The only reward in a public life is public progress. You stand back and say, 'What did I get out of it?' You look around, and the place is better, and that's it.
— Paul Keating
My claim has always been that defeatism pervaded the conservative parties in the 1930s and that it was the defining characteristic of Menzies and his first period as prime minister.
At its best, Aboriginal art has been effective in translating an entire culture and the understanding of an entire continent. Indeed, the more we interpret Australia through Aboriginal eyes, through the experience of their long and epic story, the more we allow ourselves to understand the land we share.
The death of Malcolm Fraser underwrites a great loss to Australia. Notwithstanding a controversial prime ministership, in later years he harboured one abiding and important idea about Australia - its need and its right to be a strategically independent country.
The First World War not only destroyed European civilisation and the empires at its heart; its aftermath led to a second conflagration, the Second World War, which divided the continent until the end of the century.
What the Anzac legend did do, by the bravery and sacrifice of our troops, was reinforce our own cultural notions of independence, mateship, and ingenuity. Of resilience and courage in adversity.
One of the inevitable aspects of debates about euthanasia is the reluctance on the part of advocates to confront the essence of what they propose.
I have long believed, especially after the unprovoked Western attack on Iraq and the ransacking of the Gaddafi regime in Libya, that North Korea would not desist from the full development of its nuclear weapons program, despite threats and sanctions from the West and even from China.
Countries get one chance in history of putting into place a savings retirement scheme on the scale of the Australian superannuation system.
You get one chance to do something about native title. You get perhaps one chance in your life to do something about a republic. You get one chance, your chance, to build a piece of the political architecture in the Pacific. I wasn't going to give those up.
When the Berlin Wall came down the Americans cried, 'Victory,' and walked off the field.
The great changes in civilisation and society have been wrought by deeply held beliefs and passion rather than by a process of rational deduction.
Well, I think that - I think leadership's always been about two main things: imagination and courage.
Nobody wants to have in their CV in the upper echelons of the American economic family that they nationalised major banks.
I think the rise of China is one of the great events of all economic and human history, and I think this will be overwhelmingly a positive thing for the region and the world.
You see, before I became prime minister, the Australian prime minister only attended ever two meetings in the world: the British Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the South Pacific Forum.
Politicians never fade away; they just keep carrying on, you know, their class.
As prime minister, the pastoral lease question was a very vexing and torrid one for me.
Aboriginal art and culture draws from the land, for Aboriginality and the land are essential to each other and are inseparable.
When one has been touched by the stellar power and ethereal playing of a sublime musician, one is lifted, if only briefly, to a place beyond the realm of the temporal.
The First World War was a war devoid of any virtue. It arose from the quagmire of European tribalism: a complex interplay of nation-state destinies overlaid by notions of cultural superiority peppered with racism.
When we were actually in the Keating reform era, the Business Council was of no help.
Russia alone has the capacity to obliterate the United States.
What we have to do is make our way in Asia ourselves with an independent foreign policy. Our future is basically in the region around us in South East Asia.
I used to say in the cabinet room, 'confidence is not like a can of Popeye spinach - you can't take the top off and swallow it down.' You know, confidence has to be earned.
Politicians come in three varieties: straight men, fixers, and maddies.
The great curse of modern political life is incrementalism.
You see, psychologically, Australia must understand it has to live in the region around it. Australia must find its security in Asia; it cannot find its security from Asia.
In the end, rational policy is always good.
The United States being in Asia is unambiguously a good thing for the region.
Well, Australians should speak for the national interests of Australia, and whatever role former Australian prime ministers may have, one of the things you do is speak frankly about the country as you see the country's best interests, you know?
If one takes pride in one's craft, you won't let a good thing die. Risking it through not pushing hard enough is not a humility.
The essence of leadership is essentially taking the responsibility of trying to interpret the future to the present.
The more we view the country through the prism of Aboriginality, the more likely we are to get the angle right.
Truth is, of its essence, liberating, as it is possessed of no contrivance or conceit - that it provides the only genuine basis for progress and that the future can only be found in truth.
Geoffrey Tozer's death is a national tragedy. For the Australian arts and Australian music, losing Tozer is like Canada having lost Glenn Gould, or France, Ginette Neveu. It is a massive cultural loss. The kind of loss people felt when Germany lost Dresden.
What distinguished the First World War from all wars before it was the massive power of the antagonists.
If you can't imagine it, you sure as hell are never going to see it.
A more worldly and competent foreign and defence policy is by far the preferred first line of defence - rather than the default position of relying on expensive but problematic hardware.
I have said before, you don't expect conservative parties to believe in much, but you do expect them to believe in thrift.
I always believed in burning up the government's political capital, not being Mr Safe Guy, you know?
One tires of combat, although I can still throw a punch, you know.
I think the Australian people are very conscientious. During the 1980s and 1990s we proved they will respond conscientiously to necessary reforms. They mightn't like them but they'll accept them. But reforms have to be presented in a digestible format.
I think Australia has to be a country which has the 'Welcome' sign out.
The G7, just a European centric show, an Atlantic show, is fundamentally finished.
I've always held the view that great states need strategic space. I mean, George Washington took his space from George III. Britain took it from just about everybody. Russia took all of Eastern Europe. Germany's taken it from everywhere they can, and China will want its space too.
You know, in the WikiLeaks cables, the Chinese discovered that Kevin Rudd was urging the Americans to keep the military option open against them. This is hardly a friendly gesture.
I try to use the Australian idiom to its maximum advantage.
