Top 15 Alex Salmond Quotes

[T]o get to a position where you say to a majority of our people that you cannot have single-sex spaces – prized and worked and strived for – because of some daft ideology imported from elsewhere and, as we’ve seen, imperfectly understood by its proponents in Scotland, borders on the totally absurd.
And the six per cent decline in independence vote over a month – think about that.
Thirty years of gradually building, building, building until we get independence over 50 per cent and then thrown away with some self-indulgent nonsense, which even if it was right, which it is nae, would hardly be tactically the most astute manoeuvre when we're meant to be taking Scotland to its next date with destiny."

There is nothing wrong with Scotland that cannot be fixed by what is right with Scotland.

Any house built on sand - big or small - will not survive the storm.

Let no-one mistake. This Church, and other faith groups, have the ability to be agents for change and change for the better. ... You have worked to promote understanding among faiths. To tackle sectarianism. To promote development worldwide. ... And let me say that for our Parliament, that is something that may not yet be formally our responsibility. But it is, in reality, our obligation. ... In ancient times it was said that had no city walls. It did not need them, the people were the walls of Sparta. This church and our other institutions - spiritual and secular are the walls of Scotland - the rocks on which reform and renewal will be built. ... We will continue to draw on this Church as a source of wisdom. A source of strength. A source of hope.

As you sowed, so Scotland reaped.

Without the church there would be no Scotland - and something important, precious and distinctive would have been lost to the world.

The of 1320 ... was a challenge not just to the ambitions of our neighbour but too many of the accepted views of that time. As a statement of the 'community of the realm', the Declaration of Arbroath may be Europe's first statement of a contractual relationship between government and citizens.

Our courage and our resolve will be tested. And so too will our imagination. Because our world is changing. And if we are prepared to imagine and to shape it in new ways, we will find ourselves stronger, more free - a better, closer community.

It is easier for us to talk of sacrifice and of change than it is to achieve them. Both can be difficult, sometimes painful. But we have guidance on this new path. We have ourselves, we have each other.

There is a need to renew our economic institutions and the principles which guide them. Parts of the financial sector, we now know, were run on a false prospectus. With the rewards to some individuals completely divorced from basic ideas of fairness, or service. And, as it transpires, sadly those rewards were also divorced from any reasonable notion of lasting value. That could not be sustained. And it was not sustained.

People naturally aspire to the symbols and the ideals of our nation. Yet whether it is a political party, a church, a charity - any institution built by man can fail and can fall. The key thing is to aspire to be better. And, for our political institutions, to understand that self sacrifice - just like forgiveness - is at the centre of the order of things.

Trust is the lifeblood of a decent society. The true currency of democracy.

Trust is a precious quality. An essential quality. Once lost it is not quick or easy to rebuild.

As we look again to rebuild a rich country, we must make sure this time round we also build a rich society - a society where the measure of wealth is not only the money in our pockets but the wellbeing of our communities.

When our society is tested - we depend on the strength of the institutions which sustain that society - our churches, trade unions, charities, our universities and colleges, our legal system. And, of course, our political institutions, which should be a source of hope, a source of purpose.