I didn't become leader to transform the Liberal Democrats into an enlarged form of the Electoral Reform Society. It's not the be all and end all for us. There are other very very key ambitions in politics not least social mobility and life chances that I care about as passionately if not more.

Liberalism is I think resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative.

Conservative n: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils as distinguished from the Liberal who wishes to replace them with others.

If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.

I came to the conclusion that in order to end racial barriers I needed to run for the office of the president and put forth an agenda of social justice and world peace. In addition I concluded that someone needed to run and challenge the liberal orthodoxy.

I always thought of myself as a moderate liberal a fighter for peace and justice. I never thought of myself as being all that far out.

Liberals become indignant when you question their patriotism but simultaneously work overtime to give terrorists a cushion for the next attack and laugh at dumb Americans who love their country and hate the enemy.

Just put down 9/11... I think on most things I'm liberal except on defending ourselves and keeping half the money. Those things I'm kind of conservative on.

The biases the media has are much bigger than conservative or liberal. They're about getting ratings about making money about doing stories that are easy to cover.

A rich man told me recently that a liberal is a man who tells other people what to do with their money.