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Paddy Ashdown Quotes

1941–2018 United Kingdom

Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG, CH, KBE, PC (born 27 February 1941 –22 December 2018), commonly known as Paddy Ashdown, was a British politician and former Royal Marine. He is a former Leader of the UK Liberal Democrat party and former High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2006.

United Kingdom
Military leaders

Random Paddy Ashdown quote

5 quotes

I don't think Bosnia is ready for reconciliation, but I do think it is ready for truth.

There can be no place in a 21st-century parliament for people with 15th-century titles upholding 19th-century prejudices.

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.

Radio series for the BBC (2007)

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.

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.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Paddy Ashdown (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.