Henry Kissinger (1923-2023)

Quotes

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

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

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

• 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 ultimate aphrodisiac.

• The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.

• The American temptation is to believe that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry.

• 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.

• The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles.

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

• There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.

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

• Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately.

• The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.

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