Friendships
Schmidt numbered the assassinated Egyptian president Anwar as-Sadat among his particular friends from the world of politics, and sustains his friendship with ex-president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing of France. His circle also includes former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who is on record as stating that he wishes to predecease Helmut Schmidt, because he would not wish to live in a world without Schmidt.
He was also good friends with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In 2011 Schmidt, accompanied by Jean Chrétien and Tom Axworthy, made a pilgrimage to the Trudeau family vault in St-Rémi-de-Napierville Cemetery.
Read more about this topic: Helmut Schmidt
Famous quotes containing the word friendships:
“Our friendships hurry to short and poor conclusions, because we have made them a texture of wine and dreams, instead of the tough fibre of the human heart. The laws of friendship are austere and eternal, of one web with the laws of nature and of morals.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The thing that makes our friendships so short and changeable is that the qualities and dispositions of the soul are very hard to know, and those of the understanding and wit very easy.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“Civilization does not engross all the virtues of humanity: she has not even her full share of them. They flourish in greater abundance and attain greater strength among many barbarous people. The hospitality of the wild Arab, the courage of the North American Indian, and the faithful friendships of some of the Polynesian nations, far surpass any thing of a similar kind among the polished communities of Europe.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)