Every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed.

One of the hardest things for the president is to distinguish the routine issues that come through from the essential issues that affect the long term, and not to let himself get sucked into the battles of the bureaucracy for marginal issues, and to keep them focused and to keep his mind clear on what the fundamental things are that he has to accomplish.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

The American foreign policy trauma of the sixties and seventies was caused by applying valid principles to unsuitable conditions.

Iraq has to be made an international, and not just a national American problem.

History is not, of course, a cookbook offering pretested recipes. It teaches by analogy, not by maxims. It can illuminate the consequences of actions in comparable situations, yet each generation must discover for itself what situations are in fact comparable.

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