Before the Freedom of Information Act, I used to say at meetings "The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer." [...] But since the Freedom of Information Act, I'm afraid to say things like that.

We're at a moment when the international system is in a period of change like we haven't seen for several hundred years. In some parts of the world, the nation state, on which the existing international system was based, is either giving up its traditional aspects, like in Europe, or as in the Middle East, where it was never really fully established, it is no longer the defining element. So in those two parts of the world, there is tremendous adjustment in traditional concepts.

It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

A bluff taken seriously is more useful than a serious threat interpreted as a bluff.

The emergence of a unified Europe is one of the most revolutionary events of our time.

People think responsibility is hard to bear. It's not. I think that sometimes it is the absence of responsibility that is harder to bear. You have a great feeling of impotence.