Chris Patten Quotations

Undoubtedly, at the moment, the major cause of CO2 emission is what happens in developed countries.

I believe in trying to get a balance between individual freedom on the one hand and social responsibility on the other.

So, what I say to people is that politics has got to be about principle and values above all. Of course, there are times when you have to make accommodations.

It is almost always wrong that the time isn't ripe to decide something. That is always said of difficult problems.

But the ability to articulate what you are doing, to be clear about it, and to stick to it is, I think, the essence of political leadership.

In a democracy everybody has a right to be represented, including the jerks.

Green politics at its worst amounts to a sort of Zen fascism; less extreme, it denounces growth and seeks to stop the world so that we can all get off.

I think that if politics is just about getting your backside on important seats, then it's a pretty worthless endeavor.

I don't think that capitalism should be unbridled, if by "unbridled" you mean unregulated.

In democracy everyone has the right to be represented, even the jerks.

I think that what most surprises anybody who goes into politics from even a modestly cerebral background is the vulgarity of much of the cut and thrust of politics.

It is a sort of great Victorian truth that actually, trying to do the right thing is pretty good for you and pretty good for business as well, by and large.

I suppose I've always carried what is regarded as a bit of unnecessary baggage in Britain. I've always carried the charge that I am an intellectual in politics.

We are profoundly disappointed that Zimbabwe's parliament has passed this law, which represents a fundamental attack on media freedom,

Most worrying for me in China is the stoking up of nationalist sentiment as an alternative to, I think, moral fervor that used to accompany Communism. I hope that the Chinese authorities will be careful about that.

Only a state which is terrified of the truth resorts to sending men in masks into television and radio studios, ... Only a regime determined to try to cut Serbia off completely from the rest of Europe could conceive of behaving in this way.

Politicians in Colombo recognize that they do have to work together in order to provide a common position for dealing with the (Tamil Tigers),

Nobody, repeat nobody, that I've met from the major political parties in Colombo have raised any question or doubt about my visit at all.

Certainly in Europe, I don't think that would be acceptable to our electorates. I think our electorates would much prefer us to say, well, we'll do what we can to ensure that at least on our part the protocol is ratified by the time of the conference on sustainable development in 2002,

But there is no cause for thinking sad thoughts, that there is dishonor in these endings. Nothing has melted away. There have been no defeats,

Frankly, there wouldn't have been much point in me coming unless I was prepared to go and see the head of the Tamil Tigers and make clear in no uncertain terms what the international community expects of him and his colleagues in coming weeks and months,

He would like Britain to take a leading role in the affairs of the EU, and to lay to rest our ambivalence about membership of the union,

What we are still not told is why it is necessary to restrict Hong Kong's civil liberties,

We must dig deep in our pockets to make sure Pakistan isn't destabilized by the humanitarian crisis that may be about to engulf the country,

Will Hong Kong people really be able to decide for themselves, as promised, how to run their domestic affairs, or will the decisions which matter be dictated by others?

We do think the appalling economic circumstances in the West Bank and Gaza, that the economic blockade by Israel, that the non-payment of revenues by Israel to the Palestinian Authority, that these things make the security situation worse,

The political situation is as hot as the temperature. I think frankly we are on a knife edge. There has to be some movement, I think, above all on the question of terrorism in order for us to see people pulling back from the brink. And that has to come soon.

We want to know that if we are investing money in Macedonia, it is being spent to ensure Macedonia's stability and prosperity,

The contract is we'll pray that Hong Kong will fly to the heavens, and you'll occasionally say a prayer for us,

We have to come away from Nice able to look the candidates for membership in the eye

Britain has made clear repeatedly to Chinese leaders that it would be wrong and damaging to scrap this council and replace it,

Every head of government has national interests they want to battle for and there must be trade-offs for an agreement to be reached,

Anna was Sweden and we hope to our very marrow that Sweden will go on being Anna.

I sometimes think that perhaps we should offer Mexico membership of the United States

the whole international community needs to stand together in the face of new threats to our shared values.

I very much hope the success that's already been achieved will help Wells get over the finishing line and raise the money still required.

You only have one chance of making a success of a donors' conference and before you have a donors' conference you need to have sorted out a lot of problems.

The White Ensign has just been lowered over this shore base, but the values that it has stood for will, I hope, remain in this place: respect for law and for person, trust, duty and service.

This is an act of war by madmen.

It's not particularly constructive to dredge up these debates and divisions of the past, ... On the contrary, it's necessary to bring the willing together, not divide them.

Everyone knows that Europe will be safer and more prosperous if it is enlarged.

The new administration must be broad-based with a mandate to speak for a majority of the people of Afghanistan,

I hope they (the solutions) are forthcoming and that the government of the Russian Federation will not conclude that the only answer to terrorism is to increase the power of the Kremlin,

I'm not a starry-eyed optimist about human rights or other issues in North Korea,

Clearly we will be expected to make a substantial contribution (to the reconstruction effort),

Of course, there were huge disagreements in the arguments of military intervention, .. There is no point at the moment on focusing on those disagreements.

Throwing young men out of work, throwing people into poverty and ending business life don't promote stability in the Palestinian territories,.

All parts of the society need to feel that the police service is their police service, and that does not happen unless all parts of society are represented in the police

We're not trying to recreate Yugoslavia

It behaves more like a tribe than a democratic institution...responding to custom rather than reason and using its own liturgy and language for the conduct of its domestic affairs.

It is curious that atheists have proved to be so intolerant of those who have a faith.

We have our own system, ... and journalists in our system are not put in prison for embarrassing the government by revealing things the government might not wish to have revealed. The important thing is that our system, under which journalists can write without fear or favor, should continue.

Anyone who supposed that when Margaret Thatcher left Number Ten she was going to take a Trappist vow did not know that formidable politician.

There is a sort of exotic preposterousness about a lot of elections, the way arguments are made even cruder.

It'd make a wonderful change to have the leader of a pluralist democracy who acted on that, who told people just how tough things are going to be, just what's going to have to be done - and, maybe, ran all the risks on the side of honesty, rather than spinning stories and trying to win the headlines every day.

Multilateralism is not an easy option. We're going to find that the world is very difficult. And relationships between America and the rest of the world are very difficult.

Those of us who had a perfectly happy childhood should be able to sue for deprivation of literary royalties.

You don't have to wait until people say they accept everything you say until you are actually prepared to sit down and discuss matters with them.

Hong Kong represents the kind of Asia with which both West and East are comfortable, ... ... It offers, in that sense, a vision for the future of Asia.

Hong Kong's people will get what they want, despite China's objections. Freedom invariably wins in the end.