When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

But I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future.

I am fully aware of the fact that the Democratic Party, by nominating someone of my faith, has taken on what many regard as a new and hazardous risk.

I would rather be accused of breaking precedents than breaking promises.

At the start of 2005 the idea of downloading a song to a mobile phone was an idea, by the end of the year it was a reality.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.

If anyone is crazy enough to want to kill a president of the United States, he can do it. All he must be prepared to do is give his life for the president's.