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.

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.

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.

Terrorism attacks peoples' trust in the system of their state. There is protection, but only if there is collective action and collective understanding about how to really deal with this phenomenon.

History belongs to the dead... Discovery belongs to the Living.(Professor Alistair Dawkins)

My mind is huge with little stories that I never told you.

The pursuit of joy is the purpose of life.

It is weak and despicable to go on wanting things and not trying to get them.

A friend is a lot of things, but a critic isn't.

The real world is not easy to live in. It is rough; it is slippery. Without the most clear-eyed adjustments we fall and get crushed. A man must stay sober; not always, but most of the time.

And the worst thing she had heard were the words he hadn't said, the fact that he hadn't loved her.

Nothing is irredeemably ugly but sin.

New happiness too must be learned to bear.

What a desire! ... to live in peace with that word: Myself.