Henry A. Kissinger

Withdrawal of US troops will become like salted peanuts to the American public: The more US troops come home, the more will be demanded.

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

Intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power, and is often, in point of fact, useless.

Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.

It is one of history's ironies that Communism, advertised as a classless society, tended to breed a privileged class of feudal proportions.

This country cannot afford to tear itself apart on a partisan basis on issues so vital to our national security.

We must learn to distinguish morality from moralizing.

America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.

The essence of Richard Nixon is loneliness.

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.

The American foreign policy trauma of the sixties and seventies was caused by applying valid principles to unsuitable conditions.

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

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.

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

Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

Power is the great aphrodisiac.

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