We live in an interconnected world, and you cannot prevent people from leaving. What you need to do is to create opportunities. At the same time, people are also coming back.
Do not ever threaten an Afghan with violence. We will rise as one and we will face every threat the way we have taken on thousands of previous armies and conquerors.
Peace is a national issue, not only government's responsibility.
As the leader of a country, you are not free to enjoy the luxury of such feelings. The Afghan people want peace, which requires persistence. We are determined to defend our country, and the whole region and the entire world understands the justice of our cause and the principled way in which we have engaged in it.
The economy is the silent elephant in the room.
When windows shatter through a bomb, we will repair it next week because we are Afghans. That's the spirit.
Crisis for others is a source of despair. For me, it's an opportunity to bring reform. I owe this country a debt I cannot repay.
The job of an elected president is to overcome the past and change the playing field.
We could form a government of national unity fighting corruption. The ordinary Afghan is sick and tired of it, because it's she or he that pays the price.
I'm not taking power. I'm catalyzing systemic change.
We will not let the price of peace be greater than the price of war, we will firmly safeguard the achievements of the past 13 years under former President Karzai.
There won't be some overnight miracle cure. But the measures I take will be sustainable. Our goal is to cease food imports within four years. This will create a minimum of 2 million jobs in agriculture.
Economics taught in most of the elite universities are practically useless in my context. My country [Afghanistan] is dominated by drug economy and a mafia; textbook economics does not work in my context.
What is common among all of these groups [Taliban, Islamic State etc.] is the intent to destroy. The majority of terrorists who come to Afghanistan are from China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or North Africa. They were expelled from their countries and pushed to ours - this is their battlefield - and all of them, be it the Taliban or others, are interlinked with the criminal economy.
It [terrorism] happened because intelligence, leadership and police failures made it possible.
We [Afghanistan] are constantly dealing with situations in which we must ensure that provinces or major cities do not fall into enemy hands. People need to understand that we don't have an air force and the forces that we do have used to get air support from NATO, which is no longer available. Our pilots have done wonders, but they are stretched thin. We are dealing with resources that have been spread thin.
The most significant thing is public participation. That assures the Afghan public that our promises are not empty.
Deadlines concentrate the mind. But deadlines should not be dogmas.
The youth are hurt. Our majority are youth, under 30. They have no hope. They don't get jobs.
Terrorism attacks peoples' trust in the system of their state. There is protection, but only if there is collective action and collective understanding about how to really deal with this phenomenon.
Women are part of the constitution.
We need to create jobs for 300,000 youth graduating from high school in the next three years. We need to produce growth so we can have an economic system that can turn our natural wealth into a productive system. We need services, because poverty reduction cannot take place without effective citizenship.
Salaries are a huge area of corruption.
It's fair to say average Americans think that the average Afghan doesn't want American troops in their country.
There's no place for mob justice in Afghanistan.
