by Henry Kissinger 2015

78 "...[A] country whose security depends on producing a genius in each generation sets itself a task no society has ever met."
117 "...a religiously based Middle East order reflecting two distinct universalist approaches to world order: The Sunni version by way of the regionally extensive Muslim Brotherhood founded in 1928, Hamas, the radical movement that gained power in Gaza in 2007, and the global terrorist movement al-Qaeda; and the Shia version through the Khomeini revolution and its offshoot, the Lebanese "state within a state" Hezbollah. In violent conflict with each other, they were united in their commitment to dismantle the existing regional order and rebuild it as a divinely inspired system."
195 "Richelieu...: the state is a fragile organization, and the statesman does not have the moral right to risk its survival on ethical restraint."
227 China's leaders since Mao
248 Teddy Roosevelt: "[International society was like a frontier settlement without an effective police force:] In new and wild communities where there is violence, an honest man must protect himself; and until other means of securing his safety are devised, it is both foolish and wicked to persuade him to surrender his arms while the men who are dangerous to the community retain theirs."
250 The Roosevelt corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
260 Wilson: "[The world would thus enter] an age...which rejects the standards of national selfishness that once governed the counsels of nations and demands that they shall give way to a new order of things in which the only questions will be: "Is it right?" "Is it just?" "Is it in the interest of mankind?"" Just, verdant, and peaceful??
261 "Scant evidence supported the Wilsonian premise that public opinion was more attuned to the overall "interest of mankind" than the traditional statesmen whom Wilson castigated."
262 "The implementation of Wilson's vision was...The League of Nations [which] would replace the previous concert of powers. Forswearing the traditional concept of an equilibrium of competing interests, League members would implement "not a balance of power, but a community of power; not organized rivalries, but an organized common peace."...But the "community of power" of which Wilson was speaking replaced rigidity with unpredictability. What Wilson meant by community of power was a new concept that later became known as "collective security."" Just, verdant, and peaceful?
271 "[FDR] is reported to have assured the former U.S. ambassador in Moscow William C. Bullitt: Bill, I don't dispute your facts; they are accurate. I don't dispute the logic of your reasoning. I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of man...I think if I give him everything that I possibly can and ask nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige; he won't try to annex anything and will work for a world of democracy and peace."
297 "Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of the Singapore state and perhaps the wisest Asian leader of his period, was vocal in his firm belief, maintained to this writing, that American intervention was indispensable to preserve the possibility of an independent Southeast Asia."
307 "[I]n one eighteen-month period, during 1972-73, [Nixon] brought about the end of the Vietnam War, an opening to China, a summit with the Soviet Union even while escalating the military effort in response to a North Vietnamese offensive, the switch of Egypt from a Soviet ally to close cooperation with the United States, two disengagement agreements in the Middle East---one between Israel and Egypt, the other with Syria (lasting to this writing, even amidst a brutal civil war)---and the start of the European Security Conference, whose outcome over the long term severely weakened Soviet control of Eastern Europe." He also unilaterally destroyed our menacing arsenal of chemical and biological weapons and he ended the draft.
309 Gerald Ford's achievements
309 "According to an ancient tradition, God preserves humanity despite its many transgressions because, at any one period, there exist ten just individuals who, without being aware of their role, redeem mankind. Gerald Ford was such a man."
327 "[T]he United States, in a world of weapons of mass destruction and political and social upheaval, preserved the peace, helped restore Europe's vitality, and provided crucial economic aid to emerging countries."
328 "[A] country that has to play an indispensable role in the search for world order needs to begin that task by coming to terms with that role and with itself."
328 "There is a special character to a nation that proclaims as war aims not only to punish its enemies but to improve the lives of their people---that has sought victory not in domination but in sharing the fruits of liberty."
334 "[I]n 1969 President Nixon started formal talks with the Soviets on the limitation of strategic arms (with the acronym SALT)."