“These are the multinationals, like General Motors and Nestle; these are the big industrial groups that weigh, on the monetary scale, much more than big countries like Egypt.”

We were but some tens of people throughout Algeria, a territory that is five times the size of France

Those who are leftists, once in power, are not different from other parties.

Everywhere that the struggle for national freedom has triumphed, once the authorities agreed, there were military coups d’etat that overthrew their leaders. That is the result time and time again.

Peace does not include a vendetta; there will be neither winners nor losers.

Algeria is not breaking up.

I spent 24 and a half years in prison

In the past, we spoke of poverty, misery only in the south. Now there is a lot of misery, a lot of bad that creates victims in the north as well.

I’m optimistic because I’m pragmatic: Neither of the two sides, the military government nor the Islamic front, is capable of winning. If they continue to fight, they will both bleed to death.

The liberation movement which I led in Algeria, the organization that I created to fight the French army, was at first a small movement of nothing at all.

Yes, my life is a life of combat; I can say that this has never stopped for a single instant. It is a combat that started for me at the age of 16.

I think that they participated in something that was not very proper and was very pitiful, not only for the Algerian people, but also for the other people who counted on our support.

This has become manifest: the global system was not made to serve the good of all, but to serve multinational companies.

Colonialism is an idea born in the West that drives Western countries – like France, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain – to occupy countries outside of Europe.

Yes, I am Algerian of Moroccan origin through my parents, but all my life is Algeria. I was born there.

I was one of the organisers of its struggle for liberation. I likewise actively participated in all the struggles for liberation.

This phase has known cruel colonial occupations which have lasted 300 years in Indonesia.

A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.

The basic work of health professionals in general, and of psychotherapist s in particular, is to become full human beings and to inspire full human-beingness in other people who feel starved about their lives.

Extreme cold when it first arrives seems to generate cheerfulness and sociability. For a few hours all life’s dubious problems are dropped in favor of the clear and congenial task of keeping alive.

I think baking is an incredible thing; cooking in general is an incredible thing.

One tries to tell a truth, and one hopes that the truth has a general application rather than just a specific one.

Each victim of suicide gives his act a personal stamp which expresses his temperament, the special conditions in which he is involved, and which, consequently, cannot be explained by the social and general causes of the phenomenon.

It’s part of the general global hypnotism to accept lies as the new truth.

As a general, and as a leader of this team, whatever I’ve got to do get my guys going I’ll do it every time. If I have to be the bad guy sometime, I’ll guess I’ll take that. That’s what a leader and a general and a chief of police does.