Michael Gove Quotes

The Government is about to introduce a new test for those considering a university career. The central question will be punishingly direct. Do you want to run up a debt of £21,000 in order to go to the best British universities? Some people will, apparently, be put off applying to our elite institutions by the prospect of taking on a debt of this size. Which, as far as I'm concerned, is all to the good.

we must not rule out no deal.

It may be moral to keep an empire because the fuzzy-wuzzies can't look after themselves.
It may be immoral to keep an empire because the people of the third world have an inalienable right to self-determination, but that doesn't matter whether it's moral or immoral.

Christianity encourages us to look beyond tribe and tradition to celebrate our common humanity. And at every stage in human history when tyrants and dictators have attempted to set individuals against one another, it has been Christians who have shielded the vulnerable from oppression. It was Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Christian-inspired White Rose movement that led the internal opposition to Hitler’s rule. It was the moral witness of the Catholic church in Poland that helped erode Communism’s authority in the 1980s.

A future prime minister could always choose to alter the relationship between Britain and the European Union. But the Chequers approach is the right one for now because we have got to make sure that we respect that vote and take advantage of the opportunities of being outside the European Union.

I believe our country would be freer, fairer and better off outside the EU. And if, at this moment of decision, I didn't say what I believe, I would not be true to my convictions or my country. By leaving the EU we can take control. Indeed, we can show the rest of Europe the way to flourish. Instead of grumbling and complaining about the things we can't change and growing resentful and bitter, we can shape an optimistic, forward-looking and genuinely internationalist alternative to the path the EU is going down.

Businesses in Northern Ireland have the opportunity to enjoy the best of both worlds: access to the , because there's no infrastructure on the Island of Ireland, and at the same time unfettered access to the rest of the UK market.

Gove: I think the people in this country have had enough of experts, with organisations from acronyms, saying—
Interviewer: They've had enough of experts? The people have had enough of experts? What do you mean by that?
Gove: People from organisations with acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong.
Inteviewer: The people of this country have had enough of experts?
Gove: Because these people are the same ones who got consistently wrong what was happening.
Interviewer: This is proper Trump politics this, isn't it?
Gove: No it's actually a faith in the—
Inteviewer: It's Oxbridge Trump.
Gove: It's a faith, Faisal, in the British people to make the right decision.

It's important that the Government does press ahead with appropriate and thoughtful steps in order to safeguard the environment but there are some specific areas where the cost that is being imposed on individuals risks creating a backlash. [...] We don't want to get to a situation where the support for improving our environment curdles and turns into resistance.

I think it's a shame that the Remain camp are talking this country down

I took drugs on several occasions at social events more than 20 years ago. At the time I was a young journalist. It was a mistake. I look back and I think I wish I hadn't done that. I think all politicians have lives before politics. Certainly when I was working as a journalist I didn't imagine I would go into politics or public service. I didn't act with an eye to that. The question now is that people should look at my record as a politician and ask themselves, 'Is this person we see ready to lead now?' I have seen the damage drugs can do to others and that is why I deeply regret the decisions I took,

[The EU must] give us back our sovereignty or we will walk out

Animals are sentient beings who feel pain and suffering, so we are writing that principle into law and ensuring that we protect their welfare. Our plans will also increase sentences for those who commit the most heinous acts of animal cruelty to five years in jail. We are a nation of animal lovers so we will make Brexit work not just for citizens but for the animals we love and cherish too.

[Brexit was motivated by a desire to] restore faith in our democratic institutions

I'm constitutionally incapable of it. There's a special extra quality you need that is indefinable, and I know I don't have it. There's an equanimity, an impermeability and a courage that you need. There are some things in life you know it's better not to try.