“You need to learn to stand up for yourself and what you believe and sometimes, pardon my language, kick some ass.”

When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future.

It has perhaps always been the case that the waging of peace is the hardest form of leadership of all.

I have been aware all the time that my peoples, spread far and wide throughout every continent and ocean in the world, were united to support me in the task to which I have now been dedicated with such solemnity.

We lost the American colonies because we lacked the statesmanship to know the right time and the manner of yielding what is impossible to keep.

[On the 1982 intruder into her bedroom:] I realized immediately that it wasn’t a servant because they don’t slam doors.

It has turned out to be an annus horribilis.

We all need to get the balance right between action and reflection. With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock.

What were once only hopes for the future have now come to pass.

It has been women who have breathed gentleness and care into the hard progress of humankind.

Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and of family disagreements.

I hope that tomorrow we can all, wherever we are, join in expressing our grief at Diana’s loss, and gratitude for her all-too-short life. It is a chance to show to the whole world the British nation united in grief and respect.

This new power, which has proved itself to be such a terrifying weapon of destruction, is harnessed for the first time for the common good of our community.

Look, I know he has to appeal to the crazy right-wingers in his party, but the fact is, he’s not as forward-thinking as an eighty-seven-year-old lady who wears a crown on her head. It’s pathetic.

My husband has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim.

[To the suggestion that Great Britain might someday want a Republic:] We’ll go quietly.

Good memories are our second chance at happiness.

I learned a new language for it all in the 90s. Which in some ways isn’t bad.

We also try to teach them both Portuguese and Serbian, though English is their primary language.

The 1990s were also when a bunch of the soft-shoe language for race, gender, and class became paramount.

I use the language I use to my friends. They wouldn’t believe me if I used some high-flown literary language. I want them to believe me.

I mean getting people to think about what language actually means before they use it is a good thing.

It’s the sort of subject that always interests me: jealousy and the language of suspicion and guilt. I think it interests people.

She leads us through their unknown world, her gift of language rising up like a delicate string of necessary lights.

Music is a language of emotion.