“Democracy is the best revenge. After Benazir Bhutto’s death, her son’s brief public remarks were captured on video, and they were reported in international newspapers. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari announced, “My mother always said, ‘ Democracy is the best revenge.”

You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man, but not an idea.

I believe that democracies do not go to war; that’s the lesson of history, and I think that a democratic Pakistan is the world community’s best guarantee of stability in Asia.

When the United States aligns with dictatorships and totalitarian regimes, it compromises the basic democratic principles of its foundation – namely, life, liberty and justice for all.

General Musharraf needs my participation to give credibility to the electoral process, as well as to respect the fundamental right of all those who wish to vote for me.

What is important is that a political party articulates the mood of a generation.

Given the right to a free ballot, the people would support my return.

I dream …of a world where we can commit our social resources to the development of human life and not to its destruction

A political war can be fought from anywhere.

The military wants a system that protects its policies and privileges.

The government I led gave ordinary people peace, security, dignity, and opportunity to progress.

Military hardliners called me a ‘security threat’ for promoting peace in South Asia and for supporting a broad-based government in Afghanistan.

So he manipulates and dangles some kind of carrot in front of the world all the time. This is not good for the people [of Pakistan], and I think the world has got it all wrong.

The forces of moderation and democracy must, and will, prevail against extremism and dictatorship. I will not be intimidated… Despite threats of death, I will not acquiesce to tyranny, but rather lead the fight against it.

What is not recorded is not remembered.

It’s never easy dealing with terrorists, but it must be done through a mixture of political, economic and administrative means.

Democracy needs support and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies. Democratic nations should come together in an association designed to help each other and promote what is a universal value – democracy.

We’re children of God through our blood kinship with Christ. We’re also sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, with a hereditary craving for forbidden fruit salad.

It’s dangerous, son.’ ‘What’s dangerous?’ ‘When a man goes outside his house to look for peace.

O Son of Spirit! My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.

The Jehovah of the Jews is a suspicious tyrant, who breathes nothing but blood, murder, and carnage, and who demands that they should nourish him with the vapours of animals.

I should have voted for the first Iraq war. George Bush did that one very well. I had been skeptical. I was afraid that George Bush was going to treat the first Iraq war the way his son treated the second.

Ye therefore who love mercy, teach your sons to love it, too.

I want to try and do as much as I can as an actor. So far I think I’ve done pretty well with being a minister’s son. And now I know I’m pretty darn good at playing a woman too.

O SON OF MAN! My calamity is My providence, outwardly it is fire and vengeance, but inwardly it is light and mercy. Hasten thereunto that thou mayest become an eternal light and an immortal spirit. This is My command unto thee, do thou observe it.