Jacques Delors Quotes

"Fundamentally, American society is composed of individuals who don't go out of their way to do each other favours."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Society, American)

"Therefore one should speak at the same time of national citizenship and wider European citizenship."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Time, Citizenship)

"This desire for equity must not lead to an excess of welfare, where nobody is responsible for anything."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Desire, Excess, Welfare)

"This weakening is worsened by the widening distance between the governed and their governments."
- Jacques Delors

"We have to struggle against the conservatives from all sides, not only the right-wingers, but also the left-wing conservatives who don't want to change anything."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Change, Right, Struggle, Want)

"Yes, the European model remains superior to that of America and Japan."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: America)

"The problem with a purely collective system is not only that it requires economic growth, and the right sort of demographic trends, but that it prevents people thinking about their futures in a responsible way."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: People, Growth, Right, Thinking)

"Any union that can't accept workers choosing their own representatives through universal franchise is finished."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Workers)

"Cinema explains American society. It's like a Western, with good guys and bad guys, where the weak don't have a place."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Society, American, Cinema)

"Even in Britain, the trade unions tell me that employment contracts have less protection than in the past."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Past, Protection, Trade)

"The unions may continue to decline, but if they do, it'll be their fault."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Fault, May)

"My presidential victory, if it had happened, would have been artificial in relation to the Socialist party. It may be that on my deathbed, I will come to regret my decision, but for the moment, I live at peace with it."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Peace, Decision, Victory, May, Party, Regret, Will)

"The unions still have a job to do, representing their members' interests to governments and parliaments. And I think collective agreements still have a role, alongside markets and laws."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Job, Laws)

"I cannot resign myself to the decline of Europe, and of France."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Europe, France)

"I had to think whether, after 50 years of hard slog, I was still lucid and fresh enough for the job."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Job, Years)

"If you don't have collective agreements between unions and employers, governments have to legislate more."
- Jacques Delors

"My problem is how to find the best way of being useful."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Being)

"The countries that share this conception should be able to go further together, without excluding the others, since they can still live in a greater community of exchange and co-operation."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Community, Countries)

"The driving force behind the liberal counter-offensive in Europe has been a reaction against irresponsibility."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Driving, Europe, Force, Liberal)

"The European model is in danger if we obliterate the principle of personal responsibility."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Danger, Responsibility)

"The European model is, first, a social and economic system founded on the role of the market, for no computer in the world can process information better than the market."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Computer, First, Information, World)

"The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that's not equity, it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Finance, Society, People, Right, State, Welfare, World)

"For me, socialism has always been about liberty and solidarity, but also about responsibility."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Liberty, Responsibility, Socialism, Solidarity)

"These days there are not enough of such intermediary groups, between the state and the individual, with the result that political leaders are often unduly guided by opinion polls."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Leaders, Opinion, Political leaders, Result, State)