“It won’t be decided in one election, but it is a basic choice between an open and progressive Iraq and one that is backward and continues to fall behind.”

They don’t seem to be able to rise above these things.

I think the Shiites want a theocracy.

Everybody seems to be imprisoned in their own sectarian or political affiliations.

I think people are rapidly losing confidence in the political class, and I don’t blame them.

This country won’t be able to function properly.

If the security forces continue to be dominated as they are now by political groups or sects

This contest between the secular and religious visions of government is really the main choice to be made

I think that would have been useful and it would have helped to some extent.

Until and unless we could disband these militias

Then the people won’t trust in them – and the result will be civil war or fragmentation of the country.

An apology for the actions of some troops who, of course, are not representative of the majority of the armed forces here,

It won’t be a question of how well-trained or well-equipped the army is but one of the authority it serves.

It’s like the mountains, the ocean and the rivers. It has its own geological forms. Societies cannot be flat. But during change, human rights, human dignity and free speech have to be protected. Otherwise, we’ll be going backward.

There is no illusion so permanent as that which enables us to look backward with complacency; there is no mental process so deceptive as the comparing of recollections with realities.

If everybody floated with the tide of talk, placidity would soon end in stagnation. It is the strong backward stroke which stirs the ripples, and gives animation and variety.

There are those who say that children make a rich man poor. No, they have it backward.

Only I can’t do them so I ended up on my ass followed by the most unsightly backward roll out of it, followed by the cast falling over in laughter and a good portion of the audience too.

Can anything good come of a backward way of thinking like judging someone based on skin color? No way.

You live it forward, but understand it backward.

Life, too, is like that. You live it forward, but understand it backward. It is only when you stop and look to the rear that you see the corpse caught under your wheel.