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

In a way, a jail is a place where you can rest, read books and live with yourself.

Political dictatorship and social hopelessness create the desperation that fuels religious extremism.

Right now, they feel they have lost their voice, and their miseries have increased since my departure.

The Internet is the great equalizer.The technology which emanated from the Silicon Valley of California has more potential to ameliorate social inequality than any development in the history of the world, including the industrial revolution.

The Holy Book calls upon Muslims to resist tyranny. Dictatorships in Pakistan, however long, have, therefore, always collapsed in the face of this spirit.

The next few months are critical to Pakistan’s future direction as a democratic state committed to promoting peace, fighting terrorism and working for social justice.

I know death comes. I’ve seen too much death, young death.

I’m not into smoke-filled rooms. I don’t have the time for byzantine political intrigues.

Freedom is not an end. Freedom is a beginning.

We learned at an early age that it was men’s interpretation of our religion that restricted women’s opportunities, not our religion itself. Islam in fact had been quite progressive toward women from its inception.

America’s greatest contribution to the world is its concept of democracy, its concept of freedom, freedom of action, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought.

The next decade cannot be a decade of confrontation and contention. It cannot be east vs. West. It cannot be men vs. women. It cannot be Islam vs. Christianity. That is what the enemies of dialogue want.

I seek to lead a democratic Pakistan which is free from the yoke of military dictatorship and that will cease to be a haven, the very petri dish of international terrorism.

Military dictatorship is born from the power of the gun, and so it undermines the concept of the rule of law and gives birth to a culture of might, a culture of weapons, violence and intolerance.

I am planning to return and contest the October elections in Pakistan.

I’ve never had a bank account in Switzerland since 1984. Why would the Swiss do this to me? Maybe the Swiss are trying to divert attention from the Holocaust gold scandal.

No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach.

[T]he kingdom of God… is to be a political institution that shall hold sway over all the earth; to which all other governments will be subordinate and by which they will be dominated.

there are people who read my work and accuse me of being political! As far as I’m concerned that’s like accusing a dog of having a bark!

The state dinner is almost a formula, but you try to make it interesting. You try not to overload it with too many political types. You try to get a cross section.

Seen as an economic, political, cultural, and psychological re-membering vision, it should continue to guide remembering practices

It is far easier for the proverbial camel to pass through the needle’s eye, hump and all, than for an erstwhile colonial administration to give sound and honest counsel of a political nature to its liberated territory.

If we were to place our power at the service of our imaginations rather than our primate politics we would create a civilization worthy of the name.

Education remains the key to both economic and political empowerment.