If eighty percent of your sales come from twenty percent of all of your items, just carry those twenty percent.

Well it did not make excessive sense to say that 20 million people are the recognized government of a billion people that have their own institutions. We did not change it in the sense that we said this has to end, but there was a U.N. vote that transferred the legitimacy of China from Taiwan to Beijing. Beijing was recognized as the government of all of China. Then, under President Carter, we followed what the U.N. had already done eight years earlier.

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.

Competing pressures tempt one to believe that an issue deferred is a problem avoided; more often it is a crisis invited.

The history of things that didn't happen has never been written.

I believe that without Watergate we would have had an extraordinary period of success with a strong Nixon and a still vital Brezhnev in power.

Every American president, regardless of party, has said that America has an intense interest in a peaceful resolution. And I think it should be left at that.