“One has to be insincere and promise something which you cannot fulfill. So you either have to be a fool who does not understand what you are promising, or deliberately be lying.”

Russia is the biggest country in the world. It would be very difficult to surround it, and the world is changing so fast that it would basically be impossible, even in theory.

Protest actions and propaganda are two slightly different things.

U.S. society doesn’t want to play the role of international policeman.

I am the wealthiest man, not just in Europe, but in the whole world.

I have always reacted negatively to those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others’ lives.

The democratic choice Russian people made in the early 90’s is final.

A considerable share of the world’s population still cannot afford comfortable housing, education and quality health care.

No one should be allowed to violently trample on the law.

Nobody should pin their hopes on a miracle.

It is necessary to suppress any extremist actions, on all sides, regardless of their origin.

It is wrong to make anyone into an enemy; it is wrong to scare the people of one’s own country with that enemy and try to rally some allies on that basis.

To forgive the terrorists is up to God, but to send them to him is up to me.

I am convinced that the norm in Russia should become a family with three children.

Terrorism has no nationality or religion.

Those who fight corruption should be clean themselves.

Being gay is not a crime.

You’d be a fool to think that you leaving me in darkness meant I’d stay there forever.

They that are fated to be fools, have one consolation, that they are fated also to be ignorant of it.

Though we may not desire to detect fraud, we must not, on that account, endeavor to be insensible of it, for, as cunning is a crime, so is duplicity a fault, and if men dread knaves, they also despise fools.

Impossible is the word for fools in my dictionary.

Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an evil thing is delayed, there is no justice; but only accident here below. Judgment for an evil thing is many times delayed some day or two, some century or two, but it is sure as life, it is sure as death.

Never, ever, ever wear anything you are uncomfortable in. Because that is what you’ll project: ‘I look like a fool.’

The serpent, the king, the tiger, the stinging wasp, the small child, the dog owned by other people, and the fool: these seven ought not to be awakened from sleep.

A still-born son is superior to a foolish son endowed with a long life. The first causes grief for but a moment while the latter like a blazing fire consumes his parents in grief for life.