Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.
Henry A. KissingerRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Civilizations rise and fall, and this cyclical nature of history is a source of tragic inevitability.
Henry A. Kissinger reflects on the fate of civilizations throughout history, emphasizing that all have faced collapse and failure despite their aspirations. As a historian, he acknowledges that understanding this pattern is essential, as it shapes the perspective with which one approaches the study of history, infusing it with a sense of inevitable tragedy and loss.
Themes
CivilizationCollapseHistoryInevitabilityTragedyAspiration
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the lessons of history, one might say, 'As Kissinger pointed out, every civilization has ultimately collapsed.'
More from Henry A. Kissinger
All quotes →It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.
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The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
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If peace is equated simply with the absence of war, it can become abject pacifism that turns the world over to the most ruthless.
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What political leaders decide, intelligence services tend to seek to justify.
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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.
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