Tony Blair
The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.Collection: Leadership
Power without principle is barren, but principle without power is futile. This is a party of government, and I will lead it as a party of government.Collection: Power
Education is the best economic policy there is.Collection: Education
Mine is the first generation able to contemplate the possibility that we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war.Collection: War
I learnt a lot in government, and I've learnt a lot since leaving government. The kind of journey of being in government is that you start at your most popular and least capable, and you end at your most capable and least popular.Collection: Government
We, therefore, here in Britain stand shoulder to shoulder with our American friends in this hour of tragedy, and we, like them, will not rest until this evil is driven from our world.Collection: History
Anywhere, anytime ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same: freedom, not tyranny; democracy, not dictatorship; the rule of law, not the rule of the secret police.Collection: Chance
In government you carry each hope; each disillusion. And in politics it's always about the next challenge.Collection: Politics
Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.
Whatever the dangers of the action we take, the dangers of inaction are far, far greater.
I think the journey for a politician goes from wanting to please all the people all the time, to a political leader that realises in the end his responsibility is to decide. And when he decides, he divides.
The purpose of terrorism lies not just in the violent act itself. It is in producing terror. It sets out to inflame, to divide, to produce consequences which they then use to justify further terror.
Be a doer and not a critic.
My office is on Twitter. I don't tweet myself - at least, not intentionally, but I probably should do.
By nature, I am a unifier. I am a builder of consensus. I don't believe in sloppy compromise. But I do believe in bringing people together.
Labour is the party of law and order in Britain today. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.
This is not a battle between the United States of America and terrorism, but between the free and democratic world and terrorism.
There is no meeting of minds, no point of understanding with such terror. Just a choice: Defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat it we must.
I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.
I believe Mrs. Thatcher's emphasis on enterprise was right.
The threat from Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction - chemical, biological, potentially nuclear weapons capability - that threat is real.
I can only go one way. I've not got a reverse gear.
However much I dislike the idea of abortion, you should not criminalize a woman who, in very difficult circumstances, makes that choice.
The great advantage of the Lib Dems is precisely that no-one knows what they stand for.
Human progress has never been shaped by commentators, complainers or cynics.
I feel like everyone else in this country today. I am utterly devastated.
The spread of freedom is the best security for the free.
People know where I stand in the Labour party and what I believe in.
You know, one of the things I've learnt since coming out of office is how much easier it is to give the advice than take the decision. I mean, you know, it's tough.
My view is that you still, in order to win from the Labour perspective, have to have a strong alliance with business as well as the unions. You have got to be very much in the centre ground on things like public sector reform.
It is not an arrogant government that chooses priorities, it's an irresponsible government that fails to choose.
What people should understand is that I adore the Labour party.
But as I always say to people I'm essentially a public service person.
Every so often, I feel I should graduate to classical music, properly. But the truth is, I'm more likely to listen to rock music.
Our new world rests on order. The danger is disorder. And in today's world, it can now spread like contagion.
Leaders lead but in the end it's the people who deliver.
But I am an optimist about Britain; and the difference between an optimist and a pessimist is not that the optimist believes the world is wonderful and the pessimist believes it's beset by challenges; the difference is the pessimist believes we will be defeated by them; the optimist thinks the challenges can be overcome.
I have long believed this interdependence defines the new world we live in.
I cannot think of any circumstances in which a government can go to war without the support of parliament.
The public think the politicians don't know or care about their lives; and the politicians feel misunderstood.
The threat today is not that of the 1930s. It's not big powers going to war with each other. The ravages which fundamentalist political ideology inflicted on the 20th century are memories. The Cold war is over. Europe is at peace, if not always diplomatically.
Once his wife goes to sleep it takes a minor nuclear explosion to wake her.
Conflict is not inevitable, but disarmament is... everyone now accepts that if there is a default by Saddam the international community must act to enforce its will.
I may find Saddam Hussein's regime abhorrent - any normal person would - but the survival of it is in his hands.
You only require two things in life: your sanity and your wife.
Those who wish to cause religious conflict are small in number but often manage to dominate the headline.
There is no way you're going to have an event like 9/11 and expect things to remain the same. They killed 3,000 people in New York on that day, and if they could have they would've killed 300,000.
In Downing Street they called me 'Boss'. Civil servants would always call me 'Prime Minister'.
I would've loved to have been in a band, but sadly I just wasn't good enough.
When Europe and America stand together the world is a better and more prosperous place.