Jean Monnet Quotes
Discover the vision of Jean Monnet, one of the architects of European integration, in this article featuring his most memorable quotes.
While Jean Monnet preferred action to writing, he paid particular attention to the precision of his ideas. These quotations, taken from Jean Monnet’s Memoirs and various speeches, powerfully convey his ideas and method of action.
I – Action and change
Seizing crises as opportunities for action and change
“Anything is possible in exceptional moments, as long as you’re ready, as long as you have a clear project at the moment when everything is confused.”
“Haste is good for those who know where they’re going.
“Life is full of opportunities to act, but you have to be prepared for them for a long time to recognize and use them when they arise.
“Men accept change only when it is necessary, and they see necessity only in crisis.”
“Men only make great decisions when crisis is on their doorstep.”
“When men find themselves in a new situation, they adapt and change. But as long as they hope things can stay the way they are or be compromised, they don’t readily listen to new ideas.”
“Only those who don’t want to move forward talk about missed opportunities. I’m only interested in the opportunities that are right in front of us, and that it’s up to us to seize when the time comes.”
An independent and imaginative spirit, sometimes transgressive, always focused on effective action
“It was not natural for me to respect established authority for its own sake. It was its usefulness that legitimized it in my eyes.”
“Belonging to a party, the expression already offends me. To join, then to follow the line, to act without being completely convinced, or before being convinced, I would have been incapable of it.”
“No one has ever found my way of working, which transgresses hierarchies and upsets routines when necessary, completely natural. And it is necessary to do so in times of crisis, when necessity presses us to intervene.”
When I left on my long journey at the age of eighteen, my father told me: “Don’t take any books with you. No one can think for you. Look out the window, talk to people. Pay attention to the one next to you.”
“Let us succeed in what we do, and not be determined by what others think of us or what they would like to see us do.”
Necessity as the mainspring of action and change
“Obviousness and necessity, when they meet, should leave no room for hesitation or respite.”
“I don’t question the necessity of doing this or that – it’s necessity that leads me to do something that is no longer a choice the moment I see it clearly.
“Consider what is necessary before asking what is possible.”
” When an idea corresponds to the necessity of the times, it ceases to belong to the men who invented it, and is stronger than those who are in charge of it.”
“We have only the choice between the changes we will be drawn into and those we will have known how to want and accomplish.”
“I’ve never lacked the opportunity to act. The most important thing is to be prepared. For that, I need a conviction, formed by long reflection. When the moment comes, everything is simple, because necessity leaves no room for hesitation.”
Concentration, determination and perseverance: essential conditions for change
“I don’t like it, or I’ll say more simply that I can’t devote myself to two problems at once.”
“What I undertook at each important phase of my life was the result of one choice and one choice alone, and this limitation to a single object preserved me from the temptations of diversity as well as from the taste for a thousand-faceted power.”
“Anything becomes possible if you know how to focus on a specific point that leads to the rest.”
“Nothing we have to do to reach the goal we’ve set ourselves is secondary.”
“There are no limits, other than those of physical stamina, to the attention you must pay to what you’re doing if you really want to succeed.”
“Those who don’t want to undertake anything because they’re not sure that things will go as they planned condemn themselves to immobility.”
“When you undertake an action, you shouldn’t wonder if it will succeed.”
“I’m not optimistic, I’m determined.”
“Giving up on an undertaking because it encounters too many obstacles is often a serious mistake: on the contrary, these obstacles are the rough edges to which action can attach itself.”
“When you are resolute in action and seek only action, not prestige, you don’t stay helpless for long.”
Convincing yourself before convincing others – the power of (seemingly) simple ideas repeated over and over again
“At the end of my reflection, I was convinced enough myself to be sure of convincing.”
” I know no other rule than to be convinced and to convince.”
” I’m not afraid of repeating myself when I’ve arrived at a conviction I want to convey – of repeating the same ideas with the same words and a small number of seemingly simple ideas.”
” It’s because they’re often awkward that we disdain simple ideas.”
Have the patience to wait and recognize the right moment to transform reflection into action
“Very early on, I had the instinct, which became my rule of conduct, that reflection cannot be separated from action.”
“There are no premature ideas; there are opportune moments that you have to wait for.
“Cognac has always been a point of reference for my reflections, which mature slowly like the thoughts of the people of Charente who respect the works of time.”
“I know how to wait a long time for the right circumstances. In Cognac, we know how to wait. It’s the only way to make a good product.”
“It’s when you’re certain of the outcome that you can be patient.”
“The progress of change is measured by the density of resistance.
“The power of simple ideas expressed all at once and repeated in the same invariable way. This at least disarms distrust, which is the main source of misunderstanding.”
Exercising power through influence
“Statesmen are anxious to do the right thing, and above all to get out of trouble, but they don’t always have the taste or leisure for imagination. They are open to creative initiatives, and whoever knows how to present them has a good chance of being listened to.”
“If it takes a long time to come to power, it takes a short time to explain to those in power the way out of the present difficulties.”
“I had better things to do than try to exercise power myself: hasn’t my role been for a long time to influence those who hold it, and to make sure they use it when they need it?”
“I have no taste for the shadows, but if it’s at the price of self-effacement that I can best get things done, then I choose the shadows.”
” The men in power to whom I address myself are happy to be helped out of their predicament – and to be left with the benefit of the solution.”
“These senior civil servants who dominate the administration have all the qualities, except the entrepreneurial spirit. To transform France, we first need to transform the major government bodies and perhaps the schools where they are produced.”
“If competition was fierce on the bangs of power, it was practically non-existent in the field where I wanted to act, that of preparing for the future, which, by definition, is not illuminated by the spotlight of current events.”
“A wise man once said: “There are two kinds of men: those who want to be someone and those who want to do something. I’ve verified the accuracy of this observation many times.”
II- Union and collective action
A vision: to unite people – to make them realize their common interest and act together
“I have always followed the same continuous line in different circumstances, under different latitudes, but with a single concern: to unite men, to settle the problems that divide them, to bring them to see their common interest.”
“I’ve always been driven towards union, towards collective action.”
“Every time I’ve been able to help bring people together, I’ve done it. I’ve done it in a movement that’s natural to me, without political calculation, without personal ambition.”
“My goal was joint action. I wanted to show the way and the means to young men who are looking to make their lives useful to others.”
“We are here to accomplish a common work, not to negotiate advantages, but to seek our advantage in the common advantage.”
“Considerable psychological transformations, which some people seek through violent revolutions, can take place very peacefully if men’s minds are directed towards the point where their interests converge. This point always exists, it’s just that we have to work hard to find it.”
“When you bring together men from different backgrounds, confront them with the same problem and ask them to solve it, they are no longer the same men. As soon as they are no longer there to defend interests, they effortlessly take the same view.”
“I’ve always focused on one thing: getting people to work together, showing them that beyond their differences or across borders they have a common interest.”
“The selfishness of man and of nations is most often caused by imperfect knowledge of the problem at hand, each being inclined to see only the aspect of his immediate interest.”
“It is the common interest that creates solidarity. It enables new solutions that were not possible in national forms.”
Trust and equality are essential to joint action by States and men
“Trust is naturally established between men who have taken a common view of the problem to be solved. When the problem becomes the same for everyone, and everyone has the same interest in its solution, differences and suspicions fade away, and then friendship often takes root.”
“From the day I became involved in public affairs, I understood that equality was absolutely essential in relations between peoples as well as between men.”
“Peace can only be founded on equality.”
“Convincing men to talk to each other is the most important thing we can do for peace. But the spirit of equality must preside over conversations, and no one must come to the table with the desire to gain an advantage over the other.”
“When you’re the strongest, you have to be generous, and you only keep your superiority if you don’t try to impose it.”
“Creating trust is simpler than you think – it’s precisely through simplicity that you achieve it.”
“Understanding each other is difficult, but we’ve already achieved a lot when we’ve eliminated suspicion.”
“We had our ability to convince, but above all we had a rule whose power is little known: sincerity.”
“If it’s not always useful to tell everyone everything, it’s essential to tell everyone the same thing. This is the price of trust, and I’ve never tried to achieve anything without trust.”
“The secret of trust: put your actions in line with your words so that there’s never any difference between what you say and what you do.”
III- Europe, vision and method
Putting people at the heart of the European project
“We don’t unite states, we unite people.”
” The best contribution we can make to civilization is to develop men in freely constructed communities.”
” It is the development of man that is the essential object of all our efforts, not the affirmation of a homeland, large or small.”
” We must change the course of events. To do that, we need to change men’s minds. Words are not enough.”
” Where imagination is lacking, peoples perish.”
Sovereign mergers as a method of European integration
“If we tackled the problem of sovereignty without a spirit of revenge or domination, if on the contrary victors and vanquished agreed to exercise it in common over a share of their joint wealth, what a solid bond would then be created between them, what a path would be widely opened to new mergers, and what an example would be offered to other European peoples!”
“Gradually create among the people of Europe the most extensive common interest managed by common, democratic institutions to which the necessary sovereignty is delegated. This is the dynamic that has never stopped working.
“It will take a long time to show that sovereignty withers when it is frozen in the forms of the past. For it to live, it is necessary to transfer it, as the frameworks of action blossom, into a larger space where it merges with others called to the same evolution. None is lost in this transfer; on the contrary, all are strengthened.
“As always, realities will have the last word. This last word is being written, I believe, and it is very similar to the very first one, that of 1950. It reads as follows: delegation of sovereignty and joint exercise of that delegated sovereignty.”
“Resistance is proportional to the scale of change, and when it comes to changing the traditional form of authority, which has always been national, it’s stronger than ever.”
“There is one method of building Europe – there are not two in any given time. We have not left behind the time of delegating sovereignty to common institutions, the only way to ensure the independence and progress of our peoples, and peace in this part of the world.”
“What we must seek is a fusion of the interests of the European peoples and not just the maintenance of the balance of these interests.”
European integration responds to a need
“Sovereign nations are no longer the framework for solving today’s problems. And the community itself is only a step towards the forms of organization of tomorrow’s world.”
“Our countries have become too small for today’s world, on the scale of modern technology, on the scale of America and Russia today, China and India tomorrow.
“If the countries of Europe don’t carry more weight in the global economy, it’s because of their divisions.
“There is no longer any room for separate action by our old sovereign nations.”
“Cooperation on an equal footing by the United States with a divided and fragmented Europe is impossible.”
“In a Europe divided into small nations, European energies have not found the outlets they need.
“Apart from the difficult and perhaps slow, but ineluctable and sure, path of European unification, for our separate countries there is only adventure and the maintenance of the spirit of superiority and domination which yesterday almost led Europe to its ruin and could now lead the world to it.
“The contribution that an organized and vibrant Europe can make to civilization is indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations.”
“Europe will only have consciousness and strength in unity.
“Europeans can only realize all the possibilities that nature and history have placed within them if they live in step with the times.”
Building a united Europe is a long and arduous task, but one that is indispensable and achievable.
“I’ve always thought that Europe would be made in crises, and what would be the sum of the solutions we would bring to these crises.”
“The difficulties that Europeans still encounter every day in their relations with each other should not mislead us: these are now internal difficulties like those we normally resolve within our own countries.
“European construction, like all peaceful revolutions, needs time – time to convince, time to adapt minds and adjust things to great transformations.”
“The obstacles to the construction of Europe will become more and more numerous the closer we get to our goal, because in the construction of Europe, as in any other great undertaking, men push the most serious difficulties in front of them, leaving their successors the task of solving them.
“The unity of the peoples of Europe is the great hope and opportunity of our time. If we work towards it without delay and relentlessly, it is the reality of tomorrow.”
“I believe that the birth of Europe will appear, with hindsight, as a dazzling adventure.”
“The community’s roots are strong now, and they go deep into the soil of Europe.”
“As Europeans realize that the economic issues affecting their daily lives are no longer posed within the national framework, which has become too narrow, but are dealt with within the European framework, the view they take of the development of their country and of Europe is changing.”
“As the European Community consolidates and speaks with one voice in the great affairs of the world, it will make an essential contribution (1965).”
“By realizing their unity, by restoring Europe’s vigor, by creating new and lasting conditions, Europeans are contributing to peace.”
“Our Community is not closed; on the contrary, it is open. The ultimate aim is to eliminate the barriers between the peoples of Europe; it is to unite these peoples in a single community.”
“The unification of Europe has an impact on civilization that goes beyond security and peace. Europe is the source of the progress from which we all benefit, and Europeans today are capable of making as great a contribution to the development of civilization through their creative spirit as in the past. It is by unifying Europe that we will achieve this.
“The world faces the same dangers of self-destruction through division as European nations did on a smaller scale.”
“The future belonged to a new generation whose dreams we no longer knew. All we could do was pass on to them the solid framework of a democratically organized Europe.”
The importance of institutions in the unification of Europe
“The union of Europe cannot be based on goodwill alone. Rules are necessary. The life of institutions is longer than that of men, and institutions can thus, if well constructed, accumulate and pass on the wisdom of successive generations.
“The Community method of action, after a period of trial and error, has become a permanent dialogue between a European body responsible for proposing solutions to common problems and national governments expressing national points of view.”
“The weakening of the continent’s countries is not only due to their divisions, but also to the ease with which they question the functioning of their institutions.”
“The characteristic of the method we follow in Europe is to pool the resources of our countries, to have established common institutions to which the national parliaments have agreed to transfer sovereignty and granted decision-making powers, and to act according to common rules applying to all without discrimination.
Jean Monnet on Action, Union and Europe
“The problem was lucidly posed, but the method for solving it was lacking. And whoever didn’t provide the method didn’t advance the problem.
These were the words of Jean Monnet in his memoirs about the need, identified in early 1950, for a profound change in the nature of relations between France and Germany.
At a time when the Draghi report raises the burning question of the meaning and method of transforming Europe, the Institut Jean Monnet publishes a collection of 117 reflections from Jean Monnet’s memoirs, speeches and personal notes.
The lessons of a lifetime of action in the service of peace, union and Europe. The elements of a formidably effective method that changed the course of history and should inspire us today.
Many thanks to the European Commission, Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, and Stefaan Hermans for their support of this publication.
For those who wish to know more, we have other articles dedicated to Jean Monnet: