Angela Merkel,  German Chancellor

“This war, with its senseless bloodshed, showed where national arrogance and military hubris can lead. And it made clear what disastrous consequences a lack of compromise in politics and diplomacy can have.”

 “It’s anything but self-evident” that Germany and France should have such friendship now, “especially after the suffering that Germans caused to their neighbor, to Europe and the world in two world wars.”

 “The First World War showed us what kind of ruin isolation can lead us into. And if seclusion wasn’t a solution 100 years ago, how could it be so today?”

 Merkel made an impassioned plea for world peace, saying "we must not simply stand by and watch" as more conflicts continue to unfold around the world. 

She denounced the "national vain gloriousness and military arrogance"   led to the "senseless bloodshed" of two world wars.

Merkel warned that "lack of communication and unwillingness to compromise can have deadly consequences. 

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

“When people feel their institutions can’t protect them, they look for easy answers in populism, in nationalism, in closing borders, in shutting down trade, in xenophobia.”

Nationalist leaders threaten to erase a nation’s moral values by putting their own interests first regardless of the effects on others, ended with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying voters will turn for easy answers and scapegoats.

A bulwark against that was a “robust, respected media” that is under stress, Trudeau said to a crowd of about 150 people.

“Attacks on the media are not just about getting your preferred political candidate elected, for example, they are about increasing the level of cynicism that citizens have toward all authorities, towards all of the institutions that are there to protect us as citizens,” he said.

Emmanuel Macron 

Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism: Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. In saying  'our interests first, whatever happens to the others,'  you erase the most precious thing a nation can have, that which makes it lives, that which causes it to be great and that which is most important: Its moral values."  It has moral values?

 Emmanuel Macron, French President 

"I know, the old demons are resurging, ready to finish off their work of chaos and death. New ideologies manipulate religions, push a contagious obscurantism. Sometimes, history threatens to retake its tragic course and threaten our heritage of peace that we believed we had definitively settled with our ancestors' blood."

"For four years, Europe almost committed suicide. Humanity had sunk into a hideous labyrinth of merciless battles, in a hell that engulfed all fighters, whichever side they were on, whatever nationality they had ... 10 million dead, 6 million injured and mutilated, 3 million widows, 6 million orphans, millions of civilian victims."

The Paris Peace Forum's aim is to promote concrete actions toward peace and should be repeated every year, Macron said.

"The traces of this war never went away," he said. "The old demons are rising again. We must reaffirm before our peoples our true and huge responsibility." 

Donald Trump, President of America   

The American people have always been the true source of American greatness. Our people have promoted our culture and promoted our values……..The American people are generous. You are determined, you are brave, you are strong, and you are wise.

Our leaders in Washington negotiated disastrous trade deals that brought massive profits to many foreign nations, but sent thousands of American factories, and millions of American jobs, to those other countries. Our leaders engaged in nation-building abroad, while they failed to build up and replenish our nation at home……..our politicians left our borders wide open. Millions of immigrants entered illegally. Millions more were admitted into our country without the proper vetting needed to protect our security and our economy. Leaders in Washington imposed on the country an immigration policy that Americans never voted for, never asked for, and never approved - a policy where the wrong people are allowed into our country and the right people are rejected. American citizens, as usual, have been left to bear the cost and to pick up the tab.

Our leaders drifted from American principles. They lost sight of America's destiny. And they lost their belief in American greatness. As a result, our citizens lost something as well. The people lost confidence in their government and, eventually, even lost confidence in their future.

United States would return to a simple principle: The first duty of our government is to serve its citizens, many of whom have been forgotten. But they are not forgotten any more. With every decision and every action, we are now putting America first.