Quotes from Toomas Hendrik Ilves

My American undergraduate education probably gave me a better idea of the fundamentals of what European civilization is about, better than the undergraduate education you get at most European universities.

In both Russia and the U.S., there are a very small number of very, very rich people, and then there are a lot of people who don't have anything. The less inequality you have in a society, the more social peace you have. It's kind of a no-brainer.

The domestic policy of any president, U.S. or otherwise, is his or her own concern, as long as democratic norms are followed.

When hackers have access to powerful computers that use brute force hacking, they can crack almost any password; even one user with insecure access being successfully hacked can result in a major breach.

Brits, Scandinavians, Finns, Estonians consider themselves rational, logical, unencumbered by emotional arguments; we are businesslike, stubborn, and hard-working.

Where a country lies is a subjective decision and only in part a product of its own desire. Much, if not most, is determined by what others believe about it.

I've been in and out of academia ever since I was young.

I'm an American by accent, and I grew up in the States, living there between the age of three and 24.

I realised that if we were not in the E.U., there were people in the E.U. who were also members of NATO that would veto our joining NATO.

Diplomacy between a powerful, victorious army and a side that's losing doesn't really work well.

Since I've been writing about things my entire life, I thought, 'Well, that's what I would do as a president is to read and then write and talk about things that are interesting to me.'