Saad Hariri Quotes

The Middle East is a very difficult stage to play upon. Without doubt, it is a good drama. And on occasion, there are situations so unimaginable, if not ludicrous, as to make them almost comic. But the cast is constantly changing, the audience is often disengaged, and it seems at times that no one is actually running the show.

Nothing about 'Brotherhood' is ever wrapped up in a nice package.

There is no order in the world around us, we must adapt ourselves to the requirements of chaos instead

The Middle East is a region where predictions go to die.

Everything is contingent, and there is also chaos.

Revolutions and their aftermaths, of course, are always fluid and fickle times, and the outcome is often perched on a knife's edge.

I love discomfort. I mean, my whole life is discomfort. One reason I can never retire is that the idea of just sitting on the beach totally comfortable is not a desideratum in my life. I like ambiguity, I like conflict, I like uncertainly.

I frequently hear our present period described as uncertain, confused, chaotic.

The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle.

In our world of rampant 'individualisation', relationships are mixed blessings. They vacillate between a sweet dream and a nightmare, and there is no telling when one turns into the other.

Turmoil stimulates.

You always have to wrestle with chaos.

What can equal the caprices of politics?

The Middle East is so constructed that the rational things are the things least likely to occur.

You don't have smooth sailing in the American system no matter who's in charge.

We live in a... chaotic world.

2011 was a year in which events rarely turned out as predicted, and when much of the world seemed shrouded in turmoil and uncertainty. It was difficult for government analysts back in Washington to know just where they were on the map, let alone where they were heading.

You can scout people as much as you want. At the end of the day, it's a fight, so you got to be ready for almost anything.

Certainty in politics is never a given.

In wartime you never know what is going to happen, you never know whether you will still be around tomorrow, and that is a great leveller.

There are no second chances in the volatile Middle East.

But that's a part of life; you're going through and nothing ever works out how you wanted. Nothing ever completed cleanly the way that you wanted. It is sloppy and messy, and when you think it's over, 'Oh great. We have a bit more to do.' There's always another bit of road ahead, even when you think you've gotten to the end.

Present day politics is getting murkier by the day.

University politics make me long for the simplicity of the Middle East.

[In politics] when A goes after B and there's a C, and D and a Q all lined up there, you have no idea who's going to be the beneficiary.