Top 346 Quotes & Sayings by Tony Blair - Page 3

One of the most important things in politics is you've got to keep your mind infinitely curious and alive to what is happening differently.

We have no plans to increase tax at all.

My view always is that we should learn the lessons, both of the last sort of 50 years of policy-making and it is possible to get to a foreign policy that is engaged and active without going back to where we were in the post-9/11 world.

The problem is some of the populism on both the far left and the far right, it can make a Tweet but not make a policy. And, you know, when you are dealing with issues that are as important and serious as this, I understand why people search for simple solutions.

If you're living in a community that's become fragmented and left behind, there's not proper investment in it and so on, in the end, the answer is to make sure that we go and we help those communities, we educate the people properly, we build the necessary infrastructure of support for people.

There are two outstanding issues in democratic politics these days. One is the relationship with the media, which is now 24/7, and operates with a completely different intensity than even 15 or 20 years ago. How do we have a proper conversation between leaders and country when it's moderated sometimes in a very partisan and inflammatory way? And the second thing is the effectiveness of our democracy. How do we get the right gene and talent pool in politics?

A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in.. And how many want out.

I just want to say this. I want to say it gently but I want to say it firmly: There is a tendency for the world to say to America, ‘the big problems of the world are yours, you go and sort them out,’ and then to worry when America wants to sort them out.

I'm afraid that's in the nature of modern politics - it's as much conducted by abuse as argument.

What is obviously unfair is that the half of the population that doesn't go to university that's often on lower incomes pays more taxes in order to send other people to university, without them, you know, contributing.

The biological agents we believe Iraq can produce include anthrax, botulinum, toxin, aflatoxin and ricin. All eventually result in excruciatingly painful death.

There is good evidence that last year's European heat wave was influenced by global warming. It resulted in 26,000 premature deaths and cost $13.5bn.

Ah yes, liberal democrats unified as ever in opportunism and in error.

Any action taken will be against the terrorist network of Bin Laden.... As for the Taleban, they can surrender the terrorists or face the consequences - and again in any action the aim will be to eliminate their military hardware, cut off their finances, disrupt their supplies, target their troops, not civilians.

Saddam Hussein's regime is despicable, he is developing weapons of mass destruction, and we cannot leave him doing so unchecked. He is a threat to his own people and to the region and, if allowed to develop these weapons, a threat to us also.

People should go about their daily lives, to work, to live, to travel, to shop, to do the things people did in the same way as they did them before 11 September.

We can only protect liberty by making it relevant to the modern world.

If you're interested in politics and you're not following it, then it's a little bizarre.

The Donald Trump phenomenon in the U.S. is mirrored completely by the Brexit phenomenon in the U.K. It's very similar forces. And what is interesting to me is there are two different groups that come together, who don't really agree with each other, but have come together in unity against, if you like, what is perceived as the status quo, or - and certainly what is a more center-right or center-left type of politics.

Real integrity means an answer. It doesn't just mean - it doesn't mean riding the anger. And this is very difficult to do.

Surely we have the wit and will to develop economically without despoiling the very environment we depend upon

Obviously it is right that the Afghans take responsibility for their own future in the end, but they need to know and feel that we are there as partners for them if they are prepared to make the necessary changes. But we should be in no doubt as to why we are in Afghanistan. We ended up there because terrorism hatched there erupted thousands of miles away in New York on Sept. 11.

NATO's got a vital role to play. It's very important that we protect NATO.

They could have been removed. They could have been hidden. They could have been destroyed.

For me, 9/11 was a game changer. It altered my perception of the security threat we faced. I took the position that Britain should be shoulder to shoulder with the U.S. It was a big decision; I didn't take it lightly, or in ignorance of its consequences. It's a big commitment for a country to give, but I believed it was the right thing to do.

I am a pretty straight sort of guy.

Enough of talking: It is time now to do.

I've never ruled out the possibility of going back into public service.

I don't like it, to be honest, when politicians make a big thing of their religious beliefs, so I don't make a big thing of it.

Climate change is the world's greatest environmental challenge. It is now plain that the emission of greenhouse gases, associated with industrialization and economic growth...is causing global warming at a rate that is unsustainable.

If there is one thing Britain should learn from the last 50 years, it is this: Europe can only get more important for us.

Ever so often in the history of human endeavour, there comes a breakthrough that takes humankind across a frontier into a new era. ... today's announcement is such a breakthrough, a breakthrough that opens the way for massive advancement in the treatment of cancer and hereditary diseases. And that is only the beginning.

I think it is having answers and not simply anger, and providing solutions that people believe will change their lives in a radical way but do it in a way that's sensible.

Ideals survive through change. They die through inertia in the face of challenge.

The relationship between Britain and the US is fantastically important when confronting terrorism.

The Spanish PM rang me to say: 'I have the support of only 4 per cent of the people.' I said, 'Crikey, that's even less than think Elvis Presley is still alive.'

We promise that the events of 1991 will not happen again. We have pledged to remove Saddam. And we will deliver.

You wouldn't be human if you didn't feel both a sense of responsibility and a deep sadness for those who have lost their lives.

Retreat might give us a moment of respite but years of repentance at our weakness would, I believe, follow.

The money from Iraqi oil will be yours - it will no longer be used by Saddam Hussein for his own benefit.

The moment you stigmatize a whole group of people - for example, Muslims - then, obviously, you make the decent, law-abiding Muslims feel as if they're under threat in some way or that their legitimacy, as members or citizens of society, is brought into question.

There are millions of young children being educated to a very narrow-minded view of religion. And it's out of that education of large numbers of young people that you then get this extremism.

You get these insurgent movements of populism, left and right. An insurgent movement of populism took my political party over in the UK for example.

There are those people who basically don't like those who are different. Now, that is a prejudice and it's a prejudice that's dangerous because in the world today, the world works through connectivity. It works through going across the boundaries, but faith and culture and race in a nation.

Their barbarism will stand as their shame for all eternity.

Climate change is probably the greatest long-term challenge facing the human race.

If you don't see the Internet as an opportunity, it will become a threat. In two or three year's time, the Internet will become as commonplace in the office as the telephone.

I think it is vitally important to study History. If we are going to lead Britain safely into the future, it is essential that we understand our country's historical roots. If we can learn the lessons of the past, we will be able to avoid making mistakes in the future.

Sometimes people say to me, 'Well, what was the difference between Kosovo, which was a successful intervention, and Iraq and Afghanistan that have been so difficult?' And the answer is perfectly simple. In Kosovo, you have, after the removal of the loss of its regime, you had a process of political and economic reconstruction that took its part without the intervention of terrorism. If you had the intervention of terrorism, by the way, it would have been extremely difficult there - but we didn't.

Where radical Islamism is going to be a factor, it's going to be very, very tough.

If we take all this actions and if it turns out not be true, we have reduced pollution and have better ways to live, the downside is very small. The other way around, and we don’t act, and it turns out to be true, then we have betrayed future generations and we don’t have the right to do that.

Whatever the short term clashes between protecting the environment and eradicating poverty, medium term and long term it is clear. Unless we grow sustainably, at some point we face catastrophe

Immigration was probably the driving thing behind Brexit.

The class war is over.

As so often before, on the courage and determination of British men and women, serving our country, the fate of many nations rests.

The jolt that Tony Blair received 35,000ft above the Pacific Ocean was not normal turbulence.

Bill Clinton has been a true leader of the western world. He has been a friend and a counsel to me and other leaders right around the world.

The best philanthropy is not just about giving money but giving leadership. The best philanthropists bring the gifts that made them successful-the drive, the determination, the refusal to accept that something can't be done if it needs to be into their philanthropy.

We are asked now seriously to accept that in the last few years-contrary to all history, contrary to all intelligence-Saddam decided unilaterally to destroy those weapons. I say that such a claim is palpably absurd.

All the evidence here, for example, in Britain, is that migrants, particularly from the rest of Europe, who come here contribute far more in taxes.