In the tumult of great events, solitude was what I hoped for. Now it is what I love. How is it possible to be contented with anything else when one has come face to face with history?

In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.

We may go to the moon, but that' s not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us.

Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.

Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life.

Yes, it is Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals, it is Europe, it is the whole of Europe, that will decide the fate of the world.

In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.