"It is a subtle truth that true knowledge is found not in possessing answers, but in continually asking the right questions."

"It is a humble truth that the test of character in leadership is how one behaves in moments of unvarnished power — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"The art of living is discovering that the melody of life is composed of both highs and lows."

"When purpose is clear, every obstacle transforms into a stepping stone. This remains the cornerstone of personal mastery — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"My view is that you still, in order to win from the Labour perspective, have to have a strong alliance with business as well as the unions. You have got to be very much in the centre ground on things like public sector reform."

"Look I eat really well and I work out, but I also indulge when I want to. I don't starve myself in an extremist way. You're not taking away my coffee or my dairy or my glass of wine because I'd be devastated."

"What's missing is leadership in the White House. And the story that Barack Obama does tell, forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old. The man assumed office almost four years ago - isn't it about time he assumed responsibility?"

"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."