Henry A. Kissinger

NAFTA represents the single most creative step towards a New World Order.

— Henry A. Kissinger

A bluff taken seriously is more useful than a serious threat interpreted as a bluff.

— Henry A. Kissinger

I believe it is a mistake to isolate arms control from other areas of policy.

— Henry A. Kissinger

University politics make me long for the simplicity of the Middle East.

— Henry A. Kissinger

An Iranian moderate is one who has run out of ammunition.

— Henry A. Kissinger

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

— Henry A. Kissinger

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

— Henry A. Kissinger

U.S. policy toward the third world should be one of depopulation

— Henry A. Kissinger

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

— Henry A. Kissinger

Would food be considered an instrument of national power? ... Is the U.S. prepared to accept food rationing to help people who…

— Henry A. Kissinger

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

— Henry A. Kissinger

I don't think we should pay people to fight terrorism. I would be amazed if they asked for anything in return.

— Henry A. Kissinger

In the middle '50s, I had written that the point would come, inevitably, at which the relationship between the cause of conflict…

— Henry A. Kissinger

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

— Henry A. Kissinger

We cannot give Russia veto over deployment of forces on NATO territory. But we have to understand their particular sensitivities, and, therefore,…

— Henry A. Kissinger

To revolutionaries the significant reality is the world which they are fighting to bring about, not the world they are fighting to…

— Henry A. Kissinger

Realism in foreign policy is made up of a clear set of values, since difficult foreign policy decisions are often decided with…

— Henry A. Kissinger

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been. The public…

— Henry A. Kissinger

Nixon had three goals: to win by the biggest electoral landslide in history; to be remembered as a peacemaker; and to be…

— Henry A. Kissinger

For any student of history, change is the law of life. Any attempt to contain it guarantees an explosion down the road;…

— Henry A. Kissinger

When I became security advisor, I became familiar with the so-called SIOP war plans, I called in Secretary McNamara and asked him…

— Henry A. Kissinger

If you mean by "military victory" an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that…

— Henry A. Kissinger

I can think of no faster way to unite the American people behind George W. Bush than a terrorist attack on an…

— Henry A. Kissinger

We have to be careful in negotiating with Iran that we don't create the impression among the Arab states and the Sunni…

— Henry A. Kissinger

The greatest need of the contemporary international system is an agreed concept of order.

— Henry A. Kissinger

Democracy is too important to leave up to the votes of the people.

— Henry A. Kissinger

To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal

— Henry A. Kissinger

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

— Henry A. Kissinger

Peace depends ultimately not on political arrangements but on the conscience of mankind.

— Henry A. Kissinger

I don't consider China a communist state, no. I know that sounds paradoxical, but it's my view.

— Henry A. Kissinger

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

— Henry A. Kissinger

Oil is much too important a commodity to be left in the hands of the Arabs.

— Henry A. Kissinger

The art of good foreign policy is to understand and to take into consideration the values of a society, to realize them…

— Henry A. Kissinger

In the 1960s, I would have considered China with its CPC an ideologically more dynamic country than the Soviet Union. But the…

— Henry A. Kissinger

I don't have a brief for every single reaction of Israel, but I think it is important that the political negotiations occur…

— Henry A. Kissinger

The American formal position has been that we oppose violence by governments against their people. That principle should not be abandoned.

— Henry A. Kissinger

The Israelis want security. The Arabs want dignity. And they consider the demands of each other as incompatible.

— Henry A. Kissinger

I wouldn't say it's a split. It's a difference of emphasis. It does exist between, I would say, the State Department and…

— Henry A. Kissinger

Obama is like a chess player who is playing simultaneous chess and has opened his game with an unusual opening.

— Henry A. Kissinger

Our nation is uniquely endowed to play a creative and decisive role in the new order which is taking form around us.

— Henry A. Kissinger