Daily Inspiration Quote by Hans Blix

Blix’s line is diplomatic caution distilled into a sentence that sounds almost empty until you hear what it’s protecting him from. “Interviews” gestures toward transparency, due process, and the liberal faith that talking produces truth. But the second half - “under certain circumstances” - is where the real work happens: it’s a hedge, a firewall, an insistence that technique can’t substitute for conditions.

As a diplomat and chief weapons inspector figure, Blix lived inside environments where “interviews” could be staged, coerced, or strategically withheld. The phrase implies a world of controlled access: scientists who fear retaliation, governments that script cooperation, and international audiences eager for a clean narrative (“they confessed” / “they refused”). By calling interviews “valuable” while immediately qualifying their value, he signals that information is not just gathered; it’s produced by power. An interview can be evidence, theater, or hostage negotiation depending on who controls the room and what consequences follow the interviewee once the door closes.

The intent reads as a warning to policymakers and media consumers who want simple metrics for legitimacy. Don’t treat the presence of interviews as proof of openness, or the absence of them as proof of guilt. “More valuable than others” smuggles in a demand for safeguards: privacy, independence, protection from intimidation, and time. In Blix’s register, modest language becomes moral pressure - a way to say that truth-finding is only as credible as the political environment that permits it.