Top 15 Douglas Hurd Quotes

People are very interested in politics, they just don't like it labelled 'politics'.

We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour.

Prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse.

There is a danger that we legislate to feel good, not to do good. Nowhere is this truer than in social legislation. The warm glow comes quickly after passing a piece of law which is designed to raise standards for those in jobs; the chill of lost jobs because of lost competitiveness is felt more slowly... We should make our labour markets more flexible and job-friendly, and secure greater skill levels and cost control. That means not introducing new limitations on the labour market.

NATO is one of the principal props which have allowed Britain to punch above its weight in the world.

Now we've signed it – we had better read it!

We have learnt that one cannot suppress nationalist feeling or force it into a framework against which it revolts.

European security without the United States simply doesn't make sense. We Europeans need to say loud and clear that we welcome US forces in Europe.

Thatcherism is not Tutankhamun's tomb, which you've got to seal up and guard. It has to fructify. It's an investment. Take what has been achieved and go on from there. Thatcherism breaks into different things: privatisation, the extension of individual responsibility, education. But the course is certainly set. I want to keep it, not change it.

There will be shifts of sovereignty but only in specific areas which I consider debatable. The [European] Community should lead as external trade negotiator... But there must be basic areas of national sovereignty. Peace and war; law and order; foreign policy; fiscal policy. You can cooperate, but these are not matters for Community competence. Our resistance was entirely justified in the case of the Social Charter... I do not believe in the European glacier, that there is something irresistible about European integration.

I would like you to go to the farmhouse in Marlborough Downs where I was brought up. My father was a tenant farmer farming 500 acres... I was not uncomfortably off. I am not saying that. But there was no question of him sending me to Eton if I had not won a scholarship. That is what social mobility is all about.

There is no dread conspiracy against us. There is simply an argument, and no reason why we should be scared or defeatist in that argument. We must continue to fight our corner for British interests. But we can do that without frightening ourselves with ogres.

The idea of Active Citizenship is a necessary complement to that of the enterprise culture. Public service may once have been the duty of an elite, but today it is the responsibility of all who have time or money to spare. Modern capitalism has democratised the ownership of property, and we are now witnessing the democratisation of responsible citizenship.

Fear of racial assault or harassment still scars the lives of too many men and women, especially in the inner cities... Racial harmony could not be imposed by legislation or by ministerial acts. However, the Government should help foster greater trust and equality of opportunity between people of different ethnic origins through a gradual shift in individual attitudes and behaviour. A Conservative government and a Conservative Party are well placed for that task. A harmonious but not homogenized nation was close to the hearts of both.

Underpinning our social policy are those traditions—the diffusion of power, civil obligation, and voluntary service—which are central to Conservative philosophy... The diffusion of power...the key to active and responsible citizenship.