Henry A. Kissinger Quotes

I think if you're going to master policy, especially world affairs, you've got to know history.

One thing that we should have learned from history is to pay attention to the words of foreign leaders.

The [foreign] policy of the United States is modeled on interventionism and aggression. It is logical that we should always be very suspicious.

All foreign policy is the intervention of one nation's domestic politics into another nation's domestic politics.

The very nature of executive decisions as to foreign policy is political, not judicial.

We were quite naïve about the use of American power.

In politics, reality is that which is unseen. Politics is the art of combining a nation’s diverse or opposing factors to the benefit of its domestic well-being, and of saving the country from the open enmity or covetous friendship of other nations.

Even allies don’t share every single interest that you have. That’s a law of nature in the international system. They will tell you most of what you need to know but there may be some things that they don’t tell you that you need to know in order to formulate your policy as wisely as you can.

Politically, foreign policy never matters until it matters, and then it matters a lot.

Trump's foreign policy is not so much immoral as it is amoral.

I have always thought that foreign-policy idealism has to be tempered with realism.

I'm a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy.

It's not just Iraq - it's the Atlantic partnership which is at stake.

Diplomacy is not an end in itself if it does not advance U.S. interests.

The United States has got to adopt a policy of befriending and creating allies around the world.

Mr. Obama's approach to engagement to some degree makes him dependent on people who wish neither him nor America well. This doesn't have to end badly and I hope that it doesn't - but it's not an ideal position after one's first year in power.

A lot of people think international relations is like a game of chess. But it's not a game of chess, where people sit quietly, thinking out their strategy, taking their time between moves. It's more like a game of billiards, with a bunch of balls clustered together.

I'm tired of the U.S. getting involved in every country's individual disputes.

Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.

One of the issues that I've raised on the Foreign Relations Committee, and I raised it when Secretary Locke came for his confirmation hearing, is, you know, it is in our benefit to develop a workable, positive formula with China.

Foreign policy is about choosing from nasty options.

Foreign policy is consumed with momentary crises —– often created by failing states and violent groups. But in the long run, he future is shaped by winners, not noisy losers.

Every government is in some respects a problem for every other government.

Foreign Policy has to be less foreign.

Alliances do have to deal with political realities.