Henry A. Kissinger Quotes

Politics is not a tea party. When it is time to act, you have to move fast and decisively.

Politics and war are remarkably similar situations.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, thank you so much, as always, for joining us this morning.

You cannot be the leader of the free world and sit on the sidelines and tweet and think you're going to get the job done.

As far as we were concerned, we were operators, we were administrators. I don't ever recall going to Dean Acheson and asking for any counsel or advice on administration, but I had the greatest respect for him, as I have today.

No Western government has ever played the long-term in terms of foreign policy.

It is only natural that for any statesman at the helm of any government the question of his country's security should be a concern of the utmost importance.

My friends all say I'm going to be Secretary of State. But I don't see how that would be much different from the job I have now.

In my wide travels across the world and my meetings with various heads of states, be that Africa or South Asia, Singapore or in high level meetings in the U.S., U.K. or Japan, one common mention is about Dr. Singh's extraordinary reputation as a Wise Man, an outstanding Economist and a fine Gentleman.

The real reform Japan needs is decisive politics when we face issues that need to be decided.

No man can be a politician, except he be first a historian or a traveller; for except he can see what must be, or what may be, he is no politician.

If your government had given me a thousandth of the sum it spent to depose me, I could have won that war.

Having elected a government, we will be best advised to let it govern and to let it speak for us as it will in the councils of the nations.

People tend to leave foreign affairs to governments because they think the leaders of government have all the information and know better.

Foreign policy is the most constraining form of policy-making

Because of unsure and undecided leadership in the field of foreign policy, questions are being raised on all sides. The administration is plagued by a Hamlet-like psychosis which seems to paralyze it every time decisive action is required.

I do think the U.S. has a moral and political leadership role to play.

The country needs leadership driven by the dictates of national security, not the ebb and flow of political fortunes.

I hope President [Hamid] Karzai understands that our national security interests don't depend entirely on his decision there whether to allow a recount. Obviously the legitimacy of that government is an important component of it. My point is it shouldn't be the lynch pin for us deciding whether we're going to protect our national security interests in that region.

The point is that in any country, including the United States, may be in the United States even more often than in any other country, foreign policy is used for internal political struggle.

I will be as careful as I can in making the most significant decisions any president and commander-in-chief can make about sending our men and women into harm's way.

I do think that it's really important for leaders of countries to be very clear and careful in the statements they make because their words are weighed extremely carefully by other countries, and you have to create a continuity of seriousness and of credibility in order to be able to be taken seriously and get things done.

It would be the irony of fate if my administration had to deal chiefly with foreign affairs.

We have taken a grave and hazardous decision to sustain the Greeks and try to make a Balkan Front.

I would a whole lot rather had Carly Fiorina over there doing our negotiation than John Kerry. Maybe we would've gotten a deal where we didn't give everything away. But the issue for us is to have a Congress that stands up and says not only no, but "Hell no" to this money going to a [Iran] regime that is going to use it for terror...