I can create institutions, but I can't rewrite the chips in people's heads.
people
I love this country, I love these people, though I can't say I love their politicians. People are always nicer than politicians, but here, you can mark that difference up a hundredfold.
peopletso-love
Maybe it's legitimate criticism, though it can be hurtful. Maybe I haven't paid sufficient attention to the people with whom I would have a natural affinity as a liberal, and they feel let down by that.
People do not want politicians they know to be corrupt.
There can be no place in a 21st-century parliament for people with 15th-century titles upholding 19th-century prejudices.
peopleplaces
I am here because I think it was a terrible sin of the west to allow those years of war.
war
It was a superb agreement to end a war, but a very bad agreement to make a state. From now on, we have to part company with Dayton and try to build a modern democratic state, for which I have tried to lay the foundations.
builduptheendwar
We have invented a new human right here - the right to return home after a war.
homerightswar
We who came here saw what was happening. This was far more than a war in a faraway place. This was a moral imperative, a terrible vision of the future.
placesvisionwar
I don't think Bosnia is ready for reconciliation, but I do think it is ready for truth.
truth
My second job has been to try to use my power to create institutions of a modern state that could enter the European Union, and there was very little time. The door was closing, and I wanted to get Bosnia through before it shut.
doorpowerthetimestime
It works both ways: there are victims of tragedy who come to me who have experienced grief of such magnitude that they cannot reconcile. Likewise, I cannot change the mentality of those who committed the crimes or the fools who followed them.
changecrimework
History teaches us these lessons for the interveners: leave your prejudices at home, keep your ambitions low, have enough resources to do the job, do not lose the golden hour, make security your first priority, involve the neighbours.
ambitionhistoryhome
The greatest failure is that although we have created institutions, we have not created a civil society.
failuresociety
Politics is about putting yourself in a state of grace.
gracepolitics