[On being criticized for her serious expression:] I simply ache from smiling. Why are women expected to beam all the time? It's unfair. If a man looks solemn, it's automatically assumed he's a serious person, not a miserable one.

Madam President, speaking here in Dublin Castle it is impossible to ignore the weight of history, as it was yesterday when you and I laid wreaths at the Garden of Remembrance.

The upward course of a nation's history is due in the long run to the soundness of heart of its average men and women

[On the 1982 intruder into her bedroom:] I realized immediately that it wasn't a servant because they don't slam doors.

Think what we would have missed if we had never ... used a mobile phone or surfed the Net -- or, to be honest, listened to other people talking about surfing the Net.

[To the suggestion that Great Britain might someday want a Republic:] We'll go quietly.

We all need to get the balance right between action and reflection. With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock.