Tony Blair

“People know where I stand in the Labour party and what I believe in.”

“Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.”

“I cannot think of any circumstances in which a government can go to war without the support of parliament.”

“In government you carry each hope; each disillusion. And in politics it's always about the next challenge.”

“But the world is ever more interdependent. Stock markets and economies rise and fall together. Confidence is the key to prosperity. Insecurity spreads like contagion. So people crave stability and order.”

“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.”

“I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.”

“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.”

“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.”

“And just as the terrorist seeks to divide humanity in hate, so we have to unify it around an idea. And that idea is liberty.”

“I happen to think it's the politics that makes you electable, but the reason for that is politicians sometimes talk about electability as if it's just a matter of conning the public. Actually, it's a matter of persuading the public, and in my experience, usually, the public gets it right.”

“Look, I am very competitive.”

“The great advantage of the Lib Dems is precisely that no-one knows what they stand for.”

“I feel like everyone else in this country today. I am utterly devastated.”

“The public think the politicians don't know or care about their lives; and the politicians feel misunderstood.”

“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.”

“This is not a battle between the United States of America and terrorism, but between the free and democratic world and terrorism.”

“I say to the Taliban: surrender the terrorists; or surrender power. It's your choice.”

“I believe Mrs. Thatcher's emphasis on enterprise was right.”