Patience is a virtue; virtue is a grace.Collection: Patience
Lobbying has become a term of reproach, as if it were improper to push for a particular belief. This has happened because of paid lobbyists whose opinions are for hire and the fear that decision-makers, whether politicians or officials, are susceptible to their charms and wiles. This has tarred entirely proper lobbying with the same brush.Collection: Fear
Sometimes 'sin' taxes are useful not because of their perceived health benefits but because they are effectively a form of voluntary taxation which tends to arouse less irritation than other taxes.Collection: Health
There is sometimes an almost vindictive streak in politics whereby governments follow policies which they know will harm the electorate, but nonetheless, they keep them, sometimes for years. The Corn Laws are a classic example.Collection: Politics
A constitutional monarchy requires the monarch to be above politics but to be fully informed about politics.Collection: Politics
Press freedom has great virtues. It is not about irresponsible scandal-mongering, although that may be part of the picture. It is a means of revealing wrongdoing.
Freedom rests on a rational distrust of government; government will always use its power to benefit the incumbent administration.
The biographies of the great rarely report much about the nanny, but for many, she will have played a crucial role in their formative years.
Proper British nannies put the child ahead of everything. They do not like to see children used as accessories, carried around in slings for the convenience of the parents' social life. They want a proper set-up, where the baby is rested and happy, not shown off to all-comers.
Although nannies who cover more than one generation are rare, those like Veronica Crook - who looked after me and now looks after my four children - are pearls of great price. They provide a continuity and stability for a family that is of inestimable value for the child and, indeed, the man.
Constitutionally, a revising chamber is useful and important. The first occasion I know of in history when the Lords fulfilled this role was in 1539 when Henry VIII's act of proclamations was neutered by their lordships so effectively that the Act was repealed in 1547.
Extradition treaties date back at least to 1259 B.C., when the Hittite King Hattusili the Third and Ramesses the Second signed a treaty of 'peace and brotherhood for all time.' They have become more commonplace as international travel has become easier and sensibly streamlined.
It is obviously sensible the crossing of a border ought not to protect a criminal from the consequences of his crime.
In England and, later, the United Kingdom, Habeas Corpus is a right of great antiquity: Anyone who is arrested must be brought before a court, but this does not apply in continental countries.
Fundamental protections, the assumption of innocence, trial by jury, and the right to appear before a court have all been sacrificed on the altar of the E.U. superstate.
Not everyone will always agree with me.
I think that conservative principles have a broad appeal, and you should state them boldly, and the point of a Conservative election is to do conservative things, not to do Labour things but slightly less damaging.
I'm not a great beer drinker, but I do like Butcombe, probably because it's made of good Somerset water.
I like some vegetables.
It is not for me to enforce my morals on others.
I take the teachings of the Catholic Church seriously.
Marriage is a sacrament, and the decision of what is a sacrament lies with the Church, not with Parliament.
The Catholic Church's teachings are authoritative. There is a moral absolute on abortion - that it is wrong.
I was left £50 when I was ten by a fairly distant cousin, which my father invested in GEC shares on my behalf. I became interested in the market and was given some more shares by my father, which is when I began looking to see how the shares were performing and learning how to read company reports, balance sheets, and so on in order to gauge that.
I went into investments out of interest and thought I knew a little. The longer I've been involved, the less I realise I'd known.
I've never put all my eggs in one basket, and I've always been cautious.
One doesn't need money to run for Parliament, but it is undoubtedly expensive.
It is of considerable importance that politicians stick to their commitments or do not make such commitments in the first place.
We need to be free to do deals with the rest of the world.
We must be out of the protectionist common external tariff, which mainly protects inefficient E.U. industries at the cost to British consumers.
I would almost certainly vote for Trump if I was American.
I would always vote for Tory candidates in the United Kingdom, and I would probably be Republican if I was an American.
I'm not interested in the past, I'm interested in the future. Europe is past.
The E.U. is a backward-looking project based on an economic model of the 20th century.
If we want to change a law, we can do that in Parliament. That is a democratic right that has often been taken from the E.U.
I believe that politicians should implement the promises that they've given in manifestos.
I can't see the point in being in politics if you're not yourself. If you're simply interested in implementing other people's policies, then you should become a civil servant. If you have ideas and some form of ideology, then it's exciting because you can argue forward.
I trust my electors. I see them in weekly meetings. I'm their advocate, I'm there to take up their case. I'm not there to decide whether they've got a good case or a bad case. And I think that if you trust people, they're more likely to trust you back.
You've got to judge people, ultimately, by their actions rather than their words.
Mark Carney is one of the enemies of Brexit. He has opposed it consistently.
The BBC always wants to blame things on Brexit. I'm not saying this is a conspiracy: I'm saying it is a fact of life.
I think it's true - economically, you want to bake a bigger cake rather than slicing up an existing cake differently.
To have charitable support given by people voluntarily to support their fellow citizens, I think, is rather uplifting and shows what a good, compassionate country we are.
I would rather my constituents were warm and prosperous than cold and impoverished as we are overtaken by emerging markets who understandably put people before polar bears.
Meeting someone does not mean you're endorsing them.
Tony Blair adopted the accent of the audience he was speaking to, which worked very well initially, but then voters began to perceive him as phoney. The 'man of the people' act is the height of condescension.
I think, with a negotiation, you have to go in knowing what you want, knowing what your bottom line is, and knowing what you might accept if you're absolutely pushed.
'Ever closer union' is one of the totemically controversial phrases in the European Union's Treaties. It seems to give weight to the view that the scheme is designed to end in a single state and that those who agreed the texts have long know this, even if they have been unwilling to admit it to the British people.
Unsalted butter is a sin against the Holy Ghost.
When Margaret Thatcher was leader, she and Michael Heseltine were hardly soulmates, but she would not have allowed personal rivalry to take the heat off the Labour Party, whose own deep internal divisions are buried in other news now, nor would she have countenanced any attempt to have a show trial.