The world isnt one way or another. Things can be changed very, very rapidly by someone with sufficient confidence, sufficient knowledge and sufficient authority.

Democracy is not simply a question of structures. It is a state of mind. It is an activity.

The question shouldn't be what we ought to do, but what we can do.

I had been walking one afternoon in Scotland and thought: Why don't I just keep going? There was, I said, a magic in leaving a line of footprints stretching across Asia.

I have never met a villager who does not want a vote.

This idea that failure is not an option: It makes failure invisible, inconceivable and inevitable.

Despite the dubious statistics … democracy is a thing of value for which we should be fighting.

If democracy is to be rebuilt … it is necessary not just for the public to learn to trust their politicians, but for the politicians to learn to trust the public.

Religions . . . seem to avoid mountain passes.

I had a lot of romantic notions about what it would mean to cross Asia by foot.

In some sense, I'm a romantic. I like the idea of organic history and tradition.

Autumn

Sometimes animals are more human than men and men more animals than animals

She learned that an act intended to express love could have nothing to do with it. That her heart and her body were different things.

I'm a comic, so I like to stay nocturnal. I work 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

I've enjoyed every minute of travelling and playing for my country. What an honour that is.

If you do not actually like boys and girls, or young men and young women, give up teaching.

Once elected, the Pope is by virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope is preserved from the possibility of error. God would change any spend thrift politician into a responsible Pope.

When you do business with people you need money. When you do business with God you need faith. Faith is the currency of the Kingdom of God.

If the person you are trying to diagnose politically is some sort of intellectual, the chances are two to one he is a Democrat.

I've come to be pretty selective about the type of advocacy that I do, because I kind of feel like it's stronger to just do my work and let it speak for itself.