Top 380 Henry Kissinger Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.”

— Henry Kissinger

2. “To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”

— Henry Kissinger

Featured in: Strategy Quotes

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

— Henry Kissinger

Featured in: Leadership Quotes, Thought Provoking Quotes

4. “Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.”

— Henry Kissinger

Featured in: Strategy Quotes

5. “Does anyone have any questions for my answers?”

— Henry Kissinger

6. “If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.”

— Henry Kissinger

7. “A diamond is a chunk of coal that is made good under pressure.”

— Henry Kissinger

8. “Who controls money controls the world.”

— Henry Kissinger

9. “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.”

— Henry Kissinger

Featured in: Strategy Quotes

10. “It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true.”

— Henry Kissinger

11. “Depopulation should be the highest priority of foreign policy towards the third world, because the US economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries.”

— Henry Kissinger

12. “The elderly are useless eaters.”

— Henry Kissinger

13. “Oil is much too important a commodity to be left in the hands of the Arabs.”

— Henry Kissinger

14. “World population needs to be decreased by 50%.”

— Henry Kissinger

15. “Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad.”

— Henry Kissinger

16. “Democracy is too important to leave up to the votes of the people.”

— Henry Kissinger

17. “Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.”

— Henry Kissinger

18. “Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”

— Henry Kissinger

19. “The one thing man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by a World Government, a New World Order.”

— Henry Kissinger

20. “In 10 years, there will be no more Israel.”

— Henry Kissinger

21. “Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.”

— Henry Kissinger

22. “In the end, peace can be achieved only by hegemony or by balance of power.”

— Henry Kissinger

23. “The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.”

— Henry Kissinger

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

— Henry Kissinger

25. “University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.”

— Henry Kissinger

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

— Henry Kissinger

27. “What we in America call terrorists are really groups of people that reject the international system.”

— Henry Kissinger

28. “NAFTA is a major stepping stone to the New World Order.”

— Henry Kissinger

29. “Every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed. History is a tale of efforts that failed, or aspirations that weren’t realized. So, as a historian, one has to live with a sense of the inevitability of tragedy.”

— Henry Kissinger

30. “If we do what is necessary, all the odds are in our favor.”

— Henry Kissinger

31. “The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose.”

— Henry Kissinger

32. “The enemies you make by taking a decided stand generally have more respect for you than the friends you make by being on the fence.”

— Henry Kissinger

33. “An Iranian moderate is one who has run out of ammunition.”

— Henry Kissinger

34. “The test of policy is how it ends, not how it begins. Foreign policy is the art of establishing priorities. Demonization is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one. The test is not absolute satisfaction but balanced dissatisfaction.”

— Henry Kissinger

35. “In crises the most daring course is often safest.”

— Henry Kissinger

36. “I don’t read books, I write them.”

— Henry Kissinger

37. “A bluff taken seriously is more useful than a serious threat interpreted as a bluff.”

— Henry Kissinger

38. “The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.”

— Henry Kissinger

39. “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.”

— Henry Kissinger

40. “There is no realism without an element of idealism.”

— Henry Kissinger

41. “A little uncertainty is good for everyone.”

— Henry Kissinger

42. “Access to natural resources can become a question of survival for many states.”

— Henry Kissinger

43. “Superstars strive for approbation; heroes walk alone. Superstars crave consensus; heroes define themselves by the judgment of a future they see it as their task to bring about. Superstars seek success in a technique for eliciting support; heroes pursue success as the outgrowth of inner values.”

— Henry Kissinger

44. “We must learn to distinguish morality from moralizing.”

— Henry Kissinger

45. “University politics make me long for the simplicity of the Middle East.”

— Henry Kissinger

46. “China has had a long and complex history and has managed to evolve its own culture for 4,000 years. It therefore not necessarily true that we know exactly what is best for the internal structure of China.”

— Henry Kissinger

47. “It is an act of insanity and national humiliation to have a law prohibiting the President from ordering assassination.”

— Henry Kissinger

48. “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

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

— Henry Kissinger

50. “I don’t stand on protocol. Just call me your Excellency.”

— Henry Kissinger