Quotes by Christine Lagarde

“If we have tens of thousands of pullovers piled up at our frontiers, its not very reasonable to apply it in a completely orthodox way,”

“This accord shows the Europeans and the Chinese authorities know how to be pragmatic to solve the blockages which would have caused financial difficulties for French firms this year,”

“We still have to obtain clarification on its interpretation,”

“As things stand, France therefore cannot support the commission in the agriculture proposals it has made,”

“We need to remind the commissioner of the red line of his mandate,”

“The meeting of experts took place this morning, and the commission was unable today to show any clear proof that the commission remains within its mandate,”

“What the president said very firmly yesterday is that the mandate of the Commission must be respected. But there is goodwill to explore all the terms of an accord which is indispensable,”

“These are negotiations tricks,”

“Frankly, I think Europe should have no shame given the efforts that have been undertaken, given the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy that was undertaken in 2003 and given the opening of Europe in general.”

“There will not be consensus and there will not be major progress (in Hong Kong),”

You know, when I sit in meetings and things are very tense and people take things extremely seriously and they invest a lot of their ego, I sometimes think to myself, Come on, you know, theres life and theres death and there is love. And all of that ego business is nonsense compared to that.

To me, leadership is about encouraging people. Its about stimulating them. Its about enabling them to achieve what they can achieve - and to do that with a purpose.

I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them, and who are very keen to get an education. I have them in my mind all the time. Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens.

Grit your teeth and smile. In the face of adversity, go. They dont deserve you.