Alija Izetbegovic

“Life is a dangerous thing. Insecurity is the price of living.”

“Our goal: the Islamization of Muslims. Our methods: to believe and to struggle.”

“We have no rational evidence that there exists another world, but we have a clear feeling that man does not exist only to produce and to consume.”

“In these negotiations we are not a helpless object, although great world powers are involved. We play an active role and try to influence our destiny; we have our own trump cards and we use them.”

“Religion, as it is understood in the West, does not lead toward progress, and science does not lead toward humanism.”

“Socialism and freedom are not compatible, regardless of repeated convincings.”

“I believe that the people, instead of pretty lies, should be told the truth, no matter how ugly it may be. What can we do, destiny hasn't been kind to us; but, with the help of God, we will prevail.”

“Advantages of freedom do not have to be proved by something outside freedom itself. It is its own underwriter.”

“Bosnia is a complicated country: three religions, three nations and those 'others'. Nationalism is strong in all three nations; in two of them there are a lot of racism, chauvinism, separatism; and now we are supposed to make a state out of that.”

“Whether man is a product of evolution or is 'created' becomes the question, 'Who is man? Is he part of the world or something different from it?'”

“To seek trouble - this is not courage, this is madness. Courage is the willingness of man to sensibly face the troubles he cannot avoid.”

“A starry sky is equally interesting to a scientist, a mystic, an ethics scholar, and a poet. Looking at the stars, each experiences something different, and each sees his own picture.”

“I took revenge on hardship from my earlier life by forgetting it.”

“When you are in prison, you have but one desire: freedom. If you fall ill in prison, you do not think about freedom - you think about health. Health is, therefore, more important than freedom.”

“I would sacrifice peace in order to win sovereignty for Bosnia, but for that peace in Bosnia, I would not sacrifice sovereignty.”

“We Bosniaks would for sure fight for integrity of Bosnia.”

“All man's failures are either because of the religious denial of man's biological needs or the materialistic denial of man's spiritual desires.”

“All in all this is a difficult political struggle which will go on for years, in which our people won't die anymore; I'm not sure how much we will be able to win, but I'm certain that we won't loose anything that we have now.”

“Islam is a way of living rather than a way of thinking.”

“As far as the sovereignty of Bosnia-Hercegovina is concerned we agreed to have limited sovereignty for a limited time and that is clear from the Dayton Agreement.”