Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad.

— Henry Kissinger

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

— Henry Kissinger

Donald Trump is a phenomenon that foreign countries haven't seen. So it is a shocking experience to them that he came in to office.

— Henry Kissinger

Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.

— Henry Kissinger

Everybody has a hacking capability. And probably every intelligence service is hacking in the territory of other countries. But who exactly does what? That would be a very sensitive piece of information. But it's very difficult to communicate about it. Because nobody wants to admit the scope of what they're doing.

— Henry Kissinger

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

— Henry Kissinger

I do not stand on protocol. If you just call me Excellency it will be okay.

— Henry Kissinger

I don't see the wisdom in modern politicians that I once saw in men like Dean Acheson, David Bruce, or George Marshall. In my day, the northeastern establishment dominated foreign policy formulation, but the composition and distribution of our population is very different today.

— Henry Kissinger

In every era, humanity produces demonic individuals and seductive ideas of repression. The task of statesmanship is to prevent their rise to power and sustain an international order capable of deterring them if they do achieve it.

— Henry Kissinger

Intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power and is often in point of fact useless. Just as a leader doesn't need intelligence a man in my job doesn't need too much of it either.

— Henry Kissinger