If I have learned one thing in life, it is never to take any man's own estimate of himself. He could very well be mistaken.
Johann Lamont
I will not promise what I cannot deliver. And I will never hide the cost of what I propose.
Social injustice is what puts Scotland at its greatest disadvantage, and restoring the 50p tax rate will start to fight that.
We won't enshrine the Tories' policies in Scotland. We won't run away from the Tories but then let them run our economy. We will face up to the Tories, and we will beat them.
We must listen and learn, show humility and seek again to talk for and to people's ambitions and concerns.
I've got a very deep and abiding passion about education being far more than buildings and textbooks; it's what children bring into school with them.
The next phase is to 2016, and yes, I want to be First Minister because I believe I have the life experience, and I've got a commitment to change.
The job of the Scottish Labour Party is to represent working people and represent Scotland.
When universities are forced to recruit more and more from outwith Scotland just to balance the books, it is inevitable that doors are being slammed shut on some of our brightest talent.
As a youngster, I travelled every year across the sea to Tiree. On occasion, we ventured to Skye on the Kyleakin-Kyle of Lochalsh ferry, where there is now a bridge.
Our task is a great one, not just because of how far we have fallen. Our task is a great one because of the challenges facing the people we seek to serve.
I've often thought having a politician for a parent must be like having a constantly embarrassing uncle.
I got a very strong sense from my mother, in particular, that we are all equal in the sight of God.
There is a circus around politics. But if you think it is a game, then you forget what the purpose of politics actually is.
I used to go to a Gaelic class on a Saturday morning, but I never felt myself that I could speak it properly.
There is a danger of Scottish politics being between two sets of dinosaurs... the Nationalists who can't accept they were rejected by the people, and some colleagues at Westminster who think nothing has changed.
The Scottish Labour Party and its renewal are more important than me.
I didn't particularly want to go to Westminster - not that there were many seats available or chances for women to get elected. In 1987, Labour sent down 50 MPs, and only one of them was a woman.
Progressive politics is not something to be bolted on to another cause.
Scotland has chosen to remain in partnership with our neighbours in the U.K. But Scotland is distinct, and colleagues must recognise that.
I made a different decision to send my children to the local state school.
We need to find a way of having a conversation across the parties on how you fund local government.
We shall seek debate without division or rancour.
That's a really healthy thing - family will always protect you from yourself.
Our politics is about people not flags.
In my mind, the CalMac ferry is linked with the joy of arrival, the sadness of departure, the loss of loved ones brought home by ferry to rest in island soil. It is friendships made and a working life begun.
Separation and devolution are two completely different concepts which cannot be mixed together. One is not a stop on the way to the other.
If I believe we need free personal care, we need an honest discussion about what it costs with a well-managed, well-trained workforce.
My Scottish Labour Party is a crusade - to fight poverty, inequality and injustice.
My granny would come out and stay with us in the winter, and we would listen to the reports from the coastal stations and have a discussion in the middle of Glasgow about what the weather was like in Tiree.
I want to change Scotland, but the only way we can change Scotland is by changing the Scottish Labour Party.
We will renew our party, to rebuild our land - and we will do it by being a better Labour, real Labour, Scottish Labour.
The test is can you do something, rather than have a theoretical argument - can you make a difference?
I don't agree with the Tories on most things.
We have a government that boasts about free education. Those of us who have scratched below the surface know it is costing us by denying opportunities for others to attend college or university.
My biggest ambition is to bring together what happens in the real world with what politicians talk about.
Scotland is my country, the nation that shaped me, that taught me my values. A nation whose achievements inspired and inspire me, a community whose failings drive me - drive my overwhelming desire to fight for social justice and equality.
What I will say will not always please you, but what I say will always be honest and true and how I genuinely see it.
Maybe I was just born to argue with men.
My working life has always been wrapped up in doing my job to the best of my abilities and doing the best for my family. It is not a contest between the two.
The government don't want to talk about the consequences of the choices they make. They pretend there aren't any consequences.
While I'm leader, nothing will be off limits - there will not be one policy, one rule, one way of working which cannot be changed.
Telling the truth, and confronting the challenge, is what politics is about.
The Scottish Labour Party, while I have breath in my body, will listen to the views of trade unionists.
I'm pretty proud of having completed a marathon myself, so I can only imagine the pride that real athletes feel when they are picked for the Olympic or the Paralympic Games.
Schools are not exam factories for the rat race.
It's true across the U.K. that those who had least to do with causing the economic crisis are carrying the heaviest burden. That's unacceptable.
We do students a great disservice by implying that one set of students is more important than another.
I love hard political debate and I love beating somebody on a political point but what I'm more frustrated by is the politics where you play the man not the politics.
I've taught fifth-year Christmas leavers last thing on a Friday afternoon. Basically, if you can face that you can face anything.
