I assumed office to bring the EU to a point from which there is no going back. Instead, I am having to unwind the EU to a certain extent.

When the going gets tough, you have to lie.

When it becomes serious, you have to lie.

I'm ready to be insulted as being insufficiently democratic, but I want to be serious ... I am for secret, dark debates.

I believe neither the French nor the Dutch really rejected the constitutional treaty.

I notice with a certain sense of regret that far too many Europeans are returning to a regional and national mindset.

Decisions can only be reached in Europe if France and Germany agree.

It is not acceptable that European Union countries are divided into those who give and those who take.

I am chilled by the realization of how similar circumstances in Europe in 2013 are to those of 100 years ago.

It is not more Europe or less Europe that we need. We need a better Europe.

I am for secret, dark debates.

What do nations care about the cost of war, if by spending a few hundred millions in steel and gunpowder they can gain a thousand millions in diamonds and cocoa?

The stars were only sparks of the fire which devoured us. Should that fire die out one day, there would be nothing left in the sky but dead stars, dead eyes.

But when you cared about someone, you made sacrifices. You put their happiness first.

Either you must control your thoughts or the outside forces will control them and be warned that the outside forces are usually negative.

A person seldom falls sick but the bystanders are animated with a faint hope that he will die.

Humans have grown like a cancer. We're the biggest blight on the face of the earth.

Poverty is considered quaint in the rural areas because it comes thatched.

This only is certain, that there is nothing certain.

I know you heard what you thought I said, but what I said isn't what I meant.

My mother was kind and forgiving and would take in all the waifs and strays in our neighbourhood; we always compared her to Mother Teresa. She taught me a lot.