We will compromise and compromise and compromise but we will never be compromised.

The economic crisis has weakened the EU for years.

I'm the finance minister of a bankrupt country!

Regular crises perpetuate the past by reinvigorating cycles which started long ago. In contrast, (capital-C) Crises are the past's death knell. They function like laboratories in which the future is incubated. They have given us agriculture and the industrial revolution, technology and the labour contract, killer germs and antibiotics. Once they strike, the past ceases to be a reliable predictor of the future and a brave new world is born.

Anyone who toys with the idea of cutting off bits of the eurozone hoping the rest will survive is playing with fire.

Nothing is more boring than talking to people who share my opinion anyway.

Germany is Europe's heart. But bitterness is widespread. Currently the Germans hate the Greeks and the Greeks hate the Germans. The demonization of the country has to stop if we want a strong Europe. So I am setting a positive example.