I can create institutions, but I can't rewrite the chips in people's heads. Paddy Ashdown More Quotes by Paddy Ashdown More Quotes From Paddy Ashdown In the modern age where everything is connected to everything, the most important thing about what you can do is what you can do with others. Paddy Ashdown modern important age The greatest failure is that although we have created institutions, we have not created a civil society. Paddy Ashdown civil-society institutions There can be no place in a 21st-century parliament for people with 15th-century titles upholding 19th-century prejudices. Paddy Ashdown titles prejudice people I've had much nastier things said about me in the British press than in the Bosnian press. Paddy Ashdown bosnians british nasty The advent of interconnectedness and of weapons of mass destruction means that, increasingly, I share a destiny with my enemy. Paddy Ashdown mass-destruction destiny mean Coalition will come sooner or later, I'm certain of that. Paddy Ashdown coalitions sooner-or-later certain Blair is regarded by most people in Britain as a smarmy git. Paddy Ashdown britain blair people People do not want politicians they know to be corrupt. Paddy Ashdown politician want people Bosnia is under my skin. It's the place you cannot leave behind. I was obsessed by the nightmare of it all; there was this sense of guilt, and an anger that has become something much deeper over these last years. Paddy Ashdown anger house years Politics is about putting yourself in a state of grace. Paddy Ashdown politician politics grace It would be a foolish high representative who worked that way. Paddy Ashdown stupid would-be way I can establish the expectation of retributive justice. Have we done that? No. Paddy Ashdown done expectations justice What my future will not be is active politics in the Liberal Democrat party. Paddy Ashdown my-future democrat party My second job has been to try to use my power to create institutions of a modern state that could enter the European Union, and there was very little time. The door was closing, and I wanted to get Bosnia through before it shut. Paddy Ashdown doors europe jobs The United States will remain the most powerful nation on Earth for the next 10, 15 years, but the context in which she holds her power has now radically altered. Paddy Ashdown united-states powerful years At the next election he'll offer the British public an alternative that provides weight and substance and seriousness in a political debate that is, frankly, increasingly obsessed with modishness and flim-flam. Paddy Ashdown next political weight I am formally accountable to the steering board of the PIC, and I meet with nine ambassadors from the PIC every week. I have to have the capitals' broad agreement with what I do. Paddy Ashdown ambassadors boards agreement We have to make their livelihoods viable, get them the proper prices for their produce, try and make them stay rather than sell their property and leave again. Paddy Ashdown property produce trying Politics is compromise. Paddy Ashdown compromise Now we are intimately locked together. You get swine flu in Mexico; it’s a problem for Charles de Gaulle Airport 24 hours later. Lehman Brothers goes down; the whole lot collapses. There are fires in the steppes of Russia; food riots in Africa. Paddy Ashdown airports brother fire
