Quotes from Benazir Bhutto

Democracy needs support, and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies.

I am constitutionally competent to contest the elections.

I was a very shy girl who led an insulated life; it was only when I came to Oxford, and to Harvard before that, that suddenly I saw the power of people. I didn't know such a power existed, I saw people criticising their own president; you couldn't do that in Pakistan - you'd be thrown in prison.

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

You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man, but not an idea.

I was brought up to believe that human beings are good, which is why it shocks me to the core when I see human beings behaving badly.

The best hijab is in the eyes of the beholder.

It would be so nice to have the luxury just to laze. So nice not to have to always get up and get dressed for some occasion. Always having to move from here to there, where everything is scheduled and even having lunch with my kids on their Easter break has to be slotted in. Maybe one day...

My party would not have allowed the Taleban to become such a huge force that they would need to sign a peace treaty.

I know death comes. Ive seen too much death, young death.

I put my life in danger and came here because I feel this country is in danger. People are worried. We will bring the country out of this crisis.

If they only showed this much spunk when it came to containing the terrorists I don't think we would have such a problem.

I find that whenever I am in power, or my father was in power, somehow good things happen. The economy picks up, we have good rains, water comes, people have crops. I think the reason this happens is that we want to give love and we receive love.

Democracy is the best revenge. After Benazir Bhutto's death, her son's brief public remarks were captured on video, and they were reported in international newspapers. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari announced, "My mother always said, ' Democracy is the best revenge.' "

Democracy needs support and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies. Democratic nations should... come together in an association designed to help each other and promote what is a universal value democracy.

Military hardliners called me a 'security threat' for promoting peace in South Asia and for supporting a broad-based government in Afghanistan.

The government I led gave ordinary people peace, security, dignity, and opportunity to progress.

Democracy is necessary to peace and to undermining the forces of terrorism.

General Musharraf needs my participation to give credibility to the electoral process, as well as to respect the fundamental right of all those who wish to vote for me.

It's true that General Musharraf opposes my return, seeing me as a symbol of democracy in the country. He is comfortable with dictatorship. I hope better sense prevails.

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.

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

A people inspired by democracy, human rights and economic opportunity will turn their back decisively against extremism.

Pakistan is heir to an intellectual tradition of which the illustrious exponent was the poet and philosopher Mohammad Iqbal. He saw the future course for Islamic societies in a synthesis between adherence to the faith and adjustment to the modern age.