Benazir Quotes & Sayings

While living in America when I attended Harvard in the early 1970s, I saw for myself the awesome, almost miraculous, power of a people to change policy through democratic means. — Benazir Bhutto

A people inspired by democracy, human rights and economic opportunity will turn their back decisively against extremism. — Benazir Bhutto

It would be so nice to have the luxury just to laze. So nice not to have to always get up and get dressed for some occasion. Always having to move from here to there, where everything is scheduled and even having lunch with my kids on their Easter break has to be slotted in. Maybe one day ... — Benazir Bhutto

Purusing peace means rising above one's own wants, needs, and emotions. — Benazir Bhutto

The best revenge is democracy. — Benazir Bhutto

The U.S. came to understand that Bhutto was not a threat to stability but was instead the only possible way that we could guarantee stability and keep the presidency of Musharraf intact. — Benazir Bhutto

Every dictator uses religion as a prop to keep himself in power. — Benazir Bhutto

All through the years of the Soviet empire, its Politburo held 'elections.' Of course, calling something an election and actually having it be an election are different things. — Benazir Bhutto

I find that whenever I am in power, or my father was in power, somehow good things happen. The economy picks up, we have good rains, water comes, people have crops. I think the reason this happens is that we want to give love and we receive love. — Benazir Bhutto

I seek to lead a democratic Pakistan which is free from the yoke of military dictatorship and that will cease to be a haven, the very petri dish of international terrorism. — Benazir Bhutto

What is important is that a political party articulates the mood of a generation. — Benazir Bhutto

America's greatest contribution to the world is its concept of democracy, its concept of freedom, freedom of action, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought. — Benazir Bhutto

Ultimately, leadership is about the strength of one's convictions, the ability to endure the punches, and the energy to promote an idea. And I have found that those who do achieve peace never acquiesce to obstacles, especially those constructed of bigotry, intolerance, and inflexible tradition. — Benazir Bhutto

Democracy is necessary to peace and to undermining the forces of terrorism. — Benazir Bhutto

When the United States aligns with dictatorships and totalitarian regimes, it compromises the basic democratic principles of its foundation - namely, life, liberty and justice for all. — Benazir Bhutto

The best hijab is in the eyes of the beholder. — Benazir Bhutto

Military dictatorship is born from the power of the gun, and so it undermines the concept of the rule of law and gives birth to a culture of might, a culture of weapons, violence and intolerance. — Benazir Bhutto

Military hardliners called me a 'security threat' for promoting peace in South Asia and for supporting a broad-based government in Afghanistan. — Benazir Bhutto

I was a very shy girl who led an insulated life; it was only when I came to Oxford, and to Harvard before that, that suddenly I saw the power of people. I didn't know such a power existed, I saw people criticising their own president; you couldn't do that in Pakistan - you'd be thrown in prison. — Benazir Bhutto

[On Richard M. Nixon:] Americans began with a president who couldn't tell a lie and now they have one who can't tell the truth. — Benazir Bhutto

I believe that democracies do not go to war; that's the lesson of history, and I think that a democratic Pakistan is the world community's best guarantee of stability in Asia. — Benazir Bhutto

As children we had been taught that no price was too high to pay for our country. But the personal price to our family had been high. — Benazir Bhutto

You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea.
You can kill a man, but not an idea. — Benazir Bhutto

We learned at an early age that it was men's interpretation of our religion that restricted women's opportunities, not our religion itself. Islam in fact had been quite progressive toward women from its inception ... — Benazir Bhutto

General Musharraf needs my participation to give credibility to the electoral process, as well as to respect the fundamental right of all those who wish to vote for me. — Benazir Bhutto

No, I am not pregnant. I am fat. And, as the Prime Minister, its my right to be fat if I want to. — Benazir Bhutto

What can I do if everyone from the president to a junior bureaucrat is dying to convict me. If I am such a criminal, what was I doing outside jail before my marriage to Benazir? — Asif Ali Zardari

The Internet is the great equalizer.The technology which emanated from the Silicon Valley of California has more potential to ameliorate social inequality than any development in the history of the world, including the industrial revolution. — Benazir Bhutto

Freedom and liberty, the essays we wrote on them, papers for our tutors, for grades, but did we know the value of those words which we bandied about, of how precious they are, as precious as the air we breathe, the water we drink. — Benazir Bhutto

Pakistan's future viability, stability and security lie in empowering its people and building political institutions. My goal is to prove that the fundamental battle for the hearts and minds of a generation can be accomplished only under democracy. — Benazir Bhutto

I don't fear death. I remember my last meeting with my father when he told me, You know, tonight when I will be killed, my mother and my father will be waiting for me. It makes me weepy ... but I don't think it can happen unless God wants it to happen because so many people have tried to kill me. — Benazir Bhutto

Whatever my aims and agendas were, I never asked for power. — Benazir Bhutto

I am planning to return and contest the October elections in Pakistan. — Benazir Bhutto

Above all you must study hard. Very few in Pakistan have the
opportunity you now have and you must take advantage of it. Never forget that
the money it is costing to send you comes from the land, from the people who
sweat and toil on those lands. You will owe a debt to them, a debt you can repay
with God's blessing by using your education to better their lives. — Benazir Bhutto

Bhutto represents everything the fundamentalists hate - a powerful, highly-educated woman operating in a man's world, seemingly unafraid to voice her independent views and, indeed, seemingly unafraid of anything, including the very real possibility that one day someone might succeed in killing her because of who she is. — Benazir Bhutto

What is not recorded is not remembered. — Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto doesn't cease to exist the moment she gets married. I am not giving myself away. I belong to myself and I always shall. — Benazir Bhutto

Clearly it's not easy for women in modern society, no matter where they live. We still have to go the extra mile to prove that we are equal to men. we have to work longer hours and make more sacrifices. And we must emotionally protect ourselves from unfair, often vicious attacks made on us via the male members of our family. — Benazir Bhutto

You see, they think they're saving you, and you think you're saving them. That's where the trouble starts. Someone says, 'I saved you, now here's what I want.' And its the same with big countries and little ones, religious leaders and their followers, even husbands and wives. When things really work, though, it's because people realize that this is a lie, that, really, we all save one another. It's the way of the world. Things work out for the best when everyone makes it, together, when we manage to save each other. (from The Way of the World) — Benazir Bhutto

And also I was brought up to believe that human beings are good, which is why it shocks me to the core when I see human beings behaving badly. — Benazir Bhutto

As a woman leader, I thought I brought a different kind of leadership. I was interested in women's issues, in bringing down the population growth rate ... as a woman, I entered politics with an additional dimension - that of a mother. — Benazir Bhutto

Right now, they feel they have lost their voice, and their miseries have increased since my departure. — Benazir Bhutto

Given the right to a free ballot, the people would support my return. — Benazir Bhutto

I still don't think like that. Because of Benazir, nobody else [in her party] was thinking about leadership. This position comes about only because of the vacuum that was created with her death. — Asif Ali Zardari

I know death comes. I've seen too much death, young death. — Benazir Bhutto

I found that a whole series of people opposed me simply on the grounds that I was a woman. The clerics took to the mosque saying that Pakistan had thrown itself outside the Muslim world and the Muslim umar by voting for a woman, that a woman had usurped a man's place in the Islamic society. — Benazir Bhutto

Pakistan is heir to an intellectual tradition of which the illustrious exponent was the poet and philosopher Mohammad Iqbal. He saw the future course for Islamic societies in a synthesis between adherence to the faith and adjustment to the modern age. — Benazir Bhutto

Being nice should never be perceived as being weak. It's not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of courtesy, manners, grace, a woman's ability to make everyone ... feel at home, and it should never be construed as weakness ... — Benazir Bhutto

I am constitutionally competent to contest the elections. — Benazir Bhutto

The military wants a system that protects its policies and privileges. — Benazir Bhutto

In distinguishing between Islamic teachings and social taboos, we must remember that Islam forbids injustice; Injustice against people, against nations, against women. It shuns race, color, and gender as a basis of distinction amongst fellowmen. It enshrines piety as the sole criteria for judging humankind. — Benazir Bhutto

Freedom is not an end. Freedom is a beginning. — Benazir Bhutto

I dream ... of a world where we can commit our social resources to the development of human life and not to its destruction — Benazir Bhutto

The next decade cannot be a decade of confrontation and contention. It cannot be east vs. West. It cannot be men vs. women. It cannot be Islam vs. Christianity. That is what the enemies of dialogue want. — Benazir Bhutto

The Holy Book calls upon Muslims to resist tyranny. Dictatorships in Pakistan, however long, have, therefore, always collapsed in the face of this spirit. — Benazir Bhutto

Certainly, if we believe in democracy and democratic systems, when [Benazir Bhutto] failed to pass any legislation, really, at all in her first two years in government during her first term and in fact had a tenure that was marked not only by gross corruption but by human rights abuses, that should have been a time for people to say, "Well, OK, we've given you an opportunity and you haven't bettered the institutions, you haven't strengthened the democratic cause - we may not vote you back." — Fatima Bhutto

We were looking forward to democracy and now people asked, "If Benazir can die, nobody is safe." It felt as if my country were running out of hope. — Malala Yousafzai

My father was the Prime Minister of Pakistan. My grandfather had been in politics, too; however, my own inclination was for a job other than politics. I wanted to be a diplomat, perhaps do some journalism - certainly not politics. — Benazir Bhutto

It's hard to deny that an alarming number of those who stood for peace, not war, were either killed by deranged lone gunmen or else died in suspicious circumstances. We refer of course to the likes of JFK, Martin Luther King, Benazir Bhutto, Bobby Kennedy and John Lennon, to name but a few. — James Morcan

All our problems, all our disputes, all our disagreements can be resolved quickly to mutual satisfaction if we address the question. — Benazir Bhutto

My father always would say, "My daughter will go into politics? My daughter will become prime minister", but it's not what I wanted to do. I would say, "No, Papa, I will never go into politics." As I've said before, this is not the life I chose; it chose me ... But I accepted the responsibility and I've never wavered in my commitment. — Benazir Bhutto

Extremism can flourish only in an environment where basic governmental social responsibility for the welfare of the people is neglected. Political dictatorship and social hopelessness create the desperation that fuels religious extremism. — Benazir Bhutto

The political parties have unanimously rejected the one-man constitutional changes. — Benazir Bhutto

My mother is a Shiite Muslim, as are most Iranians, while the rest of the
family was Sunni. But that was never a problem. Shiites and Sunnis had lived
side by side and intermarried for over a thousand years and our differences were
far fewer than our similarities. What was fundamental was that all Muslims,
regardless of their sects, surrender to the will of God, and believe that there is no
God but Allah and Mohammed is his last Prophet. That is the Quranic definition
of a Muslim and, in our family, what mattered most. — Benazir Bhutto

It is one thing being able to contest an election and to give the people hope that I can be the next prime minister. It is a totally different situation where the people of Pakistan are told that the results are already taken and the leader of your choice is banned. — Benazir Bhutto

Oppression does not know the meaning of provincial boundaries. Aren't our energies better spent fighting the common enemy instead of each other? — Benazir Bhutto

I note that [Benazir] Bhutto demonstrates her own deep commitment to democracy by giving herself the title chairperson for life of the Pakistan Peoples Party. — Ann Coulter

The contradictions within Pakistan became still more apparent at my next event, a luncheon hosted in my honor by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and attended by several dozen accomplished women in Pakistan. It was like being rocketed forward several centuries in time. Among these women were academics and activists, as well as a pilot, a singer, a banker and a police deputy superintendent. They had their own ambitions and careers, and, of course, we were all guests of Pakistan's elected female leader. Benazir — Hillary Rodham Clinton

I'm not into smoke-filled rooms. I don't have the time for byzantine political intrigues. — Benazir Bhutto

It's true that General Musharraf opposes my return, seeing me as a symbol of democracy in the country. He is comfortable with dictatorship. I hope better sense prevails. — Benazir Bhutto

Like all children I had taken my father for granted. Now that I had lost him, I felt an emptiness that could never be filled. But I did not let myself cry, believing as a Muslim that tears pull a spirit earthward and won't let it be free. — Benazir Bhutto

I try to reach my father through the bars. He is so thin, almost wasted away from malaria, dysentery, starvation. But he pulls himself erect, and touches my hand. "Tonight I will be free," he says, a glow suffusing his face. "I will be joining my mother, my father. I am going back to the land of my ancestors in Larkana to become part of its soil, its scent, its air. There will be songs about me. I will become part of its legend." He smiles. "But it is very hot in Larkana." "I'll build a shade," I manage to say. — Benazir Bhutto

The government I led gave ordinary people peace, security, dignity, and opportunity to progress. — Benazir Bhutto

The military destabilised my government on politically motivated charges. — Benazir Bhutto

Democracy is the best revenge. — Benazir Bhutto

The next few months are critical to Pakistan's future direction as a democratic state committed to promoting peace, fighting terrorism and working for social justice. — Benazir Bhutto

I have led an unusual life. I have buried a father killed at age 50 and two brothers killed in the prime of their lives. I raised my children as a single mother when my husband was arrested and held for eight years without a conviction - a hostage to my political career. — Benazir Bhutto

The United Nations charter gives every nation the right to self defence, therefore when the American embassies were bombed it was a matter of time before the Americans responded by going for what they suspected were the causes of the attack. — Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto was an inspirational leader and an inspirational woman. — Malala Yousafzai

Democracy needs support, and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies. — Benazir Bhutto

I've never had a bank account in Switzerland since 1984. Why would the Swiss do this to me? Maybe the Swiss are trying to divert attention from the Holocaust gold scandal. — Benazir Bhutto

I had been born into a sort of democracy in which for ten years Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif kept replacing each other, none of their governments ever completing a term and always accusing each other of corruption. — Malala Yousafzai

Calling an animal and
having it come, planting something and having it grow, become essential. It is
proof that I exist. — Benazir Bhutto

The people who resent me do so because I'm a woman, I'm young, and I'm a Bhutto. Well, the simple answer is, it doesn't matter that I'm a woman, it doesn't matter that I'm young, and it's a matter of pride that I'm a Bhutto. — Benazir Bhutto

The forces of moderation and democracy must, and will, prevail against extremism and dictatorship. I will not be intimidated ... Despite threats of death, I will not acquiesce to tyranny, but rather lead the fight against it. — Benazir Bhutto

To make peace, one must be an uncompromising leader. To make peace, one must also embody compromise. — Benazir Bhutto

In 1988, when democracy was restored, the military establishment was still very powerful. The extremist groups were still there. And when the aid and assistance to Pakistan was cut, we had to adopt harsh economic policies. So in a way, it showed that democracy doesn't pay, and the military was able to reassert itself. — Benazir Bhutto