Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered...
The history of things that didn’t happen has never been written.
You know, this is a very strange phenomenon. I keep reading that in American newspapers, and I keep reading extensive speculations. I meet with the Chinese leaders periodically, and while I don’t say they’ve endorsed the missile shield, it has not been in the forefront of their discussions.
Every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed.
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.
It is steady, reliable, tough. It never yields to panic. It is never defeated one-sidedly. It achieves everything attainable by character and tenacity.
Over time even two armed blind men in a room can do enormous damage to each other, not to speak of the room.
A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security.
I don’t think we should pay people to fight terrorism. I would be amazed if they asked for anything in return.
Intellectuals are cynical and cynics have never built a cathedral.
It is barely conceivable that there are people who like war.
What political leaders decide, intelligence services tend to seek to justify.
I see the future of China as growth. I think that historically China has often gone through periods of consolidation, and then periods of sort of weakening central authority. They undoubtedly face tremendous challenges.
I think China will do nothing to obstruct it, and they probably will go along with it.
The position is that stability and peace in Asia depend on a cooperative relationship between China and the United States.
Realism in foreign policy means careful consideration of all aspects pertinent to the issue, before taking a decision. This is the only way you can move from where you are to someplace else.
Obama is like a chess player who is playing simultaneous chess and has opened his game with an unusual opening.
The idea of abstract power only exists for academics, not in real life.
Americans believe that you can alter people by conversion, and that everybody in the world is a potential American. The Chinese also believe that their values are universal, but they do not believe that you can convert to becoming a Chinese unless you are born into it.
I do not criticize people who take a public stand on human rights issues. I express my respect for them. But some people are more influential without a public confrontation.