I think the political class in Berlin doesn't need to be supervised and monitored by intelligence services in order to find out what they're thinking. Just go to lunch with them, go to dinner with them, or read the papers.

Whenever you have political conflict, such as the one that we have now between Russia and Ukraine, but also in many other conflicts around the world, it has always proved to be right to try again and again to solve such a conflict.

This inclination to hoard is deeply ingrained in me because in the past, in times of scarcity, you took what you could get.

Having led many negotiations with countries outside the E.U. in the past, we would never enter the same compromises and reach the same good outcomes with states that don't shoulder the responsibilities and costs of the common market.

All riches have their origin in mind. Wealth is in ideas - not money.

Democracy encourages the majority to decide things about which the majority is ignorant.

The truth is I don't really like the world of plastic money: the great chip-and-pin double act of modern payment. I prefer cash. I don't like the idea of some distant clerk nodding each time I make a card purchase and quietly adding to my 'consumer profile.' I'm anti all cards.

We've got enormous potential, phenomenal potential on our doorstep, which requires politics that makes that work, and that's what we try to show here in Ireland: that while there's a lot of pain, the reward at the end of this is career opportunities, prosperity, and brighter days for everybody.