Alex Salmond Quotes

The real guardians of progress are not the politicians at Westminster, or even at Holyrood, but the energised activism of tens of thousands of people who I predict will refuse meekly to go back into the political shadows.

For me as leader my time is nearly over, but for Scotland the campaign continues and the dream shall never die.

We're a country with a balance of opinion. We are not a divided country. but we're debating independence in an entirely peaceful fashion.

Like many servicemen, my father never spoke too much about the war when I was growing up. However we all are proud of him as are all families of those who served.

Scotland will not be a foreign country after independence, any more than Ireland, Northern Ireland, England or Wales could ever be “foreign countries” to Scotland.

We unite behind a declaration of self-evident truth. The people who live in Scotland are best placed to make the decisions that affect Scotland. We want a Scotland that's greener, that's fairer and more prosperous. We realise that the power of an independent Scotland is necessary to achieve these great ends...By the time we enter the referendum campaign in autumn 2014, our intention is to have one million Scots who have signed the independence for Scotland declaration. Friends, if we achieve that, then we shall win an independent Scotland.

I’m not sure we should ask the Church to be pragmatic. Politicians have to be – that’s part of the balancing of the public interest – but I don’t think that’s the job of the Church. The whole point in having a religion and faith is that you campaign for what you believe, not just for what you think is achievable.

Let’s not pretend we’re in a worse position than we were half a century ago. That’s just not true. Then, sectarianism was inculcated into life, politics, business – into all sorts of institutions where prejudice should have no part whatsoever. That has largely gone. That Monklands byelection was one of the last redoubts of religion dividing politics.

You are able to have disagreements as long as you’re straight talking – you say honestly what can and can’t be done.

The Church was the anchor, the rock of the independence movement in the days of Wallace and Bruce, it was the only institutional force that could be relied upon – it certainly wasn’t the nobles.

The campaign was disgusting. It split on religious lines. It was one of those moments when you thought that ‘if politics is going to be like this, I’d like to go and do something else’.

I don’t think we should get to the state in this or any other country that if someone has a faith they are regarded as curious. Given that [Blair] had that framework – and it’s not for me to question his personal beliefs – then why on earth was he employing folk who so clearly didn’t?

I do have a strong faith and always have had, I’m not a regular churchgoer now but I’m in church a lot – to do readings, to attend events and so on. I had a strong church upbringing which I think has been invaluable to me in terms of a moral compass – of some idea of what’s acceptable and what is not acceptable. I have a Presbyterian nature in that I like its ideas of individual responsibility and democracy. I’m naturally suspicious of people who wear religion heavily on their sleeves – that’s just not me and my style.

No matter the lie, even if I was on my own, I'd have to play it. I can hear my dad saying: 'Play the ball as it lies.' Because of the way I was taught, I would feel awful about it. I don't know if that makes me dead honest or dead stupid.

My favourite is a hung parliament with 20 SNP MPs. I want to be calling the shots, organising the tune.