Top 55 Gordon Brown Quotes

If you look at the question of expenditure in Iraq, you have got to start from the one fundamental truth: that every request that the military commanders made to us for equipment was answered. No request was ever turned down.

You need in the long run for stability, for economic growth, for jobs, as well as for financial stability, global economic institutions that make sure that growth to be sustained has to be shared, and are built on the principle that the prosperity of this world is indivisible.

America knows it has got to deal with its deficit problems so that it, too, can promise it is making its proper and best contributions to the world economy.

When I lost the sight of my eye and faced the prospect of going blind, my sight was saved by the NHS.

The motto of the old order in the City of London was, ‘My word is my bond,’ but the financial crisis revealed a culture quite alien to that heritage. The stewards of people‘s money were revealed to have been speculators with it.

Higher energy prices are requiring industry and commerce to examine the costs and efficiency of energy use.

We’ve managed to find a way of making decisions that prevents conflict arising – there has been no war between European members at any point in the last 70 years.

I think it’s important that people know who you are and… can ask any questions they like about you.

What is happened in the years since the Second World War is not a temporary truce. It is not simply a ceasefire. Instead of battling with weapons and armaments, people battle only with arguments and ideas.

People have now got the ability to speak to each other across continents: to join with each other in communities that are not based simply on territory, streets, but networks; and you’ve got the possibility of people building alliances right across the world.

I want to do something for Kirkcaldy and Fife. I am a full-time MP, not a businessman.

People believe in the power of education to change lives.

If people are persuaded of the need for education and the need to invest in education, they’re also persuaded of the need not to waste that investment by having low-quality education but to have high-quality education.

I don’t believe that any prime minister would send our troops into conflict without the assurance from the military that they had the equipment necessary for the operation.

I’ve got a job to do.

While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time, and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair, and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him.

You can’t just vote for yourself. All the time, you’re thinking what sort of country, what world, what future?

Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of the Second World War could have been very different.

We should demonstrate that in war, under Churchill and Lloyd George, and in peace, Britain always was, already is, and can continue to be a leader.

Our equality bill is specifically designed to protect religion and belief on exactly the same terms as race or gender or sexuality.

I welcome the role that people of faith play in building Britain’s future – and the Catholic communion in particular is to be congratulated for so often being the conscience of our country, for helping ‘the least of these’ even when bearing witness to the truth is hard or unpopular.

Our common realm is not and cannot be stripped of values – I absolutely reject the idea that religion should somehow be tolerated but not encouraged in public life.

In a global marketplace with its increased insecurities and – indeed often – volatility and instability, national economic stability is at a premium, the precondition for all we can achieve, and no nation can secure the high levels of sustainable investment it needs without both monetary and fiscal stability together.

The best way of realising our high ideals is to show that we have an alternative in government that is credible, that is radical, and is electable – is neither a pale imitation of what the Tories offer nor is it the route to being a party of permanent protest rather than a party of government.

Why is playing football in Europe considered the pinnacle of our game, yet in other spheres of life, that same phrase – ‘being in Europe’ – is dismissed with suspicion?

Making the desirable possible requires us to make the desirable popular, electable, credible, and something that people want to hold on to.

I’m all for greater co-operation between Europe and America because I think that sometimes we’ve missed out on the benefits that transatlantic trade could give both continents, and I’ve been pressing this since 1997.

There is nothing that you could say to me now that I could ever believe.

In every era, there are only one or two moments when nations come together and reach agreements that make history, because they change the course of history.

We must then build a proper relationship between the richest and the poorest countries based on our desire that they are able to fend for themselves with the investment that is necessary in their agriculture, so that Africa is not a net importer of food, but an exporter of food.

You cannot have Rwanda again because information would come out far more quickly about what is actually going on, and the public opinion would grow to the point where action would need to be taken.

I don’t see politics as one or two people just making or delivering announcements – it’s also about winning public support and the public enthusiasm. You’ve got to win public support.

Our ability to connect as a nation with other nations around the world is enhanced dramatically by the Internet.

Stability is necessary for our future economic success.

If our economies are to flourish, if global poverty is to be banished, and if the wellbeing of the world’s people enhanced – not just in this generation but in succeeding generations – we must make sure we take care of the natural environment and resources on which our economic activity depends.

When you’ve got a society that is diverse, what happens is for a time, the issue is integrating your minorities into that society.

Each year India and China produce four million graduates compared with just over 250,000 in Britain.

The British economy of the future must be built not on the shifting sands of boom and bust, but on the bedrock of prudent and wise economic management for the long term. It is only these firm foundations that we can raise Britain’s underlying economic performance.

You have to live in the future, not the past.

I hate prejudice, discrimination, and snobbishness of any kind – it always reflects on the person judging and not the person being judged. Everyone should be treated equally.

Britain should be the world’s number one center for genetic and stem cell research, building on our world leading regulatory regime in the area.

Markets need morals.

When something really matters, you should never give up or give in.

Nigel Farage wanted to privatise the health service. Nigel Farage does not believe in the values we believe in for our public services.

Meet the challenges of the time.

The extraordinary summer heatwave of 2003 in Europe resulted in over 35,000 extra deaths.

The growing evidence of climate change is forcing attention on carbon emissions and their reduction.

When people criticise you, you’ve got to listen to that criticism, and to learn from it, which I’ve tried to do.

To make Europe more effective is a worthwhile objective. To make Europe less important in your calculations is a big mistake.

It is thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism, people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total war are part of Europe’s history and not Europe’s present.

We must understand that the British public’s relationship with Europe is – and always has been, the sporting arena aside – about the benefits we can achieve in jobs, security, and quality of life from membership and how these benefits outweigh any disadvantages.

Famously, I’m somewhat impatient.

Almost certainly, my ancestors had travelled by sea from Sweden to England in search of prosperity, and the evidence suggests they left Sweden around the ninth or 10th centuries.

Other prime ministers leave office and stay in London. I have come back with my whole family to Fife. This is where they are being brought up. It is better for them and better for me. It’s great to see more of the kids.

I believe there is a moral sense and a global ethic that commands attention from people of every religion and every faith, and people of no faith. But I think what’s new is that we now have the capacity to communicate instantaneously across frontiers right across the world.