Henry Alfred Kissinger was born on May 27, 1923, in Fürth, Germany. He earned his A.B. degree from Harvard College, in 1950, and his A.M and a Ph.D from Harvard University in 1952 and 1954, respectively. After completion of his Ph.D., Kissinger continued in Harvard University as a member of the faculty in the Department of Government and at the Center of International affairs. He was the Director of the Harvard International Seminar between 1951 and 1971, and the Harvard Defense Studies Program between 1958 and 1971. He was 56th Secretary of State, from 1973 to 1977, and held the position of an assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from 1969 to 1975. He is the founder of Kissinger Associates, which is a New York City based international consulting firm. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, for helping the ceasefire in the Vietnam War. Famous Quotes by Henry Kissinger "High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered; they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make." "A leader who confines his role to his people's experience dooms himself to stagnation; a leader who outstrips his people's experience runs the risk of not being understood." "It is, after all, the responsibility of the expert to operate the familiar and that of the leader to transcend it." "If I should ever be captured, I want no negotiation - and if I should request a negotiation from captivity they should consider that a sign of duress." "Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation." "The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been." "Any fact that needs to be disclosed should be put out now or as quickly as possible, because otherwise the bleeding will not end." "Nobody will ever win the Battle of the Sexes. There's just too much fraternizing with the enemy." "The real distinction is between those who adapt their purposes to reality and those who seek to mold reality in the light of their purposes." "Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by their world government." "Nothing ever engaged him so completely that he would bring to it the sacrifice of personal advancement." "Highly intelligent, superbly endowed physically, [John B. Connally] looked and acted as if he were born to lead. His build was matched by his ego - but those who aspire to the apex must not be criticized for that; they could never lead effectively without extraordinary self-confidence." "No foreign policy - no matter how ingenious - has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none." "The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles. What President Nixon and I tried to do was unnatural. And that is why we didn't make it." "The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision." "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." "The nice thing about being a celebrity is that when you bore people, they think it's their fault." "The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer." "I regret that these words were used. I have extremely high regard for Mrs Gandhi as a statesman" "[The foul language has] to be seen in the context of a cold war atmosphere 35 years ago, when I had paid a secret visit to China when President Nixon had not yet been there and India had made a kind of an alliance with the Soviet Union" These are some of the famous quotes by Henry Kissinger, who is well-known for his intellect and diplomatic skills. However, he is also condemned for his role as National Security Adviser in the Nixon administration for siding with Pakistan in the genocide that happened in erstwhile East Pakistan (Now Bangladesh) in 1971. He publicly apologized for his role in July, 2005.