Pascal Couchepin Quotes

I was no pope - I could not boast infallibility.

Anybody can be Pope; the proof of this is that I have become one.

Nobody likes to lose power or reach a point of humility.

The pope dies, you get another pope.

It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope.

Anyone who wants to be pope doesn't care much for themselves, God doesn't bless them. I didn't want to be pope.

I am Vice President. I am nothing but I may be everything.

The most harmful thing in Christianity … is the leadership of one man in the Church—for instance, the pope, and his supposed infallibility. It is precisely in the dogma of his infallibility that the greatest mistake is contained, for the pope is a sinful man

Undoubtedly, to the Pope, all things are allowable ; that is, all things that belong by divine right to ecclesiastical authority. He is free to make new laws and to do away the old ones. Only it is not in his power to change anything which, by the word of God, has eternal validity.

Leadership is not a popularity contest; it's about leaving your ego at the door. The name of the game is to lead without a title.

To be a minister means above all to become powerless, or in more precise terms, to speak with our powerlessness to the condition of powerlessness which is so keenly felt but so seldom expressed by the people of our age.

Many people around the President have sizeable egos before entering government, some with good reason. Their new positions will do little to moderate their egos.

I wouldn't take the Pope too seriously. He's a Pole first, a pope second, and maybe a Christian third.

I would not want to live in a country that would have me as a leader in any sort of political bent.

I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it.

I don't care what you label me as long as you call me president.

Men want power in order to do something. Boys want power in order to be something.

He who takes his rank lightly raises his own dignity.

Few men in high places will admit a mistake.

[Douglas] MacArthur is the type of man who thinks that when he gets to heaven, God will step down from the great white throne and bow him into His vacated seat.

In the Papal System, Government and Religion are in a manner consolidated, and that is found to be the worst of government.

The King of France is called the Most Christian King, but this does him an injustice, for he never did a Christian thing.... The Pope is called His Holiness but he is the biggest scoundrel on earth.

On the most exalted throne in the world, we are still seated on nothing but our arse.

He is the best of men who dislikes power.

just as the moon derives its light from the sun and is indeed lower than it in quantity and quality, in position and in power, so too the royal power derives the splendor of its dignity from the pontifical authority...