The greatest failure is that although we have created institutions, we have not created a civil society.

- Paddy Ashdown

The advent of interconnectedness and of weapons of mass destruction means that, increasingly, I share a destiny with my enemy.

- Paddy Ashdown

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' br…

- Paddy Ashdown

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 f…

- Paddy Ashdown

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…

- Paddy Ashdown

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 ang…

- Paddy Ashdown

Politics is compromise.

- Paddy Ashdown

Blair is regarded by most people in Britain as a smarmy git.

- Paddy Ashdown

I've had much nastier things said about me in the British press than in the Bosnian press.

- Paddy Ashdown