Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Disarmament requires trust.
We could be happy if the air was as pure as beer.
The first thing I see is the obligation to serve peace.
One of our most noble political tasks is to open up trust.
Certainly the interest in asserting copyright is a justified one.
Insecurity and resignation mingle with the hope for a better order.
If we know where we want to go, then even a stony road is bearable.
Liberal democracy must finally become the vital element of our society.
Whoever refuses to remember the inhumanity is prone to new risks of infection.
In my view, the humanity of our world can be measured against the fate of Africa.
Everywhere, authority and tradition have to justify themselves in the face of questions.
Responsibility and respect of others and their religious beliefs are also part of freedom.
Seeking to forget makes exile all the longer; the secret of redemption lies in remembrance.
I will be guided by the Christian ethic and an awareness that human action is by nature transient.
But I think that sensitivity is also a good counsellor when it comes to enforcing one's interests.
Ladies and gentlemen, I take office at a time in which the world is living in extreme contradictions.
The time has come - and must come - for multilateral conversations about a secure peace in all of Europe.
Some fatherlands are difficult. Germany is one of them. But it is our fatherland. Here is where we live and work.
Therefore it does not help to sneer at the imperfection of today's reality or to preach absolutes as a daily agenda.
Trust cannot be commanded; and yet it is also correct that the only one who earns trust is the one who is prepared to grant trust.
In this life of ours we remain directed toward the relative utopia of a better world, and sensibly this can be the only model for our action.
I have left the federal government and the German Bundestag; I have resigned from all my positions in the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
Not less, but more democracy - that is the demand, that is the great goal that we have to prescribe for ourselves, and especially for our youth.
It is just not enough to strengthen the secret services for the fight against terrorism but it's also necessary to advance dialogue between cultures.
Education is more than Pisa. Particularly musical education. We also need education and training for more than reasons of usefulness and marketability.
Democracy feeds on argument, on the discussion as to the right way forward. This is the reason why respecting the opinion of others belongs to democracy.
We have to recognize that the freedom of the individual has to be protected not only from the power of the state, but even more so from economic and societal power.
I appeal to the responsibility of the blocs and the major powers, not to seek security in the arms race, but rather in a meeting for joint disarmament and arms limitations.
A few weeks ago we were reminded that other peoples - in particular the United States of America - fought so that we Germans could live in liberty. That we should never forget.
We must prepare the ground for creativity. And if this also gives rise later to success in the economic sense, success in terms of Euros and Cents, this will by no means reduce my joy.
Every generation is confronted anew with the task not to look the other way when injustice occurs. ... Everyone is responsible for what he does and co-responsible for what he lets happen.
Germany must be a country which generates political ideas and leadership, which is capable of compromise, which is sovereign and yet knows that it needs its partners on both sides of the Atlantic.
All of us, whether guilty or not, whether old or young, must accept the past. It is not a case of coming to terms with the past. That is not possible. It cannot be subsequently modified or undone.
Germany's fate is decided first and foremost in Europe. Reconciliation and cooperation in Europe have brought us freedom, peace and prosperity. Who would have dared to believe so much 50 years ago?
But it is equally necessary to consider the implications for a society if there are fewer and fewer young people making music because we are economising on music schools or musical education in schools.
The secret of big and revolutionary actions also consists in discovering the tiny step that is simultaneously a strategic step, insofar as it entails additional steps in the direction of a better reality.
War is not the quintessential emergency in which man has to prove himself, as my generation learned at its school desks in the days of the Kaiser; rather, peace is the emergency in which we all have to prove ourselves.
This is the biggest cemetery for Jews, Poles, Roma and Sinti. It must tell us that we have to come back here again and again. We must keep the memory of the worst crime in human history alive for those who were born later.
A hundred years ago, of course, the question that the German Composers' Co-operative asked itself sounded a lot more fundamental: How do you create a fair share for those who ensure that works can actually be performed at all?
Patriotism can flourish only where racism and nationalism are given no quarter. We should never mistake patriotism for nationalism. A patriot is one who loves his homeland. A nationalist is one who scorns the homelands of others.
A hundred years ago, when Richard Strauss, who has already been quoted and already been heard today, and other creative people, laid the foundation stone for the joint assertion of their rights and interests, they had pioneering work ahead of them in Germany.
Ladies and gentlemen, on the occasion of my election I received many letters from people representing all segments of the population and all professions, especially from the younger generation, linking my inauguration with great - far too great - expectations.
I understand the worries of many - not only here in this auditorium -, and some have already written to me to say that technical progress has lowered the threshold that stops people from helping themselves to protected works without the slightest embarrassment.
There were many ways of not burdening one's conscience, of shunning responsibility, looking away, keeping mum. When the unspeakable truth of the Holocaust then became known at the end of the war, all too many of us claimed that they had not known anything about it or even suspected anything.