Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Josef Adenauer (January 5, 1876 – April 19, 1967) was a German statesman. Although his political career spanned 60 years, beginning as early as 1906, he is most noted for his role as Chancellor of West Germany from 1949-1963 and chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1950 to 1966. He was the oldest person to be chancellor after the Second World War.
Quotes
- We will never forget. If it takes us five or ten or twenty years, we will never rest until we get our revenge.
- As quoted by General Sir Charles Fergusson in a memorandum (10 July 1945), recalling conversations with Adenauer in 1918-1919, at the end of World War I. As published in Adenauer : The Father of the New Germany (2000) by Charles Williams, p. 293 books.google
- I wish that an English statesman might once have spoken of us as Western Europeans.
- Adenauer's remarks on an Associated Press interview (5 October 1945)
- Make Europe your revenge.
- To French PM Guy Mollet after British PM Sir Anthony Eden unilaterally cancelled the Suez operation, thus angering Mollet. (6 November 1956), as quoted in Europe's Troubled Peace, 1945-2000 (2006) by Tom Buchanan, p.102, 2nd ed. 2012 p. 84 books.google
- In view of the fact that God limited the intelligence of man, it seems unfair that he did not also limit his stupidity.
- As quoted in A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (1965) by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., p. 291 books.google
- I reserve the right to be smarter today than I was yesterday.
- As quoted in Loggers' Handbook Vol. 36 (1976), p. 72; also in North Western Reporter, Second series (1992); similar remarks have been attributed to others, including more recent attributions to Adlai Stevenson and Abraham Lincoln.
- Variant:
- I insist on being smarter today than I was yesterday.
- As quoted in How to Win the Meeting (1979) by Frank Snell, p. 3
- One does not throw out dirty water as long as one doesn't have any clean water.
- Statement about Hans Globke, as quoted in "In eigener Sache" at n-tv (8 June 2006)
- What do I care about my chitchat from yesterday?
- As quoted in Discussion : Mastering the Skills of Moderation (2009) by Horst Hanisch, p. 91
Attributed
- We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon.
- Reader's Digest 1972, p. 194 books.google
