Hussein of Jordan

“We should face reality and our past mistakes in an honest, adult way. Boasting of glory does not make glory, and singing in the dark does not dispel fear.”

“Under the auspices of peace, our comprehensive renaissance will be built, and it will be a model for those who wish to emulate it in the greater Arab homeland.”

“God help us from those who believe that they are the sole possessors of truth. How we manage at times to agree willingly to become prisoners within our own minds and souls of beliefs and ideas on which we can never be flexible.”

“I, not for the first time, would like to say that I never took a pro-Iraq position during the Gulf War.”

“I have said this in the past and I will continue to repeat it as long as I live: Whoever tries to hurt our national unity is my enemy until the day of judgement.”

“I am pro-peace.”

“Without peace and without the overwhelming majority of people that believe in peace defending it, working for it, believing in it, security can never really be a reality.”

“Jordan has a strange, haunting beauty and a sense of timelessness. Dotted with the ruins of empires once great, it is the last resort of yesterday in the world of tomorrow. I love every inch of it.”

“Jordan seeks to play only one role, that of a model state. It is our aim to set an example for our Arab brethren, not one that they need follow but one that will inspire them to seek a higher, happier destiny within their own borders.”

“All what we hope for is that a day will come, when we have all gone, when people will say that this man has tried, and his family tried. This is all there is to seek in this world.”

“It is not enough to tackle the mechanics of terror organizations. We must also tackle the situations that create terrorists. We desperately need to address the frustration, the loss and the despair that drive some to these actions.”

“Jordan has a very important part in any Arab-Israeli peace process.”

“I'm proud of what I've done in Jordan, but the region itself is sitting on a time bomb.”

“Let me say this loud and clear. There is a world of difference between terrorist acts and the Islamic Shari'a. Islam is not only a religion, but a way of life. And at its heart lie the sacred principles of tolerance and dialogue.”

“Sometimes, leaders' failures can cost these young people's lives.”

“It would behoove the world to become used to this fact: that without a just solution to the Palestine tragedy, there can be no stable peace in the Middle East.”

“At seventeen, I knew the end of a dream... I would never be a schoolboy again.”

“In this life struggle, here I am among you fully cognizant that a true believer has no fear of what God has ordained for him. Those who are visited by fear live only for their present, under the illusion that the world began with them and will end with their departure.”

“We respect opposition to any position or policy. But we believe that the opinion that should prevail and be respected is that of the majority.”