"Order without freedom, even if sustained by momentary exaltation, eventually creates its own counterpoise; yet freedom cannot be secured or sustained without a framework of order to keep the peace."

"But Japan drew from the challenge the opposite conclusion as China: it threw open its doors to foreign technology and overhauled its institutions in an attempt to replicate the Western powers’ rise."

"The Soviet Union would never be bound by agreements, Deng warned; it understood only the language of countervailing force."

"United States would become the indispensable defender of the order Europe designed."

"…Policy is the art of the possible, the science of the relative."

"When the Chinese court deigned to send envoys abroad, they were not diplomats, but “Heavenly Envoys” from the Celestial Court."

"Realpolitik for Bismarck depended on flexibility and on the ability to exploit every available option without the constraint of ideology."

"Nobody will ever win the Battle of the Sexes. There's just too much fraternizing with the enemy."

"For the greatest part of humanity and the longest periods of history, empire has been the typical mode of government."

"Empires have no interest in operating within an international system; they aspire to be the international system."

"Order should not have priority over freedom. But the affirmation of freedom should be elevated from a mood to a strategy."

"Woe to the statesman whose arguments for entering a war are not as convincing at its end as they were at the beginning,” Bismarck had cautioned."

"A diamond is a chunk of coal that did well under pressure."

"It's a pity both sides can't lose (commenting on Iran-Iraq war, 1980 – 1988)"

"Facts are rarely self-explanatory; their significance, analysis, and interpretation—at least in the foreign policy world—depend on context and relevance."

"Since Peter the Great, Russia had been expanding at the rate of one Belgium per year."

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

"George Bernard Shaw: “There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it."

"Politicians are like dogs... Their life expectancy is too short for a commitment to be bearable"

"Covert action should not be confused with missionary work."

"The state is a fragile organization, and the statesman does not have the moral right to risk its survival on ethical restraint."

"History knows no resting places and no plateaus"

"Intellectuals analyze the operations of international systems; statesmen build them."

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