Former first minister Jack McConnell has stepped down as Scottish Labour leader after more than five years in the job.

Here is a selection of Mr McConnell's quotes during his career at the top of Scotland's political tree.

We in Scotland will not be all that we can unless we lift our eyes to the horizon and look beyond our own set of circumstances.

It is very important that Berti Vogts is given that time and opportunity to test the players he has available.

We will not grow the Scottish economy if we are continually negative and pessimistic.

Labour's priorities are the people's priorities.

To eliminate sectarianism everyone must accept that this is not harmless banter - this is mindless violence and a culture of shame.

I think the rising cost of the Scottish Parliament building has probably been the single biggest disappointment in devolution.

I think what was wrong with the first couple of years of the parliament was there was far too much digression into issues that were not seen to be mainstream.

Government ministers are well paid. They should be put under scrutiny, asked difficult questions, and the system should encourage that rather than work against it.

People are impatient for change and I am too.

There will be couples out there and families out there who have secrets that nobody will ever know and who've maybe worked them out.

When I get it wrong and can take the chance to correct that decision, I am happy to do so.

I think it would be a very, very sad day if politicians or broadcasters dropped their friends, dropped families that they were closely associated with just simply because of their positions.

By all means get drunk once in a while - but do not get into a situation where people are being encouraged to get completely incapable just to save some money and drink more quickly.