Quotes By John Major

I think it's extremely unlikely that the European Union will fracture with nations dropping off the edge.

The argument that someone is a bad man is an inadequate argument for war and certainly an inadequate and unacceptable argument for regime change.

I mean if you have ever found a politician who says, 'No, no, I would do everything exactly as I did,' then you can tell when he is lying because his lips are moving.

Whatever efforts for peace President Gorbachev had in mind, they were pretty substantially undercut very swiftly by Saddam Hussein.

If you look back historically, admittedly a long time ago, there were three Afghan wars in which Britain didn't even come a good second. In more recent years the Russians were there with 120,000 men for ten years.

I like the best of the British press. The best of the British press is very good.

There are more myths about Black Wednesday than the Greeks ever created.

Society needs to condemn a little more and understand a little less.

Well British troops are superb in the field in terms of conflict.

I inherited a sick economy and passed on a sound one. But one abiding regret for me is that, in between, I did not have the resources to put in place the educational and social changes about which I cared to much; I made only a beginning, and it was not enough.

'Government gets things right' does not encourage sales. 'Government makes another blunder' does encourage sales, so there's a commercial imperative that pushes sensationalism.

In housing in the fifties in Britain and the sixties, we pulled down the terraces - destroyed whole communities and replaced them with tower blocks and we built walkways that became rat-runs for muggers. That was the fashionable opinion. But it was wrong.

I don't think it's the role of the prime minister to court the press.

If we want to deliver opportunity for all, we need an economy that delivers jobs for the future.

Whether you agree with me or disagree with me; like me or loathe me, don't bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British nation.

Disunity costs votes.

I thought I could do something different from any Conservative prime minister before me. But I couldn't.

The sight of allegedly sophisticated politicians parroting complete tripe trivialises and demeans government and it has to be stopped. It's played a significant part in public disillusionment with politics and has led to the absurd situation where more people vote for 'Strictly Come Dancing' than voted in the general election.

I have been reading the press more regularly than others over 50 years and it seems to me that there are things that have changed in the press that have changed its character.

You don't forget crises and neither does the Queen.

Certainly we've seen the enormous changes across the whole of the Middle East. The democratic genie is out of the bottle.

I want Britain to punch its weight in the European Community.

Too many people looked to me in the eye and did not tell me the truth.

If you look at things that really affect people's lives - sport, the arts, charities - they were always at the back of the queue for government money - health, social security, defence, pensions were all way ahead. And each of those areas - sports, the arts, the lottery - got relatively petty cash from the government.

I don't think nations can stand aside for ethnic cleansing and genocide.

September the 11th was a huge shock in the United States. It was the first time you had been hit at home in your own territory by terrorist on this scale.

When the euro was born, it was born in the wrong economic circumstances.

Ronnie Barker will forever be remembered as one of the great comic actors.

When I was in office the fundraising was done by the party treasurers.

I'm very proud of what my parents achieved and what they stood for. They didn't have much, but in many ways they were richer than most.