Word: things
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...course, the only thing worse than copping the sincere attitude (and in the case of U2 I don't doubt it started out sincere and was eventually co-opted by the forces of commerce) is having an attitude. Enough with Sting's image as the politically correct artiste extraordinare who can rock out with the boys, jam with Black jazz musicians, do the classical thespian thing, father a host of love children and be just the eccentric country gentleman donating his time and energy to worthy causes. I mean, aren't we bohemian? Gimme a break...
...years, we averaged earnings up nearly 70%. Nothing happened ((to the stock price)). Then we had Black Monday. Stocks went down. It really became evident that this business, especially the tobacco business, should be run as a private business. The shareholders, who are the people who invest in this thing, aren't making...
...There is risk. Less at $75 per share than at $100 per share. At $100 per share, I will have to sell off more businesses. But our tobacco business can stand a lot of leverage. It's the sheer size of this thing that makes everybody shake their heads. I've felt like an Iranian hostage for the past 43 days. You say, would you have done this if you had it to do over again? And my answer is yes. I can look every day into the mirror and say this was the right thing...
...wasn't a diplomat. I was an international civil servant, which is a completely different thing. I don't like the word diplomat, actually. The ordinary person thinks of people in striped pants at a cocktail party or at a green baize table engaging in circumlocutions about serious matters. I was brought up between the wars, in a very dreary period of European history. I had always wanted to work for the League of Nations, but it went out of business before I got into the game...
...idealist, I have to admit. I think human nature is self- interested. But there is such a thing as enlightened self-interest. The trick is to engage self-interest at the point where it touches other people's self- interest. Why shouldn't it be done on the international level, particularly when we have invented a way of putting an end to the whole experiment, by nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction. That is what the U.N. should be all about. I maintain that my idealism, which is based on some fairly rough experience, is a great deal more...