It is almost always wrong that the time isn't ripe to decide something. That is always said of difficult problems.

I don't think that capitalism should be unbridled, if by "unbridled" you mean unregulated.

It behaves more like a tribe than a democratic institution...responding to custom rather than reason and using its own liturgy and language for the conduct of its domestic affairs.

But the ability to articulate what you are doing, to be clear about it, and to stick to it is, I think, the essence of political leadership.

There is a sort of exotic preposterousness about a lot of elections, the way arguments are made even cruder.

Hong Kong's people will get what they want, despite China's objections. Freedom invariably wins in the end.

Hong Kong represents the kind of Asia with which both West and East are comfortable... It offers, in that sense, a vision for the future of Asia.