“You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”
“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own set of facts. ”
“No one is innocent after the experience of governing. But not everyone is guilty.”
“To be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart.”
“Am I embarrassed to speak for a less than perfect democracy? Not one bit. Find me a better one. Do I suppose there are societies which are free of sin? No, I don't. Do I think ours is, on balance, incomparably the most hopeful set of human relations the world has? Yes, I do.”
“The Soviet Union came apart along ethnic lines. The most important factor in this breakup was the disinclination of Slavic Ukraine to continue under a regime dominated by Slavic Russia. Yugoslavia came apart also, beginning with a brutal clash between Serbia and Croatia, here again 'nations' with only the smallest differences in genealogy; with, indeed, practically a common language. Ethnic conflict does not require great differences; small will do.”