Henry Kissinger

“Art is man's expression of his joy in labor.”

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

“People are generally amazed that I would take an interest in any forum that would require me to stop talking for three hours.”

“Power is the great aphrodisiac.”

“Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative.”

“There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.”

“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.”

“We cannot always assure the future of our friends; we have a better chance of assuring our future if we remember who our friends are.”

“The attitude of the West and of Russia towards a crisis like Ukraine is diametrically different. The West is trying to establish the legality of any established border. For Russia, Ukraine is part of the Russian patrimony.”

“Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.”

“It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.”

“It is, after all, the responsibility of the expert to operate the familiar and that of the leader to transcend it.”

“The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.”

“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.”

“A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.”