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" It was a stroke of luck that there were about four to six leaders in power in the mid-'80s who really trusted one another and could really make things happen. "
Helmut Kohl
Luck
Things Happen
Power
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" The army is under orders to defend every place. "
Helmut Kohl
Army
Defend
Place
" My childhood ended in 1942. I was 12, and for the next three years, I lived under incessant bombings. It was a life of constant fear. "
Helmut Kohl
Life
Childhood
Fear
" As a child, I personally didn't really get to know any Jews. I was eight years old when the Night of Broken Glass happened. And Ludwigshafen was purely a workers' city, so we didn't have a very big Jewish community. What I did know about the Jews, I heard from my mother. My mother was very much pro-Jewish. "
Helmut Kohl
Mother
Night
Broken
" Where is Germany now and where does it want to go? It's a question being asked by our partners and allies abroad. We have to return - urgently - to our old dependability. We have to make clear for others what we stand for, where we're headed, and that we know where we belong. "
Helmut Kohl
Others
Now
Know
" Germany is our fatherland; Europe is our future. "
Helmut Kohl
Our
Europe
Germany
" We all need Europe, not just those of us in Europe. And we Germans need Europe more than the others. Germany is the country with the longest border, the most neighbours, and is, by population and economic strength, the number one in Europe. "
Helmut Kohl
Need
More
Strength
" Russia is Germany's most important neighbor in the East, and it will remain so. "
Helmut Kohl
Important
Most
Russia
" I knew that I could never win a referendum in Germany. We would have lost a referendum on the introduction of the euro. That's quite clear. I would have lost, and by seven to three. "
Helmut Kohl
Introduction
Win
Three
" We were united not only by political respect for each other, but also by deep mutual sympathy as people. "
Helmut Kohl
People
Respect
Deep
" Where there is no will, no rules or laws can help. "
Helmut Kohl
Rules
No Rules
Laws
" Two decisions have damaged the stability both of the euro and of Europe: the premature admission of Greece to the euro area and the breach and subsequent weakening of the stability and growth pact. "
Helmut Kohl
Both
Two
Decisions
" We Germans have learned from history. We are a peace-loving, freedom-loving people. There is only one place for us in the world: at the side of the free nations. "
Helmut Kohl
People
Free
World
" If a Chancellor is trying to push something through, he must be a man of power. And if he's smart, he knows when the time is ripe. In one case - the euro - I was like a dictator... The euro is a synonym for Europe. "
Helmut Kohl
Time
Push
Power
" German and European unification are two sides of the same coin. "
Helmut Kohl
Sides
Two
Coin
" I don't want to give myself grades. I will leave evaluation of my achievements to history. "
Helmut Kohl
History
Grades
Leave
" I have every reason, despite the resentment and exasperation, to be proud. I have nothing better to be proud of than being proud of German unity. "
Helmut Kohl
Unity
Proud
Nothing
" When I was elected to head the German government, I was fortunate enough to find a partner in Francois Mitterrand. "
Helmut Kohl
Head
Government
Find
" People in Tel Aviv can not imagine, but in 1990, here in Leipzig or Dresden, whoever wanted to buy a car had to wait 14 years. The East Germans worked like people in the West, but the fruits of their labor were harvested by a criminal regime. "
Helmut Kohl
Like
Car
Labor
" Isolated decisions, however well-founded they might seem to the individual, and national go-it-alone moves must belong to the past. They should not be the 21st-century method of choice, particularly because the consequences of the European community's actions must often be carried collectively. "
Helmut Kohl
Community
Decisions
Seem
" Europe has, to put it mildly, been in a poor state since the transition to the 21st century. This is down to national issues, European missteps, and an economic and financial crisis that crashed down on us with enough force to dislodge the essential European idea. "
Helmut Kohl
Down
Us
Enough
" I ask myself where Germany stands today and where it wants to go. "
Helmut Kohl
Myself
Go
Today
" If one has no compass, when one doesn't know where one stands and where one wants to go, one can deduce that one has no leadership or interest in shaping events. "
Helmut Kohl
Go
Know
Leadership
" Nations with a common currency never went to war against each other. A common currency is more than the money you pay with. "
Helmut Kohl
Never
More
Money
" My parents were Christians - Catholics, but not in the close-minded sense. I remember my mother to be a very pious woman, but she was never against other religions. "
Helmut Kohl
Remember
Mother
Woman
" I have made a very good living, for more than 30 years, by being underestimated. "
Helmut Kohl
More
Than
Years
" Peace must be more than the absence of war. "
Helmut Kohl
Peace
War
Than
" In German history, we don't have many reasons to be proud. "
Helmut Kohl
German
History
Many
" We humans have an abyss inside us. The more power people have, the greater the danger. "
Helmut Kohl
Abyss
People
Inside
" Solitary decisions, no matter how well-founded they may appear to individuals, must belong to the past - along with national, unilateralist action. "
Helmut Kohl
Past
Action
Matter
" For me it is completely clear that our air bases in Germany would be available to the Americans. "
Helmut Kohl
Clear
Germany
Me