Paddy Ashdown was a British politician and diplomat. He was leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1999 and served as the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2006. He was also a Member of Parliament for Yeovil from 1983 to 2001.
What is the most famous quote by Paddy Ashdown ?
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
What can you learn from Paddy Ashdown (Life Lessons)
- Paddy Ashdown was a British politician who demonstrated the importance of resilience and determination in the face of adversity. He was an advocate for social justice and human rights, and showed that it is possible to make a difference by taking a stand and speaking out.
- He was also a firm believer in the power of collaboration and compromise, teaching us that it is possible to work together to achieve common goals and that compromise can be a powerful tool for progress.
- Finally, he showed us that it is possible to remain optimistic in the face of difficulty and that by working hard and believing in yourself, it is possible to make a positive difference in the world.
The most jittery Paddy Ashdown quotes that are easy to memorize and remember
Following is a list of the best Paddy Ashdown quotes, including various Paddy Ashdown inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by Paddy Ashdown.
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?
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.
The advent of interconnectedness and of weapons of mass destruction means that, increasingly, I share a destiny with my enemy.
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.
There can be no place in a 21st-century parliament for people with 15th-century titles upholding 19th-century prejudices.
I've had much nastier things said about me in the British press than in the Bosnian press.
Politics is compromise.
What my future will not be is active politics in the Liberal Democrat party.
Diplomatic quotes by Paddy Ashdown
It would be a foolish high representative who worked that way.
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.
I can create institutions, but I can't rewrite the chips in people's heads.
Maybe it's legitimate criticism, though it can be hurtful.
Maybe I haven't paid sufficient attention to the people with whom I would have a natural affinity as a liberal, and they feel let down by that.
I can establish the expectation of retributive justice. Have we done that? No.
Blair is regarded by most people in Britain as a smarmy git.
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.
It's not my job to be popular. I'm goal-driven; my job is to get results.
Quotations by Paddy Ashdown that are determined and visionary
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.
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.
I am here because I think it was a terrible sin of the west to allow those years of war.
One of the great barriers to peace in the Middle East is that both sides, both Israel and the Palestinians, do not understand that they share a collective destiny.
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.
People say to me, 'The Chinese, of course, they'll never get themselves involved in multilateral peace-making around the world.' Oh yes? Why not? How many Chinese troops are ... serving under the U.N. command in the world today? 3,700. How many Americans? 11.
People do not want politicians they know to be corrupt.
I was told there would be riots in the streets, but there were no riots.
Politics is about putting yourself in a state of grace.
The greatest failure is that although we have created institutions, we have not created a civil society.
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.
Up until now, if the West got its act together, it could propose and dispose in every corner of the world. But that's no longer true.
We have invented a new human right here - the right to return home after a war.
Truth and reconciliation' are always combined, but I would split them: I don't think Bosnia is ready for reconciliation, but I do think it is ready for truth.
Coalition will come sooner or later, I'm certain of that.
We have to make their livelihoods viable, get them the proper prices for their produce, try and make them stay rather than sell their property and leave again.
I don't think Bosnia is ready for reconciliation, but I do think it is ready for truth.