"What we're putting forward is the most radical reform of the welfare state... for 60 years. I think it will have a transformative effect in making sure that everyone is better off in work and better off working rather than on benefits."

"The EU must be able to act with the speed and flexibility of a network, not the cumbersome rigidity of a bloc. We must not be weighed down by an insistence on a one size fits all approach which implies that all countries want the same level of integration. The fact is that they don't and we shouldn't assert that they do."

"There is a growing frustration that the EU is seen as something that is done to people rather than acting on their behalf. And this is being intensified by the very solutions required to resolve the economic problems."

"Half a century ago, the amazing courage of Rosa Parks, the visionary leadership of Martin Luther King, and the inspirational actions of the civil rights movement led politicians to write equality into the law and make real the promise of America for all her citizens."

"Bravery is born the moment you decide your values outweigh your comforts. Such is the immutable nature of understanding."

"Courage is not the absence of trembling, but the decision to step forward regardless. Reflect upon this whenever doubt clouds your horizon."

"True wisdom begins when you realize every choice we make paints the canvas of our life."

"My view is pensioners don't have the one option that people of working age have. They can't really increase their income, because they are no longer able to work."