Great Throughts Treasury

"I give my thanks to you, the British people, for the times I have succeeded, and my apologies to you for the times I have fallen short."

"I had discovered long ago the first lesson of political courage: to think anew. I had then learned the second: to be prepared to lead and to decide. I was now studying the third: how to take the calculated risk. I was going to alienate some people, like it or not. The moment you decide, you divide."

"I happen to think it's the politics that makes you electable, but the reason for that is politicians sometimes talk about electability as if it's just a matter of conning the public. Actually, it's a matter of persuading the public, and in my experience, usually, the public gets it right."

"I had come to like and admire George [Bush]. I was asked recently which of the political leaders I had met had the most integrity. I listed George near the top. Some people were aghast... thinking I was joking. He had genuine integrity and as much political courage as any leader I ever met. He was, in a bizarre sense... a true idealist."

"I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the intelligence was genuine."

"I have absolutely no doubt at all that we will find evidence of weapons of mass destruction programmes."

"I have long believed this interdependence defines the new world we live in."

"I haven't come to the conclusion that centrist politics is wrong or dead. On the contrary. I think it's very much alive - but it needs to be given a renewal, a revival, and a muscularity which it presently lacks."

"I have never pretended to be a great House of Commons man, but I pay the House the greatest compliment I can by saying that, from first to last, I never stopped fearing it."

"I know exactly what the British people feel when they see the Queen's head on a œ10 note. I feel it too."

"I just want to say this. I want to say it gently but I want to say it firmly: There is a tendency for the world to say to America, the big problems of the world are yours, you go and sort them out, and then to worry when America wants to sort them out."

"I hope that people know me well enough and realise that I would never do anything to harm the country or anything improper. I never have. I think most people who have dealt with me think I am a pretty straight sort of a guy."

"I haven't got the time to sit here arguing with someone whose idea of a coherent foreign policy is what comes up in Google when you type in peace!"

"I lead my party. He follows his."

"I know that this course of action has produced deep divisions of opinion in our country."

"I learnt a lot in government, and I've learnt a lot since leaving government. The kind of journey of being in government is that you start at your most popular and least capable, and you end at your most capable and least popular."

"I may find Saddam Hussein's regime abhorrent ? any normal person would ? but the survival of it is in his hands."

"I mean, I went to a church school when I was younger and imbibed a certain amount of religion then but it was really in university that I got interested in religion and politics at the same time. I don't think as if it were one moment of conversion but my spiritual journey really began then."

"I mean, you can agree or disagree with Iraq or Afghanistan, but by the way, now the great campaigning cause out there is the absence of intervention in Syria. And then in Libya, it's partial intervention. And that doesn't really explain why some countries that have literally nothing to do with the interventions in the Middle East end up getting targeted."

"I profoundly disagree with important parts of the statist, so-called Keynesian response to the economic crisis; I believe we should be projecting strength and determination abroad, not weakness or uncertainty."

"I really do regard what Clare Short has said this morning as totally irresponsible."

"I say the elite looks out of touch because it's kind of saying; look we'll manage all this for you. You know, we know best. We'll sort it all out for you. And then because people believe that doesn't meet their case for change and they want real change, social media and the way the relationship between people can come into a sense of belonging very quickly, that then is itself a revolutionary phenomenon. You see this around the world."

"I say to the Taliban: surrender the terrorists; or surrender power. It's your choice."

"I see the Koran very much as an outsider. It stands in the great prophetic tradition of trying to return people to the basic principles of spirituality. Taken for its time, it was an extraordinarily progressive declaration of principle. It is also extraordinary for a Christian to read: for example, there are more references to Mary than in the Gospels. The tragedy is that it has been so warped and misapplied."

"I think all of our experience with (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein teaches us that diplomacy has very little chance of working unless it is clear to him that if diplomacy does not work, that the threatened reality of force is there,."

"I take full responsibility for decisions. I stand by them. I believe they were the right decisions."

"''I shall not rest until, once again, the destinies of our people and our party are joined together again in victory at the next general election Labour in its rightful place in government again."

"I think crime is a huge issue for people. If you were living in the poorest state, and you've got drug dealers at the end of the street, and your life's in misery, and you're afraid of your kids going out the door. I mean, the job of progressive politicians is to do something about that."

"I still think there is a residual desire amongst the majority of the public to be given a proper solution."

"I think everyone's had their pound of flesh and now it's time to move on."

"I think conspiracy theories have gotten more and more close to the mainstream because what you've got is a fragmentation of the media, where the media becomes much more polarized today, left and right."

"I think Hillary Clinton is an outstandingly capable and decent person."

"I think I have a very clear idea of what the British people now expect from this government for a third term."

"I think I made the wrong career choice"

"I think it is having answers and not simply anger, and providing solutions that people believe will change their lives in a radical way but do it in a way that's sensible."

"I think if you have faith about these things, you realise that judgment is made by other people ... and if you believe in God, it's made by God as well."

"I think it is vitally important to study History. If we are going to lead Britain safely into the future, it is essential that we understand our country's historical roots. If we can learn the lessons of the past, we will be able to avoid making mistakes in the future."

"I think life is a gift from God and should be lived to the full and with purpose."

"I think most people who have dealt with me, think I'm a pretty straight sort of guy and I am."

"I think it's important for people like me to evaluate and reevaluate."

"I think social media is a revolutionary phenomenon all in itself."

"I think people think their incomes have been flat lining for a long period of time. They feel that the next generation's opportunities are not going to be improvement. So and I also think that social media then allows insurgent movements to gain scale at speed."

"I think the 75p pension (increase), in retrospect we applied the rules, but it was a mistake."

"I think the center ground have got to become the people of change again and not the guardians of the status quo. And that is the weakness it comes to in our campaign. You can see it in your politics, you can see it everywhere."

"I think the journey for a politician goes from wanting to please all the people all the time, to a political leader that realises in the end his responsibility is to decide. And when he decides, he divides."

"I think this has gone beyond, as it were, Al Qaida as a specific network. I mean, this is -- there is no central command in this ideology, the way that, you know, you would normally describe one unit of -- that leads and operation. It's not like that. But the fact is that they are loosely linked by an ideology. They have very strong links with each other, right across the national boundaries. And you know, would be no surprise to me if the people that were engaged in the Mumbai attacks had links with other countries as well."

"I think the people like myself who are in the center ground of politics and who think that center left and center right can cooperate and work together. Who don't like this sort of insurgent populism because we think it's not really going to deliver for the people, I think there's a big responsibility on us in the center to get our act together. And to work out radical but serious solutions to the problems people face."

"I think the single most important political distinction today is actually between open-minded versus closed-minded, and that's why I think this crosses the boundaries of traditional - center-right and center-left have much more in common with each other right now than the right does with the center-right, and the left does with the center-left."

"I thought that it was the most predictable speech that we could have heard from the right hon. and learned Gentleman. He may want to pose as the nice Dr. Jekyll, but we know that, deep down, he is still the same old Mr. Howard."

"I think, there is a possibility - I would say it's more than that - that we will come to a view of foreign policy going forward that learns from the past but doesn't get captured by it."