Conor Cruise O'Brien

“The European Community is a community of states, not a community of peoples.”

“The United Nations cannot do anything, and never could; it is not an animate entity or agent. It is a place, a circus cloth, a repository, a theater, a process.”

“Nationalism is a pathology, and the nation-state is the institutionalization of that pathology.”

“Scratch a liberal and find a fascist.”

“All societies are held together by institutionalized hypocrisy.”

“The Irish are a fair people; they never speak well of one another.”

“A sense of humor is a sense of proportion.”

“The words 'freedom' and 'justice,' on the lips of those who are oppressing others, are a stench in the nostrils of the world.”

“A state which has lost its monopoly of violence is a state which has lost its sovereignty.”

“The practice of diplomacy is a subtle art, combining the guile of a serpent with the innocence of a dove.”

“History is the propaganda of the victors.”

“To find a friend, you must close one eye. To keep him, you must close both.”

“The Troubles were not a religious war. They were a national conflict with a religious dimension.”

“A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations.”

“The two greatest evils in the world are dogma and prejudice.”