It is normal for politicians in all countries to profess themselves the pupils of history, anxious to draw the right lessons from her teaching.

There is no consensus even today on the merits of Napoleon - and certainly no agreement on the rights and wrongs of the origins of the First World War.

Men like Hitler and Stalin and their immediate lieutenants cannot plead in defence of their actions that these were justified by the accepted values of that time.

Prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse.

We, Britain and Germany, can neither of us be happy about our handling of the Iraq war.

Margaret Thatcher, growing up in a bombed and battered Britain, derived a distrust which has grown with the years not just of Germany but of all continental Europe.

History provides no precise guidelines.

But Germany will always suffer, I fear, from the intensely dramatic character of the crimes of the Third Reich.

We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour.

We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgment on the past.

The tragedy of 9/11 galvanised the American superpower into action, leaving us in Europe divided in its wake.

Diamonds are proof that the most valuable things are sometimes formed in the dark.

Life is magical for those whose hearts are loving, minds are full with joy, and eyes that are dancing with beauty.

He denounced self-pity and pitied himself.

Shall it not be scorn to me to harp on such a moulder'd string? I am shamed through all my nature to have lov'd so slight a thing.

I have no private life at all. I am a hunted woman. I can't take a step without being questioned and surrounded.

I don't do acid anymore, so I travel instead.

Any group of persons – prisoners, primitives, pilots, or patients – develop a life of their own that becomes meaningful, reasonable and normal once you get close to it.

Life can't give to you if your hands are closed. Open your mind, open your heart, and open your arms.

I've kind of realized life is meant to be tough and everybody is in psychic and spiritual discomfort of some sort and has a burden to carry. I've realized I'm not special.

I tend to go against the grain because when I start to see that everybody's trying to shock, I try not to. I just do stuff that's subtler, more emotional, and I think that shocks people.