“Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain.”

f you aspire to be a leader of your own country, you must speak your own language, for God’s sake.

China is a great country with a great culture, populated by fascinating, industrious and talented people.

I spend a little time every day to play sports.

Democracy cannot be exported to some other place. This must be a product of internal domestic development in a society.

It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.

I am not prejudiced in any way.

Any fourth grade history student knows socialism has failed in every country, at every time in history.

A figure who receives money from abroad for his political work, and thus serves some foreign interest, cannot be a politician in Russia.

The transfer of power is always a test of the constitutional system, a test of its strength.

The path towards a free society has not been simple. There are tragic and glorious pages in our history.

There are fundamentals of democracy, and they should be understood universally in different countries.

What is a Rechtsstaat? It is obedience to the existing law.

Between major countries, there certainly always are some common ground and points of tension.

My English is very bad.

Russia and China are very natural partners. We are neighbors with an immense common border.

Sometimes it is necessary to be lonely in order to prove that you are right.

The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.

It is scary how easily so many people can be brainwashed by sheer repetition of a word.

Those who are clever, who have a brain, never understand anything.

The brain is a muscle that can move the world.

If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. And when you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.

Only fools use their mouth to speak. A smart man uses his brain, and a wise man uses his heart.

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

The best brains of the nation may be found on the last benches of the classroom.