Quote

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

Henry A. Kissinger

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Henry A. Kissinger
Arabs
Demands
Dignity
Consider
Demand
Security
Israelis
Incompatible

More quotes by Henry A. Kissinger

Image
Let us fashion together a new world order.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
Democracy is too important to leave up to the votes of the people.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
Withdrawal of US troops will become like salted peanuts to the American public: The more US troops come home, the more will be demanded.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
Any international system must have two key elements for it to work. One, it has to have a certain equilibrium of power that makes overthrowing the system difficult and costly. Secondly, it has to have a sense of legitimacy.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
In the end, peace can be achieved only by hegemony or by balance of power.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
Well, he keeps saying that, and as defense secretary, of course he has to think of a lot of potential enemies. I do not think it's a wise course to articulate this or to base our policy on it. And I do not see under modern circumstances what we would be fighting about.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
He [Deng Xiaoping] said that he did not understand why we failed to grasp that the alternative was not democracy, but total chaos and risking all the reforms that had been achieved.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
In the 1960s, I would have considered China with its CPC an ideologically more dynamic country than the Soviet Union. But the Soviet Union was strategically more threatening.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
The American formal position has been that we oppose violence by governments against their people. That principle should not be abandoned.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
You can't make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can't make peace without Syria.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
Realism in foreign policy means careful consideration of all aspects pertinent to the issue, before taking a decision. This is the only way you can move from where you are to someplace else.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
Let me make my point about Vietnam. When the Nixon initiation came into office, there were 550,000 Americans in combat. And ending the war was not a question of turning off a television channel. And so, debating on how we got there and what judgments were made was not going to help us.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
I also do not believe that the United States can let itself be driven into a political role by escalating terrorism, and therefore, the leaders of the Arab world and Arafat should do their utmost to put an end to this and then the United States should do its utmost to produce a political solution.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.
Henry A. Kissinger
Image
A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.
Henry A. Kissinger