Tony Blair Quotes

Don't say yes to that question, that would be difficult.

The news bulletins of the last week have been like hammer blows struck against the sleeping conscience of the country, urging us to wake up and look unflinchingly at what we see... A solution to this disintegration doesn't simply lie in legislation. It must come from the rediscovery of a sense of direction as a country and most of all from being unafraid to start talking once again about the values and principles we believe in and what they mean for us, not just as individuals but as a community. We cannot exist in a moral vacuum. If we do not learn and then teach the value of what is right and what is wrong, then the result is simply moral chaos which engulfs us all...

A New Britain where the extraordinary talent of the British people is liberated from the forces of conservatism that so long have held them back, to create a model 21st century nation, based not on privilege, class or background, but on the equal worth of all.

Yes, I did have to struggle very hard to get this [the vote on the Iraq war] through, but the reason I did it was because I thought it was the right thing to do. I didn't take this on myself... just because I thought, 'Let's give myself a really hard time for a couple of years!'

The single hardest thing for a practicing politician to understand is that most people, most of the time, don’t give politics a first thought all day long.

Whoever runs your schedule is the most important person in your world as Leader. You need time to think, time to study and time to get the things done you came to leadership to do. Lose control of the schedule and you will fail.

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.

So, of course, the visions are painted in the colours of the rainbow, and the reality is sketched in duller tones of black and white and grey. But I ask you to accept one thing. Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong. That is your call. But believe one thing, if nothing else. I did what I thought was right for our country.

Vladimir Putin [...] was convinced the US was set on a unilateralist course, not for a good practical purpose but as a matter of principle. Time and again, he would say, ‘Suppose we act against Georgia, which is a base for terrorism against Russia — what would you say if we took Georgia out? Yet the Americans think they can do whatever they like to whomever they like.’ [447]

I can't stand politicians who wear God on their sleeves.

The battles of this century … are less likely to be the product of extreme political ideology—like those of the 20th century—<nowiki/>but they could easily be fought around the questions of cultural or religious difference.

I want to see a publicly-owned railway, publicly accountable.

Politics may be the art of the possible, but at least in life, give the impossible a go.

Before people crow about the absence of Weapons of Mass Destruction, I suggest they wait a bit.

Lead me into war...you know I believe in you.