I am courageous at the decisive moment. But I need a good deal of start-up time, and I try to take as much as possible into consideration beforehand.

Global climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century.

Look at the history of the printing press, when this was invented what sort of consequences this had. Or industrialization, what sort of consequences that had. Very often, it led to enormous transformational processes within individual societies. And it took awhile until societies learned how to find the right kind of policies to contain this and manage and steer this.

The substance of the constitution is preserved. That is a fact.

I think we live in a period of profound transformation. Very similar to when we had a transition from agricultural societies to industrial societies.

Just because times change and alot of people think that dating multiple people is the thing these days, it just isn't a solid foundation at all in matters of the heart. I still believe in marriages that have a physically powerful foundation.

For my part, in everything I do, I aim to strengthen democracy in Germany and beyond. The United States is also a strong democracy. As we are seeing in Poland, for example, and also in Hungary, it is important that we have counterweights in democratic systems, and I believe they are still strong in America.