Tony Blair > Quotes

“The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.”
― Tony Blair

“A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in.. And how many want out.”
― Tony Blair

“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.”
― Tony Blair

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

“Our tolerance is part of what makes Britain Britain. So conform to it, or don't come here.”
― Tony Blair

“I had discovered long ago the first lesson of political courage: to think anew. I had then learned the second: to be prepared to lead and to decide. I was now studying the third: how to take the calculated risk. I was going to alienate some people, like it or not. The moment you decide, you divide.”
― Tony Blair, A Journey: My Political Life

“The first rule in politics is that there are no rules, at least not in the sense of inevitable defeats or inevitable victories. If you have the right policy and the right strategy, you always have a chance of winning. Without them, you can lose no matter how certain the victory seems.”
― Tony Blair, A Journey: My Political Life

“What Dad taught me above all else, and did so utterly unconsciously, was why people like him became Tories. He had been poor. He was working class. He aspired to be middle class. He worked hard, made it on his merits, and wanted his children to do even better than him. He thought – as did many others of his generation – that the logical outcome of this striving, born of this attitude, was to be a Tory. Indeed, it was part of the package. You made it; you were a Tory: two sides of the same coin. It became my political ambition to break that connection, and replace it with a different currency. You are compassionate; you care about those less fortunate than yourself; you believe in society as well as the individual. You can be Labour. You can be successful and care; ambitious and compassionate; a meritocrat and a progressive. These are entirely compatible ways of making sure progress happens; and they answer the realistic, not utopian, claims of human nature.”
― Tony Blair, A Journey: My Political Life

“The single hardest thing for a practicing politician to understand is that most people, most of the time, don’t give politics a first thought all day long.”
― Tony Blair, A Journey: My Political Life

“The Kaleidoscope has been shaken. The Pieces are in flux. Soon, They will SETTLE again. Before They do, let us RE-ORDER this world around us!!!”
― Tony Blair

“For most normal people, politics is a distant, occasionally irritating fog.”
― Tony Blair, A Journey: My Political Life

“I want a Britain that is one nation, with shared values and purpose, where merit comes before privilege, run for the many not the few, strong and sure of itself at home and abroad.”
― Tony Blair

“On these issues, the public fib. They say they want increased spending, and in theory they do—but in practice they think someone else should pay for it. However, there it is. As I used to say, the public aren’t always logical, but that’s their prerogative. They do expect their government to be, nonetheless.”
― Tony Blair, A Journey: My Political Life

“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.”
― Tony Blair

“I think life is a gift from God and should be lived to the full and with purpose.”
― Tony Blair, A Journey

“What matters is what works.”
― Tony Blair

“Tony Blair's response when asked by one of his Parliament members why he believes so much in America: "A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in.. And how many want out.”
― Tony Blair

“The right to demand the best and refuse the worst and do so not by virtue of your wealth, but your equal status as citizen, thats precisely what the modern Labour Party should stand for”
― Tony Blair

“But all progressive movements have to beware their own successes. The progress they make reinvents the society they work in, and they must in turn reinvent themselves to keep up, otherwise they become hollow echoes from a once loud, strong voice, reverberating still, but to little effect. As their consequence diminishes, so their dwindling adherents become ever more shrill and strident, more solicitous of protecting their own shrinking space rather than understanding that the voice of the times has moved on and they must listen before speaking. It happens in all organizations. It is fatal to those who are never confronted by a reckoning that forces them to face up and get wise.”
― Tony Blair, A Journey: My Political Life

“The Leader sets out for the people what they need and not simply what they want. Otherwise, the Leader is just a follower.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“The word ‘government’ is derived from the Greek kubernao, meaning to pilot a ship, as in Plato’s phrase ‘the Ship of State’. To steer a course, governments need a plan.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“If you don’t feel safe, nothing else in your life is going to compensate for the absence of basic security.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“The single hardest thing for a practicing politician to understand is that most people, most of the time, don’t give politics a first thought all day long. Or if they do, it is with a sigh… before going back to worrying about the kids, the parents, the mortgage, the boss, their friends, their weight, their health, sex and rock ‘n’ roll.”
― Tony Blair

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

“you have to be able to answer those questions plainly and clearly. There can be qualifications and “get-outs,” but the answers must remain comprehensible, because they define you. They add up to a political, not merely personal, character. This requires thought, detailed analysis and intellectual rigour. Politics is a far more intellectual business than is often realized. You may think: Well, if it’s simplicity that’s required, you don’t need a whole lot of detail. Wrong. The simplicity is not born of superficial analysis. It is simple precisely because it is the product of being worked through.”
― Tony Blair, A Journey: My Political Life

“A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in...And how many want out.”
― Tony Blair

“I reckon it takes ten years to change a country. And that is ten years of focused change-making. At a minimum. Fifteen is better and twenty optimum.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“Politics may be the art of the possible, but at least in life, give the impossible a go.”
― Tony Blair

“Often these changes demand structural reform on a large scale. My experience of governing is that changes usually fit into two categories. First, there are changes which are one stroke of the legislative or administrative pen – such as abolition of a tax or setting a minimum wage. They’re important. But the process of government in respect of them is relatively straightforward.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“I call the four ‘P’s: prioritisation, policy, personnel and performance management.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century