Heinz Alfred “Henry” Kissinger
Born: 27 May 1923, F
Kissinger’s family fled Nazi persecution in Germany, coming to the US in 1938. His first name had changed from Heinz to Henry by the time he became a citizen in 1943 while in Army training. He served as a German translator for Army counter-intelligence. He spent a fair stretch at Harvard, getting his BA, MA, and PhD degrees (1950, ’52, and ’54) before joining the faculty. With his teaching he also consulted for the National Security Council and several other US government agencies. He was an advisor to Nelson Rockefeller during his three presidential campaigns, then was chosen by Nixon first as National Security Adviser and then as Secretary of State. Throughout he championed Realpolitik, making him effective enough to win the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize (which he first accepted and later tried to return) and very unpopular with those who wanted to see a moral or idealogical stance taken by the US.
Henry Kissinger quotes:
A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.
Henry Kissinger
A leader who confines his role to his people’s experience dooms himself to stagnation; a leader who outstrips his people’s experience runs the risk of not being understood.
Henry Kissinger
A statesmans duty is to bridge the gap between his vision and his nation’s experience. If his vision gets too far out ahead of his nation’s experience, he will lose his mandate. But if he hews too close to the conventional, he will lose control over events.
Henry Kissinger – Years of Upheaval (1982)
Art is man’s expression of his joy in labor.
Henry Kissinger
Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.
Henry Kissinger
Clearly, security without values is like a ship without a rudder. But values without security are like a rudder without a ship.
Henry Kissinger
Competing pressures tempt one to believe that an issue deferred is a problem avoided; more often it is a crisis invited.
Henry Kissinger
Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.
Henry Kissinger
Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.
Henry Kissinger
Every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed.
Henry Kissinger
For other nations, utopia is a blessed past never to be recovered; for Americans it is just beyond the horizon.
Henry Kissinger
High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered; they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make.
Henry Kissinger
History knows no resting place and no plateaus.
Henry Kissinger
I do not stand on protocol. If you just call me Excellency, it will be okay.
Henry Kissinger
If peace is equated simply with the absence of war, it can become abject pacifism that turns the world over to the most ruthless.
Henry Kissinger
