Intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power, and is often, in point of fact, useless.
Interpretation
Power does not always require intelligence and can sometimes thrive without it.
This quote suggests that intelligence may not be a crucial factor in effectively wielding power. In many political and leadership contexts, the ability to influence, manipulate, or control may overshadow intelligence as a necessary tool for success. Kissinger implies that those in power often operate based on practical considerations rather than intellectual capability, pointing out the complexities and perhaps flaws in leadership dynamics.
In practice
In a speech about political strategy, one might say, 'As Kissinger noted, intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power.'
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.
First of all, you've got to have a vision of 'What kind of program do I want to have?' Then you've got to have a plan to implement it. Then you've got to set the example that you want, develop the principles and values that are important, and get people to buy into it.
I’d like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts. That’s how I’d like to be remembered.
When the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak, the result is insubordination. When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak, the result is collapse.
If you have no opposition in the place you serve, you're serving in the wrong place.
Manners are the lubricating oil of an organization. It is a law of nature that two moving bodies in contact with each other create friction. This is as true for human beings as it is for inanimate objects.
No one is bigger than the team. If you can't do things our way, you're not getting time here and we don't care who you are
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