On his resignation on Monday:
I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride.
On why Europe’s leaders wanted a Yes vote:
… so they could humiliate the Greeks. Why did they force us to close the banks? To instil fear in people. And spreading fear is called terrorism.
On EU finance ministers:
They are unanimous in their hatred of me … and I welcome their hatred.
On German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble:
We didn’t even agree to disagree.
On the debt crisis:
Europe in its infinite wisdom decided to deal with this bankruptcy by loading the largest loan in human history on the weakest of shoulders … What we’ve been having ever since is a kind of fiscal waterboarding that has turned this nation into a debt colony.[The eurozone] resembles a fine riverboat that was launched on a still ocean in 2000. And then the first storm that hit it, in 2008, started creating serious structural problems for it. We started leaking water. And of course, the people in the third class, as in the Titanic, start feeling the drowning effects first.
On the troika (EC, ECB and IMF):
A committee built on rotten foundations.
On Syriza:
We are the leftwing riffraff that has been arguing for decades that the Greek oligarchy is the greatest impediment to growth.
On the eurozone:
[It’s] just like the Eagles song Hotel California – you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
On the election of Syriza:
Greek democracy today chose to stop going gently into the night. Greek democracy resolved to rage against the dying of the light.
On bankrupt states v bankrupt banks:
Quite remarkably, while the insolvent states are visited upon by stern IMF and EU officials, are constantly reviled by the ‘serious’ press for their ‘profligacy’ and ‘wayward’ fiscal stance, the banks go on receiving ECB liquidity and state funding (plus guarantees) with no strings attached. No memoranda, no conditionalities, nothing.
On German tabloid Bild:
It is an honour to have Bild trying to undermine me. The more they do it, the better I sleep at night.