In his essay, ‘Perpetual Peace,’ the philosopher, Immanuel Kant, argued that perpetual peace would eventually come to the world in one of two ways, by human insight or by conflicts and catastrophes of a magnitude that left humanity no other choice. We are at such a juncture.
Interpretation
Kissinger reflects on the potential paths to achieving lasting peace in the world.
In this quote, Henry A. Kissinger references Immanuel Kant's notion that true and lasting peace may be achieved either through human wisdom and understanding or through severe conflicts that ultimately force humanity to change its ways. Kissinger suggests that the world may be at a crucial point where its future, especially regarding peace, hangs in the balance due to significant challenges and conflicts faced today.
In practice
In a speech about global diplomacy, one might say, 'As we navigate today's challenges, we must remember that, as Kant suggested, peace may only come through insight or through the harsh lessons of conflict.'
Every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed. History is a tale of efforts that failed, or aspirations that weren’t realized. So, as a historian, one has to live with a sense of the inevitability of tragedy.
Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.
It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.
The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
If peace is equated simply with the absence of war, it can become abject pacifism that turns the world over to the most ruthless.
What political leaders decide, intelligence services tend to seek to justify.
I'm trying to look at many, many things in modern life that I believe are going faster, and I'm trying to look at why they're going faster and what effect they have on us. We all know about FedEx and instant pudding, but it doesn't mean we've looked at all the consequences of our desire for speed.
Nobody can have the consolations of religion or philosophy unless he has first experienced their desolations.
Those whose life is long still strive for gain, and for all mortals all things take second place to money.
For a long time, I have been making many predictions, far in advance, of events since come to pass, naming the particular locality. I acknowledge all to have been accomplished through divine power and inspiration.
Words bend our thinking to infinite paths of self-delusion, and the fact that we spend most of our mental lives in brain mansions built of words means that we lack the objectivity necessary to see the terrible distortion of reality which language brings.
The majority of business men are not capable of an original thought, simply because they cannot escape the tyranny of reason.
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