Quotes by Helmut Schmidt - Page 1

Britain is less European-minded than Greece.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Britain
Greece
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People with visions should go to the doctor.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
People
Should
Go
Doctor
Visions
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People who have visions should go see a doctor.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Doctors
People
Vision
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I've never been a classic Gaulist! Not a Gaulist at all.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
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If I ever had to emigrate, I would probably go to America.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Emigrate
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The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Improvement
World
Biggest
Room
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Political leaders normally act by making convincing speeches.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Leader
Political
Speech
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Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take many small steps.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Steps
Distant
Small
Reach
Wants
Whoever
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The concept of multiculturalism is difficult to make fit with a democratic society.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Democratic
Democratic Society
Fit
Multiculturalism
Concept
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Americans tend to feel satisfied within the wide boundaries of that huge, big country.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Boundaries
Satisfied
Wide
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Since I came an adult - for more than 45 years - Marcus Aurelius has been my great idol.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Idol
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The German public knows me quite well. I have been in their kitchens and living rooms for years.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Rooms
German
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Some of the American military obviously were thinking in terms of fighting a nuclear war. I was opposed to that.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
War
Fighting
Military
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Admirals and Generals always want more ships and more weapons and they take the arguments where they can find them.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Ships
Want
Weapons
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I think that the solution of the question of numerical superiority of Russian conventional forces has to be solved.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Conventional
Force
Thinking
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Population growth and the proliferation of mega-cities around the world redefines the entire global security agenda.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Cities
Growth
Population
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President [Ronald] Reagan told me he would negotiate and negotiate and negotiate with the Soviets, and I believed him.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
President
President Ronald Reagan
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Politicians and journalists share the same fate in that they often understand tomorrow the things they talk about today.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Fate
Today
Tomorrow
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I hate the idea that someone think the destruction of Chicago as strategic affair, the destruction of Hamburg as a tactical one.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Hate
Ideas
Thinking
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Leonid Brezhnev did not understand the enormous political importance of the decision to produce and afterwards deploy the SS-20s.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Brezhnev
Decision
Political
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The British are very stubborn. The Queen, the Commonwealth, and the special relationship with the U.S. is much more important than Europe.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
British
Commonwealth
Europe
Special
Stubborn
Queen
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The British claim to have a special relationship with the U.S., but if you mention this in Washington, no one knows what you are talking about.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Relationship
British
Special
Talking
Claim
Washington
Mention
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Leonid Breznev was an old man and despite his own military experience in World War II, he on the other hand was not very close to the military.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Men
War
Military
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[Ronald] Reagan seems to be a man of some basic convictions and on the other hand willing to let others do the ground homework, the detailed work.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Men
Hands
Homework
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Farmers are always conservative. They stick to what they have learned from their fathers and from their grandfathers. This is the same all over the globe.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Fathers
Grandfathers
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Germany is one of the medium powers of the world. It is a non-nuclear power. It is in a lower class than the United States, the Soviet Union, France, the United Kingdom and others.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
France
Germany
Lower Class
Soviet
Soviet Union
United Kingdom
Lower
Medium
Powers
Union
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My education has been pro-England. I have been an England-minded citizen of Hamburg, and I am still in a way English-minded, but I have been disappointed by the Brits over the years.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Brits
Disappointed
Citizen
Hamburg
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Particularly since the computerization of the world, the impact of media has grown enormously. The printed books and the printed media have become less important. Why should somebody read Laozi or Confucius if he can Google?
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Google
Impact
Printed
Particularly
Grown
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I remember the youth movement in 1968. It started on American university campuses as a protest against the Vietnam war, then came to Paris, Frankfurt and Berlin. Within a year, you had an uprising of youth against their elders.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Berlin
Elders
Uprising
Vietnam
Vietnam War
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I will not be remembered in history. I have not been shot. I have not launched any great tragedy or victory. I have not borne any great defeat. It was a very normal - it still is a very normal - human life of a political leader.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Defeat
Great Tragedy
Human Life
Leader
Normal
Remembered
Tragedy
Life History Great
Shot
Borne
Political Leader
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Ronad Reagan might go down to history as a man who in the end of this administration brought about the first nuclear arms reduction treaty, the first arms reduction treaty at all in the modern world, and this is quite something.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Men
Firsts
Might
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When I became a soldier, I was drafted in 1937, and instead of being released two years later, I had to stay on because the war had started in the meantime. I was a soldier for more than eight years, as long a time as I was Chancellor.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Eight
Soldier
Time War Long
Became
Chancellor
War Time Long
Stay
Drafted
Instead
Meantime
Released
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The catch word is equilibrium again, informed the field what are conventional weapons or nuclear weapons of different qualities. You cannot make up for a actual or perceived disequilibrium in the conventional field by having more nuclear weapons.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Quality
Different
Nuclear
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I had a Jewish grandfather. We managed to hide this fact from the authorities by falsifying documents, my father and I. His father was Jewish, but because my father was an illegitimate child, it was rather easy to pretend that his father was unknown.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Documents
Grandfather
Unknown
Jewish
Authorities
Pretend
Hide
Illegitimate
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I was in government for 13 years and in that time only once met the head of the German security services, and that was because he was an old friend. Otherwise, I carefully avoided having anything to do with these people. They are unavoidable but not really necessary.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Avoided
Time Government People
German
Carefully
Old Friend
Services
Unavoidable
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In those years,'80 was the, at the turn of '79/'80 you had the invasion of Afghanistan. It was the period in which the Americans attempt to liberate, to, to liberate the hostages in Iran and all these, all these things, the atmosphere was freezing - boycott of the Olympic Games and all that.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Games
Iran
Years
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If somewhere is a deficiency the normal American answer would have been well then, let's spend some more money, build some more weapons and deploy them. That's the normal way of thinking of the military, in America not only but also all over the place, but America or Russia or other countries.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Country
Military
Thinking
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I have had and still do have every confidence in Paul Nitze, a man whom I have known for decades, one of the wisest servants of the American nation but always willing and capable of taking into account the interests of their allies, whoever: the British, or the French or the Germans or others.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Men
Allies
British
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In a mass television democracy - which all of us nowadays have - it is impossible to take basic political decisions with long-term consequences without the public knowing it, without the public understanding at least some of it, without the public forming its judgment, heterogeneous as it may be.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Democracy
Impossible
Long Term
Mass
Political Decisions
Understanding
Decisions
Consequences
Basic
Forming
Nowadays
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What I do see, for instance, is that the French are not very happy with the ... I am happy but they are not and I understand why they are not happy. They still believe in some nuclear strategic formulas which they have inherited from General De Gaulle and they have started the process of rethinking, they haven't gone very far.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Believe
Gone
Nuclear
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President [Ronald] Reagan never has tried to become an expert on military matters. He never has endeavored to learn the most important details in that field, which lead to a situation in which his aides played a much greater roles than aides would have played under President Ford or let us say in the whole Nixon-Ford-Kissinger era.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Important
Military
President
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Democracy is not the end point of mankind. There may be developments in many different directions in the coming centuries. Democracy has only existed for about 200 years. It started out with the American Declaration of Independence. The Americans got their ideas from the Europeans, in the main from the French, the Dutch and the British.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Independence
British
Declaration
Democracy
Different Directions
Dutch
Mankind
Centuries
French
Developments
Directions
Europeans
Existed
Main
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The critical thing about Western democracy is the fact that you usually have a transition of power without bloodshed. That is an enormous advantage. But still, democracy as we know it was only invented recently in the West, historical speaking. It did not really work in ancient Rome. It functioned for less than 200 years in ancient Athens.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Advantage
Ancient
Ancient Rome
Athens
Bloodshed
Critical
Democracy
Enormous
Historical
Rome
West
Recently
Speaking
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I have talked about the deterioration of the atmosphere between Washington and Moscow. It was quite clear that in the year 1980, which at the same time was an election year in America, these negotiations would not go very far, but immediately after the start of the Reagan administration we in Bonn started to try influencing them on the medium-range nuclear weapons negotiations, and we told them that in our view the best outcome would be zero-zero, zero on either side.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Zero
America
Views
Years
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The Alliance and NATO is two different things. France is a member of the Alliance. NATO is an organization not mentioned in the North Atlantic Treaty, has been built up in the course of history, in the course of history France has left that organization. Normally the Alliance has been lead by consent, building up consensus on important issues of questions, in many instances over the last 30 years that I have followed events closely. In many, many cases was being done under the spiritual guidance of the American President, that is true, but sometimes also at the guidance of others.
Helmut Schmidt / Former Chancellor Of Germany
Building Up
Spiritual
Years
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Helmut Schmidt Quotes - Page 1

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