“I asked for strength, and God gave me difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for wisdom, and God gave me problems to learn to solve.
I asked for prosperity, and God gave me a brain and brawn to work.
I asked for courage, and God gave me dangers to overcome.
I asked for love, and God gave me people to help.
I asked for favors, and God gave me opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted.
I received everything I needed.”
“The one who is outside the door has already a good part of their journey behind them.”
“Politicians have a responsibility not to inflame division or misrepresent the facts, and to show leadership to counter views that would demonise asylum seekers or abrogate Australia’s international obligations…The facts are that Australia’s current refugee intake of about 13,750 a year is small by international standards and forms less than 10% of our total permanent migration intake. Boat arrivals deemed to be refugees make up an even smaller proportion of that – less than 2% of all migrants to Australia.”
“I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message.”
“Sometimes the poorest woman leaves her children the richest inheritance.”
“On March 19, 2004, President Bush asked: Who would prefer Saddam’s torture chambers still be open? Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam’s torture chambers reopened under new management, U.S. management.”
“While Australia was the first country to give women the right to stand as well as to vote for the national parliament, Finland was the second. And Finland immediately elected nineteen women to its parliament (in 1907) while Australia had essentially given women the right to stand but not to sit. It was not until 1943 that the first women took their seats in Australia’s national parliament.”
“Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased. It is never for sale. It cannot be fabricated out of public relations. It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth, we have spoken it.”
“Caring about someone as much as you care about yourself, and the critical eye that comes with it, are two strands that cannot be separated. Both engender a passion that makes the mother-daughter relationship perilous—and precious.”
“If it were between countries, we’d call it war;
if it were a disease, we’d call it an epidemic;
if were an oil spill, we’d call it a disaster;
but it’s happening to thousands of Australian women – and it’s just a domestic.”