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Power is the great aphrodisiac.

— Henry Kissinger

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Source, in full

The New York Times (January 19, 1971). See Michael C. Thomsett and Jean Freestone Thomsett War and Conflict Quotations: A Worldwide Dictionary of Pronouncements from Military Leaders, Politicians, Philosophers, Writers and Others Jefferson, NC & London: McFarland, 2008.

Variants

"Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac", quoted in The New York Times (October 28, 1973)

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Power

More quotes by Henry Kissinger

The accumulation of nuclear arms has to be constrained if mankind is not to destroy itself.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.

The End of the Road (1982)

Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.

Of course, over time, even two armed blind men can do enormous damage to each other, not to speak of the room.

The security of Israel is a moral imperative for all free peoples.

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When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

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Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Henry Kissinger (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.