The youth are hurt. Our majority are youth, under 30. They have no hope. They don't get jobs.

We live in an interconnected world, and you cannot prevent people from leaving. What you need to do is to create opportunities. At the same time, people are also coming back.

Do not ever threaten an Afghan with violence. We will rise as one and we will face every threat the way we have taken on thousands of previous armies and conquerors.

When windows shatter through a bomb, we will repair it next week because we are Afghans. That's the spirit.

We could form a government of national unity fighting corruption. The ordinary Afghan is sick and tired of it, because it's she or he that pays the price.

The job of an elected president is to overcome the past and change the playing field.

Peace is a national issue, not only government's responsibility.

We will not let the price of peace be greater than the price of war, we will firmly safeguard the achievements of the past 13 years under former President Karzai.

It [terrorism] happened because intelligence, leadership and police failures made it possible.

The most significant thing is public participation. That assures the Afghan public that our promises are not empty.

Deadlines concentrate the mind. But deadlines should not be dogmas.

A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.

Age is a funny thing. So are appearances. Neither is relevant to what one knows, in my opinion.

Lunatics are, unfortunately, rarely stupid.

Much later I realized that a person's attitude to pain reveals more about his future than almost any other sign I know.

To call New York's traffic at holiday time a nightmare is to understate.

Starbucks represents something beyond a cup of coffee.

People don't stand up and protect their dreams because they get spoofed in a way.

You can wake me up now - these last four weeks in America have been incredible.

It is not the most pleasant employment to spend eight hours a day in a counting house.

No one can measure the loss of business that may arise from a defective item that goes out to a customer.