Leaders are responsible not for running public opinion polls but for the consequences of their actions.
Henry A. Kissinger

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.
Henry A. Kissinger

Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative.
Henry A. Kissinger

Most foreign policies that history has marked highly, in whatever country, have been originated by leaders who were opposed by experts.
Henry A. Kissinger

Next week there can't be any crisis. My schedule is already full.
Henry A. Kissinger

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
Henry A. Kissinger

No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.
Henry A. Kissinger

No foreign policy - no matter how ingenious - has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.
Henry A. Kissinger

No one will ever win the battle of the sexes; there's too much fraternizing with the enemy.
Henry A. Kissinger

People are generally amazed that I would take an interest in any form that would require me to stop talking for three hours.
Henry A. Kissinger

Power is the great aphrodisiac.
Henry A. Kissinger

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
Henry A. Kissinger

The American foreign policy trauma of the sixties and seventies was caused by applying valid principles to unsuitable conditions.
Henry A. Kissinger

The American temptation is to believe that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry.
Henry A. Kissinger

The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose.
Henry A. Kissinger

The essence of Richard Nixon is loneliness.
Henry A. Kissinger

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
Henry A. Kissinger

The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.
Henry A. Kissinger

The nice thing about being a celebrity is that, if you bore people, they think it's their fault.
Henry A. Kissinger

The security of Israel is a moral imperative for all free peoples.
Henry A. Kissinger