John Bercow

“The Conservatives must realise that being sceptical is different from being phobic in what is an interdependent world.”

“I don't want to crawl over the entrails of past disputes.”

“I said that if I hadn't been a politician, I'd have liked to be a barrister, or an academic. My beloved wife said: 'You'd be a very good barrister and a hopeless academic.' I said 'Why?' She said: 'Because you're not an original thinker.'”

“Fairness is not about statistical equality.”

“The prime minister's job is to captain his team, his party and his government.”

“I pride myself on being courteous to people, and trying to fashion good relations.”

“I've never been much given to little social cliques.”

“I don't think that people are disinterested or uninterested in politics. I think very often they are disengaged from the formal political process. To some extent they are suspicious or even despairing of formal politics as a means to give expression and effect to what they want.”

“One consistent thing in an otherwise inconsistent career is that I've always been passionate about parliament.”

“I am seeking every day to restore faith in Parliament - to ensure we have a House of Commons which is representative, effective and reconnected to the people we serve.”

“I think the record shows that as Speaker, I have taken the lead in cleaning up politics.”

“If you asked me if I'd rather be Speaker or a very senior minister, I'd say Speaker.”

“I was proud to be a Tory Member of Parliament for twelve years, proud to represent Buckingham as a Tory, proud to have voted with my party 99% of the time as the record shows.”

“There's no point in worrying about things you can't influence.”

“I never aspired to be Speaker simply so I could say, 'I am the Speaker of the House of Commons,' and tell my children that.”

“It's a cowardly form of politics to use my spouse to beat me.”

“Lying to a committee is a very grave abuse, and there ought to be a clear punishment.”

“Sally is my wife, but not my chattel or my property.”

“I'm not in the business of warning people.”

“Possibly the fact that I was physically quite feeble, a relatively short little fellow, attracted me to that idea of a very authoritative and aggressive version of Conservative politics.”