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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

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Henry A. Kissinger
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More quotes by Henry A. Kissinger

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I do not criticize people who take a public stand on human rights issues. I express my respect for them. But some people are more influential without a public confrontation.
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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.
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While we should never give up our principles, we must also realize that we cannot maintain our principles unless we survive.
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Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately.
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For the Soul of France is masterful history, brilliantly researched, and hard to put down.
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I have always expressed respect for those people who make public declarations.
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In 10 years, there will be no more Israel.
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The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.
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I think that his [Obama's] task will be to develop an overall strategy for America in this period, when really a New World Order can be created.
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To revolutionaries the significant reality is the world which they are fighting to bring about, not the world they are fighting to overcome.
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There is no realism without an element of idealism.
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Competing pressures tempt one to believe that an issue deferred is a problem avoided more often it is a crisis invited.
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Every success is usually an admission ticket to a new set of decisions.
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Whenever a new president comes in, people that are used to the previous president wonder if he has the same capacity.
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The important thing is to do the right thing. Then credibility will follow.
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For any student of history, change is the law of life. Any attempt to contain it guarantees an explosion down the road the more rigid the adherence to the status quo, the more violent the ultimate outcome will be.
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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.
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We have to be careful in negotiating with Iran that we don't create the impression among the Arab states and the Sunni states that we are working on a condominium between Iran and the United States, because that will panic them and drive them into making their own arrangement.
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U.S. policy toward the third world should be one of depopulation
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The capacity to admire others is not my most fully developed trait.
Henry A. Kissinger