Eduard Shevardnadze Quotes

Corruption has its own motivations, and one has to thoroughly study that phenomenon and eliminate the foundations that allow corruption to exist.

We also have a real opportunity to join NATO.

You know, to address crowds and make promises does not require very much brains.

I think if someone else other than Reagan, someone less of a hardliner, had been in power then the breakthrough in ending the Cold War would not have happened.

I believe politicians should always remain realistic.

I am not responsible for the actions of Saakashvili and even for those of Gamsakhurdia.

I don't want to go down in history as a man who allowed blood to be shed...

I don't plan to return. I have a lot of unresolved things to do.

Germany is determined to provide substantial help. So are the Netherlands and other states. But a day will come when we have to count on our own resources.

In my life I have always found ways of dealing with a situation.

I think my resignation was the only way to avoid bloodshed.

I was a member of the Politburo for seven years, a foreign minister.

But eradicating corruption is not enough to sustain a country.

As for myself, I was never against Russia.

But we cannot rely on foreign help indefinitely.

I believe that with the help of foreign countries - and under that condition only, because they have no other source of financing - the new government may temporarily extricate Georgia from the current situation.

But on second thought, after I decreed the state of emergency, I came to the conclusion that that was impossible to achieve without bloodshed because the street protesters were full of anger and nearly out of control. This is why I thought we needed to find another way out.

No Georgian has the right to evade or neglect his duties and responsibilities.

But the Americans have no extra money. They have their own problems. They can provide financial assistance for two, three, four, or six months at most.

Now, the entire world community recognizes Georgia. We are members of the United Nations and the Council of Europe. Everything is being prepared so that we will soon enter the European Union.

Even the pyramids might one day disappear, but not the Palestinians longing for their homeland.

It is absolutely impossible to settle the debts to pensioners, teachers, and others. The country hasn't got enough money to do so.

Prospects of normalizing our relations with Russia look good.

I couldn't stand the idea of bloodshed, casualties.