Henry A. Kissinger Quotes

Americans must step back and realize that an effective foreign policy is very difficult to devise, and we must present a united front to make it work.

The art of foreign policy is to help guide the inevitable.

I said it was my feeling that the American people would struggle for peace, and that has since been underscored by the President of these United States.

We really believe our national interests are identical with European interests.

No, I believe in the good will of the United States' administration.

Our alliances should be understood as a means to expand our influence, not as a constraint on our power. The expansion of democracy and freedom in the world should be a shared interest and value with all nations.

It's dismaying to see the unilateralism that the government is doing.

In foreign policy, the only thing worse than not doing something is doing something that fails or makes the situation worse.

After September 11, the European governments have completely failed. They are incapable of seeing beyond their own national scope of interests.

It is like our foreign policy has attention deficit disorder.

And in this community, as in all others, the Golden Rule still applies - we must be act toward other nations as we would have them act towards America.

The international community lies at the center of the Obama foreign policy. Unfortunately, it is a fiction. There is no such thing. Different countries have different histories, geographies, necessities, and interests. There's no natural, inherent, or enduring international community.

Americans understand that our security is enhanced when the United States is trusted and respected in the world.

In these days of intimate relations, of economic stress and of intense desire to protect national interests and advance national opportunity, the treatment of questions which, from a legal standpoint, are domestic, often seriously affects international relations. The principle, each nation for itself to the full extent of its powers, is the principle of war, not of peace.

Restrain our citizens from embarking individually in a war in which their country takes no part …. How desirable, then, must it be in a Government like ours to see its citizens adopt individually the views, the interests, and the conduct which their country should pursue, divesting themselves of those passions and partialities which tend to lessen useful friendships and to embarrass and embroil us in the calamitous scenes of Europe.

Foreign policy matters cannot be intelligently decided in a large general meeting.

You do not build a foreign policy based on one man.

One of the reasons we don't have a serious foreign policy is that we pay too much attention to public opinion.

Under the Nixon-Ford administration, there has evolved a kind of secretive "Lone Ranger" foreign policy—a one-man policy of international adventure. This is not an appropriate policy for America.

Foreign policy is too important to be left up to foreign service officers.

I do not applaud our quitting the League [of Nations]. The people act as if by withdrawing we have achieved something great …. This shows the shallowness of thought of the Japanese public.

There is no way that any major international problem anywhere in the world can be solved efficiently with the United States sitting on the sideline.

The purpose of foreign policy is not to provide an outlet for our own sentiments of hope or indignation; it is to shape real events in a real world.

You can’t go it alone even if you are the world’s only superpower.

We are the only country that can provide world leadership, but we have to have the support of the American people to do it.