I love hard political debate and I love beating somebody on a political point but what I'm more frustrated by is the politics where you play the man not the politics.

Separation and devolution are two completely different concepts which cannot be mixed together. One is not a stop on the way to the other.

Scotland cannot be the only 'something for nothing' country in the world.

My Scottish Labour Party is a crusade - to fight poverty, inequality and injustice.

What I will say will not always please you, but what I say will always be honest and true and how I genuinely see it.

Telling the truth, and confronting the challenge, is what politics is about.

We shall seek debate without division or rancour.

My working life has always been wrapped up in doing my job to the best of my abilities and doing the best for my family. It is not a contest between the two.

I got a very strong sense from my mother, in particular, that we are all equal in the sight of God.

Schools are not exam factories for the rat race.

The Scottish Labour Party, while I have breath in my body, will listen to the views of trade unionists.

Love is the poetry of the senses!

If we go to war, it must only be with right on our side.

What did you do for them, Bone? Teach them to read and write? Help them rebuild, give the, Christ, help restore a culture? Did you remember to warn the, that it could never be Eden?

I don't know why people persist in believing women are inferior, when it is quite clear that men are the more feeble-minded of the two.

I can say this: They [Iran] have total disregard for our country. They are the number one terrorist state, they are sending money all over the place, and weapons, and you can't do that.

...one can hardly deny that mankind has a common store of thoughts which is transmitted from one generation to another.

Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get.

I went to Amherst because my brother had gone there before me, and he went there because his guidance counselor thought that we would do better there than at a large university like Harvard.

When a task seems too daunting to even approach, break it up into little bits.

If people concentrated on their responsibilities, others would have their rights.