Self-reliance is not just words, but deeds.
Ashraf Ghani
If election is your goal, you're never going to engage in reform. Reform has to be your goal. Election is the means. You run for office in order to do something, not in order to perpetuate yourself.
By terrorising the people, the Taliban have sown deep doubts about the government.
Mecca and Medinah is a very special place in the hearts of every Muslim but particularly for every Afghan.
I want to differentiate between stability and security: Stability comes from the hearts of people and acceptance of the judicial system. Security comes from the barrel of a gun and the threat of the use of force.
Particularly the mark for success for us would be that a woman can not only walk in the streets of every major city, but can go from one province to another without any hindrance.
As long as I am president, the rights of women will be protected.
There's no place for mob justice in Afghanistan.
In 2001, we didn't have an army; we had remnants of a dissolved army that had no hope. Our generals had literally become busboys.
We are not a battlefield and we will not allow anyone to use our territory against any of our neighbour, but we will not allow our neighbours to use our territory this way either.
The first principle of tackling corruption is that you do not engage in it and you have the will to confront it.
My entire life has been guided by a sense of equality, equality for loved ones.
Peace is not a luxury. Peace is a necessity.
The privileged elites are part of the globalization moment that we live in.
Afghanistan cannot be a burden on the international community and it has to become an asset.
Organizations are accumulations of historical debris. They are not consciously thought. So when you ask the Education Ministry 'What's your core function and who's your client?' they laugh at you. When I say that the client is the Afghan child - and the Ministry is an instrument, not the goal - it's greeted with shock. It's a new idea.
When we get peace in Afghanistan, we'll go to New Zealand to learn best practices for raising sheep. We'll go to Switzerland and study hydroelectric projects.
I went to Pakistan; I engaged in peace. If a hand extended is not shaken, what are you supposed to do?
My central objective is, turn Afghanistan's location into a greater asset. Central Asia is becoming Afghanistan's major trading partner. The vision of connectivity is really important.
Middle Eastern Muslim countries are not only important for Afghanistan due to common culture and faith, but also because of economic benefits.
Thank God there has been no recurrence of 9/11. It is not because of luck - it is because of mass sacrifice and effort.
President Karzai was an accidental president. There was no paradigm for the conditions he faced, because no one could have imagined 9/11. He had to improvise under very difficult conditions to hold this country together.
We need to get a stable Afghanistan that can ensure the security of Americans, Europeans, and others on the one hand, but more fundamentally our own democratic rights and institutions.
Pathology by Daesh is distinctively to swallow its opponents, to frighten the population. In that regard, the threat is very real.
You cannot have good terrorists and bad terrorists.
Economics taught in most of the elite universities are practically useless in my context. My country is dominated by drug economy and a mafia. Textbook economics does not work in my context, and I have very few recommendations from anybody as to how to put together a legal economy.
Afghanistan has the capacity to become an industrialized country because of its mining and agriculture sectors. We can also create jobs for educated men and women by investing in information technology.
Afghanistan's geographical location gives it the opportunity to become one of the biggest transit routes in the region. It can connect Southern, Eastern and Central Asia to the Middle East.
If we looked in the world of 1945 and looked at the map of capitalist economies and democratic polities, they were the rare exception, not the norm.
Money is not capital in most of the developing countries. It's just cash. Because it lacks the institutional, organizational, managerial forms to turn it into capital.
You would think that the U.S. government would not think that American firms needed subsidizing to function in developing countries, provide advice, but they do.
My father's mother really had a profound influence on me. She literally began her day with an hour of reading. But the most fundamental impact was education.
You can get together, you can talk as much as you want, but if there's not a decision-making process - that's where democracy really matters.
President Obama called me on his last day in office and said the only person who never asked him for anything was me.
President Truman made his name by looking into contracting. And that's how integrity within the military procurement started in the United States.
If al-Qaida, all apologies to Microsoft for the analogy, is Windows 1, Daish is Windows 5.
Politicians have become extraordinarily conservative, but our times require imagination and bold action.
I have a strange - because there's no other way probably of describing it - uh, temper. I'm a very difficult taskmaster. I don't wait.
This hand is free of blood, and this hand is free from the stain of corruption.
You know, America has profoundly shaped me, and I have two American children and unbelievably rich friendships so it will always be a source of joy and good memories.
We develop sentiments that we are only going to work with people like us. But you don't build up a nation by working with people like you. You overcome a history of conflict by reaching out to people very much unlike you.
Sovereignty of Afghanistan must be accepted categorically by Pakistan so that we can move forward.
We've had a difficult legacy of 40 years, and cleaning up is not going to be a one day job. But we are engaged in a systematic effort, we have not allowed formation of new militia groups, and we are reforming the local police systematically so that there won't be abuse.
Crisis for others is a source of despair. For me, it's an opportunity to bring reform.
The key demand for me from the public across the 34 provinces is to transform the state into an instrument of the rule of law, transform the economy into a productive system and change the education system.
At the end of any peace deal, the decision-maker will be the government of Afghanistan.
No power in the country can dissolve the government.
Deadlines concentrate the mind. But deadlines should not be dogmas.
Afghanistan fortunately is one of the richest countries in terms of water, mineral resources, location and human capital.
Afghanistan is moving to really becoming an export-oriented country.
