Quotes By Henry A. Kissinger

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

The essence of Richard Nixon is loneliness.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

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

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

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

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

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

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

Even a paranoid can have enemies.

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.

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.

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.

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.

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

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

The statesman's duty is to bridge the gap between his nation's experience and his vision.

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.

Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately.

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

Power is the great aphrodisiac.