ROMANO PRODI

It is becoming more widely acknowledged that it is better to have a good constitution than not having a perfect one.

Foreign policy can mean several things, not only foreign policy in the narrow sense. It can cover foreign policy, relations with the developing world, and enlargement as well.

Democracies must have equilibrium... and the entanglement of politics and information must be minimized.

I am not overconfident.

No one wants to lose their job, or cede the power they've acquired.

Think what a revolution it will be if we manage to get everyone to pay their taxes.

Berlusconi is no longer fit to lead our country.

I am not a newcomer, you know, so I want to be judged for what I did when I was prime minister last time in Italy and president of the European Commission for more than five years.

He uses statistics like a drunk uses lamp-posts, more for support than illumination.

But Italy can only have any real influence on world affairs if it carries weight in Europe.

Moreover, resolving the mother of all problems - the Israeli-Palestinian question - requires cooperation between Europe and the U.S.

The Italian economy is certainly the weakest of the big European countries.

The problem of Italy is not really a question of age. Japan has an older population, and it is now in full economic recovery. The problem is that Italy is old in the structure of the society.

I don't want to pass a punitive law, or use politics as a vendetta.

Italy is divided between us and them, rich and poor, north and south, young and old, employed and unemployed.

You can’t entrust your purse to Europe and the security to America

If we do not have more scientific graduates from the university we will lose contact with modernity.

The only hope for the Middle East is for moderates to win.

In the Mediterranean you have a choice. Either you fight or you cooperate.

This diffusion of nuclear weapons is terrible…terrible. Imagine a world with a large number of states with nuclear bombs.

If you want to improve a country, you first need to know it, to listen to it.

I am sure the euro will oblige us to introduce a new set of economic policy instruments. It is politically impossible to propose that now. But some day there will be a crisis and new instruments will be created.

There are terrible living conditions and unhappiness, (even) where everybody is Italian.

Are we all clear that we want to build something that can aspire to be a world power - not just a trading bloc, but a political entity?

Nobody can be rich and stupid for more than one generation.