A

• Bosnia is under my skin. It's the place you cannot leave behind. I was obsessed by the nightmare of it all; there was this sense of guilt, and an anger that has become something much deeper over these last years.
  • Paddy Ashdown, as quoted in "Farewell, Sarajevo" (1 November 2005), The Guardian

• I don't think Bosnia is ready for reconciliation, but I do think it is ready for truth.
  • Paddy Ashdown, as quoted in "Farewell, Sarajevo" (1 November 2005), The Guardian

• My second job has been to try to use my power to create institutions of a modern state that could enter the European Union, and there was very little time. The door was closing, and I wanted to get Bosnia through before it shut.
  • Paddy Ashdown, as quoted in "Farewell, Sarajevo" (1 November 2005), The Guardian

B

• Bosnians may have gained their independence in the three-year civil war, but many have struggled to cope during the 22 years of peace.
  • Malcolm Brabant, "Decades later, Bosnia still struggling with the aftermath of war" (19 November 2017), PBS NewsHour

D

• I am Bosnian by nationality... [T]he fact that my mother gave birth to me at a hospital in Belgrade does not mean anything.
  • Jovan Divjak, as quoted in "JOVAN DIVJAK: JA SAM BOSANAC" (11 September 2007), Sense Tribunal, Sense Agency

I

• Bosnia should be a secular state. A non-secular Bosnia would be terror.
  • Alija Izetbegović, in an interview in "Start BiH Magazine", questions 28 and 29

K

• How will you prevent everyone from being killed in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
  • Radovan Karadžić, speaking at the Bosnian parliament, on the night of 14–15 October 1991, in a charged atmosphere in a debate whether to declare the republic "sovereign", which would mean that republic's laws would take precedence over Yugoslav ones. (The term "Muslim people" refers to the people known as Bosniaks.

• The people of Bosnia -- meaning Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs -- could each say they're speaking their own, individual language. They say that it's their national language, and that it's not for Europe, Belgrade, or Zagreb to decide differently.
  • August Kovacec, as quoted in "Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Or Montenegrin? Or Just 'Our Language'?" (21 February 2009), by Ljudmila Cvetkovic and Goran Vezic, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

O

• In Bosnia, a neighbor means more than a relative. In Bosnia, having coffee with your neighbor is a ritual... [I]n Bosnia, if neighbors can again shake hands, if our children can again play games together, and if they have the right to a chance... It is too late for me now, but for the children living in Bosnia now, it's not too late... The spirit of this unhappiness still hovers over our Bosnian hills, which have suffered so much.
  • Dragan Obrenović, "Guilty Plea Statement" (30 October 2003), International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

S

• Not everyone in this country is a thief or corrupt. If I was, I would be a politician and be doing far better in life.
  • Dušan Šestić, as quoted in "How many national anthems are plagiarised?" (26 August 2015), BBC

• The state cannot block the entity, but the entity can block the state.
  • Haris Silajdžić, commenting about the power relations between the Bosnian entities, the Bosnian parliament and central government during a lecture at the School of Law of UCLA, 17 February 2009, as quoted in "Sound Governance, Justice Elude Bosnia and Herzegovina", UCLA International Institute, 20 February 2009