Henry A. Kissinger Quotes

Evolution not revolution

We're in the midst of an evolution, not a revolution.

Real change happens a step at a time.

Beginning reform is beginning revolution.

One of the reasons that change takes place is that the people who produce it believe change can take place.

Change comes in various wavelengths. There are changes in the game, changes in the rules of the game, and changes in how the rules are changed

I am for the restoration of order, not for the restoration of the old order.

I would like to see evolution in my country, not revolution. It is much better for us to work together with the government to transform Saudi Arabia for the future.

One can describe the world of today to the people of today only if one describes it as capable of alteration.

Every reform means awakening. Once truly awakened, the nation will not be satisfied with reform only in one department of life.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.

The crises of our time, it becomes increasingly clear, are the necessary impetus for the revolution now under way. And once we understand nature's transformative powers, we see that it is our powerful ally, not a force to feared our subdued.

Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.

In nature and state, it is safer to change many things than one.

The urgent question of our time is whether we can make change our friend and not our enemy.

When you look at the times in history when change was brought about, there were two factors: crisis and leadership.

We … need education in the obvious – to learn to transcend our own convictions and to leave room for much that we hold dear to be done away with short of revolution by the orderly change of law.

He who desires or attempts to reform the government of a state, and wishes to have it accepted ... must at least retain the semblance of the old forms; so that it may seem to the people that there has been no change in the institutions, even though in fact they are entirely different from the old ones.

Change shall be without hurry, but without pause.

No feats of heroism are needed to achieve the greatest and most important changes in the existence of humanity; neither the armament of millions of soldiers, nor the construction of new roads and machines, nor the arrangement of exhibitions, nor the organization of workmen's unions, nor revolutions, nor barricades, nor explosions, nor the perfection of aerial navigation; but a change in public opinion..

I wonder why progress looks so much like destruction.

We want traditional change—not transformational change.

The Arab world’s wave of change was a century in the making, Why expect its effects to become clear in the space of months

We’ve already decided to change. The question is: In which direction do we change, and from where do we start?

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone, you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone, you leave it to a torrent of change.