never happened in history that every region in the world could affect every other region simultaneously. The Roman empire and the Chinese empire didn't know much about each other and had no means of interacting. Now we have every continent able to reach every other.”
“I think when the president of the United States calls for military action, he should do it for a united people, especially when the methods have been so cruel, so explicitly directed at Americans.”
“כי נמאס לי מפוליטיקה.”
“קודם כול אני אמריקני, אחר־כך מזכיר המדינה של ארצות הברית ואחר־כך יהודי." ~ לגולדה מאיר בזמן פגישתם בימי מלחמת יום הכיפורים. גולדה ענתה בתגובה: "אנחנו קוראים מימין לשמאל.”
“משבר ממשלתי אינו אפשרי בשבוע הבא: סדר היום שלי כבר מלא.”
“ארגון גרילה מנצח אם לא הפסיד, צבא מפסיד אם לא ניצח.”
“לישראל אין מדיניות חוץ, רק מדיניות פנים.”
“מלחמות אינן מתנהלות לטובת האנושות, אלא למען האינטרסים הלאומיים.”
“מהלכים שנראים הכרחיים לתקופה מסוימת הופכים למסוכנים אם נוקטים בהם יותר מדי זמן.”
“We are all the President's men.”