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The test of policy is how it ends, not how it begins. Foreign policy is the art of establishing priorities. Demonization is not a policy it is an alibi for the absence of one. The test is not absolute satisfaction but balanced dissatisfaction.

Henry A. Kissinger

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Henry A. Kissinger
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John Paul II was one of the greatest men of the last century. Perhaps the greatest.
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I grew up as a discriminated minority in a dictatorship, so obviously the issue of human rights is a matter of concern for me.
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In the hands of a determined Secretary, the Foreign Service can be a splendid instrument, staffed by knowledgeable, discreet, and energetic individuals. They do require constant vigilance lest the convictions that led them into a penurious career tempt them to preempt decision-making.
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We have three things in common: Irish wives, the ability to speak for 17 minutes without a verb, and the fact that we both speak with an accent.
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If you mean by military victory an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible.
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Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately.
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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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If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere
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Intellectuals are cynical and cynics have never built a cathedral.
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University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.
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I don't think that that's a desirable option for us. Besides, it wouldn't work, because there are too many other countries that are willing to work economically with China. But I don't think the basic relationship depends on economics. It depends on a political understanding of what is required for peace in Asia.
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There is no realism without an element of idealism.
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