Paddy Ashdown Quotes

• 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

  Important, Age, Modern

  "The global power shift". TED conference, www.ted.com. December 2011.

  48 Copy quote

• The greatest failure is that although we have created institutions, we have not created a civil society.

  Paddy Ashdown

  Institutions, Civil Society

  "The Politics of Appeasement — Again and Again??" by Jane Wells, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 2, 2005.

  27 Copy quote

• There can be no place in a 21st-century parliament for people with 15th-century titles upholding 19th-century prejudices.

  Paddy Ashdown

  People, Titles, Prejudice

  Independent, November 25, 1998.

  11 Copy quote

• The advent of interconnectedness and of weapons of mass destruction means that, increasingly, I share a destiny with my enemy.

  Paddy Ashdown

  Mean, Destiny, Mass Destruction

  14 Copy quote

• 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, Years, House

  21 Copy quote

• I've had much nastier things said about me in the British press than in the Bosnian press.

  Paddy Ashdown

  Nasty, Bosnians, British

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  9 Copy quote

• Blair is regarded by most people in Britain as a smarmy git.

  Paddy Ashdown

  People, Blair, Britain

  "What they said in 2001". www.theguardian.com. December 30, 2001.

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Brother, Fire, Airports

  5 Copy quote

• Politics is about putting yourself in a state of grace.

  Paddy Ashdown

  Grace, Politics, Politician

  7 Copy quote

• I can create institutions, but I can't rewrite the chips in people's heads.

  Paddy Ashdown

  People, Chips, Institutions

  8 Copy quote

• The multinational corporations now developing budgets often bigger than medium-sized countries — these live in a global space which is largely unregulated, not subject to the rule of law, and in which people may act free of constraint.

  Paddy Ashdown

  Country, Motivation, Inspiration

  "The global power shift". TED conference, www.ted.com. December 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• Coalition will come sooner or later, I'm certain of that.

  Paddy Ashdown

  Coalitions, Certain, Sooner Or Later

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Powerful, Years, United States

  8 Copy quote

• It's not my job to be popular. I'm goal-driven; my job is to get results.

  Paddy Ashdown

  Song, Jobs, Goal

  "Farewell, Sarajevo", www.theguardian.com. November 1, 2005.

  7 Copy quote

• Politics is compromise.

  Paddy Ashdown

  Compromise

  "Farewell, Sarajevo". www.theguardian.com. November 1, 2005.

  8 Copy quote

• History teaches us these lessons for the interveners: leave your prejudices at home, keep your ambitions low, have enough resources to do the job, do not lose the golden hour, make security your first priority, involve the neighbours.

  Paddy Ashdown

  Jobs, Home, Ambition

  "Lessons in Foreign Intervention". news.bbc.co.uk. June 11, 2007.

  13 Copy quote

• 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

  Jobs, Doors, Europe

  "Farewell, Sarajevo" by Ed Vulliamy, www.theguardian.com. November 1, 2005.

  23 Copy quote

• People do not want politicians they know to be corrupt.

  Paddy Ashdown

  People, Want, Politician

  "Farewell, Sarajevo" by Ed Vulliamy, www.theguardian.com. November 1, 2005.

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Political, Weight, Next

  7 Copy quote

• The generous way of putting it is that we were not ready for this. The less generous way is to say: How was it possible to return to the politics of appeasement of the 1930s?

  Paddy Ashdown

  Way, Return, Comeback

  "Farewell, Sarajevo" by Ed Vulliamy, www.theguardian.com. November 1, 2005.

  28 Copy quote

• 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

  Agreement, Boards, Ambassadors

  8 Copy quote

• It would be a foolish high representative who worked that way.

  Paddy Ashdown

  Stupid, Would Be, Way

  "Farewell, Sarajevo" by Ed Vulliamy, www.theguardian.com. November 1, 2005.

  8 Copy quote

• What my future will not be is active politics in the Liberal Democrat party.

  Paddy Ashdown

  Party, Democrat, My Future

  "Farewell, Sarajevo". Interview with Ed Vulliamy, www.theguardian.com. November 1, 2005.

  8 Copy quote

• I can establish the expectation of retributive justice. Have we done that? No.

  Paddy Ashdown

  Justice, Expectations, Done

  7 Copy quote

• We have invented a new human right here - the right to return home after a war.

  Paddy Ashdown

  War, Home, Return

  "Farewell, Sarajevo" by Ed Vulliamy, www.theguardian.com. November 1, 2005.

  4 Copy quote

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