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

Whenever a new president comes in, people that are used to the previous president wonder if he has the same capacity.

Why should we flagellate ourselves for what the Cambodians did to each other?

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been. The public does not fully understand the world into which it is going. Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision. Those leaders who do not are ultimately judged failures, even though they may be popular at the moment.

It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true.

The enemies you make by taking a decided stand generally have more respect for you than the friends you make by being on the fence

The attitude of the West and of Russia towards a crisis like Ukraine is diametrically different. The West is trying to establish the legality of any established border. For Russia, Ukraine is part of the Russian patrimony. A Russian state was created around Kiev about 1,200 years ago. Ukraine itself has been part of Russia for 500 years, and I would say most Russians consider it part of Russian patrimony. The ideal solution would be to have a Ukraine like Finland or Austria that can be a bridge between these two rather than an outpost.