Kamisese Mara

"At that stage my heart ruled my head."

": "Certainly it has been the rock on which I have always been able to rely in good times and in bad, and it is the lodestone of my life."

"Above all there is our fixed joint determination to build a strong and united Fiji, rich in diversity and pampered with tolerance, goodwill and understanding." ."

"I had been in touch with a lot of people I thought would stand by me in the front row of the scrum, didn't know it was going to collapse."

"But my friends, my brothers and sisters of the Pacific, we know who we are. We carry in our hearts the knowledge that we are the bearers of a proud legacy that surely marks us as people of strength, a…"

"It is from the traditional family that we absorb those universal ideals and principles which are the teaching of Jesus, the bedrock of our religious faith. We are taught the difference between right a…"

"When you called me at Lomaloma in December 1987 and asked me to form an Interim Government to prepare the country for a return to parliamentary rule, I knew the task at hand would be onerous. Fiji had…"

"I said, yes, if you think I will avoid bloodshed by standing aside I will stand aside … but I will never ever again come back."