William Hague Quotations

I have found that I get a better reaction from people once I am less bothered about their reaction.

Let's not be afraid to speak the common sense truth: you can't have high standards without good discipline.

Inspiring scenes of people taking the future of their countries into their own hands will ignite greater demands for good governance and political reform elsewhere in the world, including in Asia and in Africa.

I'm going to reduce the size of the Cabinet, cut the number of ministers, reduce the size of the House of Commons, campaign for a European Parliament with 100 fewer members, halve the number of political advisers, and abolish a huge swathe of Labour's regional bureaucracies and agencies and their offices in Brussels.

Governments that block the aspirations of their people, that steal or are corrupt, that oppress and torture or that deny freedom of expression and human rights should bear in mind that they will find it increasingly hard to escape the judgement of their own people, or where warranted, the reach of international law.

We have to face the reality of climate change. It is arguably the biggest threat we are facing today.

When we have a Deputy Prime Minister who tells people not to drive cars but has two Jags himself, and where the Minister who tells people not to have two homes turns out to have nine himself no wonder the public believe politicians are hypocrites.

Time is not on Gaddafi's side. People ask about the exit strategy. It's Colonel Gaddafi who needs an exit strategy because this pressure will only mount and it will be intensified over the coming days and weeks.

The EU should be concentrated on adapting to globalisation and global competitiveness, not building more powerful centralised institutions in Brussels.

To the teacher weighed down with paperwork, I say: you've been messed around too often. You came into teaching to spend your time teaching children not filling in forms.

The Bill of Rights was intended to secure freedom of speech - the freedom of speech of members of parliament to speak freely rather than be at threat of... the threat of an over powerful monarch at the time.

For the security of the UK, it matters a lot for Somalia to become a more stable place.

I think Britain would be alright, if only we had a different Government.

Well, if you're looking for me to lead a normal representative life, well good luck finding a foreign secretary who'd be like that - totally dependant on the political system and has never earned any money. Then you'll get the politicians you deserve.

People feel that the EU is a one-way process, a great machine that sucks up decision-making from national parliaments to the European level until everything is decided by the EU. That needs to change.

Obviously a Conservative government will always leave taxes lower than they have been under Labour. Those things go with the territory of the Conservative Party.

Today further EU targeted sanctions on Syria come into force. The message is clear and unambiguous: those responsible for the repression will be singled out and held accountable.

I described the euro as a burning building with no exits and so it has proved for some of the countries in it.

People feel that in too many ways the EU is something that is done to them, not something over which they have a say.

The appalling crackdown that we witnessed in Hama and other Syrian cities on 30 and 31 July only erode the regime's legitimacy and increase resentment. In the absence of an end to the senseless violence and a genuine process of political reform, we will continue to pursue further EU sanctions.

Unless there is meaningful change in Syria and an end to the crackdown, President Assad and those around him will find themselves isolated internationally and discredited within Syria.

To the hard-working people who set a little bit aside each month, to provide for their children, or to fund their own retirement, I say: you should be rewarded not punished.

I don't deny that there are problems in the intelligence world, but I would argue that in the UK we try to uphold the highest standards in the world.

The world is not going into concentric blocs of power. It is actually going into a diffusion of power with more centres of decision-making than ever in human civilisation. That requires you to place yourself in far more hubs of power than ever before.

Very few conflicts in the history of the world have been satisfactorily concluded according to a published timetable, because you lose all flexibility in dealing with your opponents.

In my view what you can't argue for is a system that is neither decisive nor proportional and can be indecisive and disproportionate at the same time.

At a time of such hope and optimism in the Middle East, we cannot let the Libyan government violate every principle of international law and human rights with impunity.

Governments that use violence to stop democratic development will not earn themselves respite forever. They will pay an increasingly high price for actions which they can no longer hide from the world with ease, and will find themselves on the wrong side of history.

I believe we should reframe our response to climate change as an imperative for growth rather than merely being a way of being green or meeting environmental commitments.

Syria should not belong to one family, to one coterie, or to one party. It belongs to all the people of Syria equally, in all their religious and ethnic diversity.

When a Cabinet Minister who is sacked for telling lies is re-appointed, in the face of every constitutional convention, only for the same man to be sacked again from the same Cabinet for the same offence by the same Prime Minister no wonder the public are cynical about politics.

The EU is not a country and it's not going to become a country, in my view, now or ever in the future. It is a group of countries working together.

I don't think a wise thing at this moment is for Israel to launch a military attack on Iran.

You do have to do business with and to try to influence people you don't agree with, or find disagreeable, so it's important to stress that balance.

I'm not, nor is anybody I know in government part of a nasty right wing clique.

One day I will go back to my books and piano, but not yet.

Whatever happens in Mogadishu, in Somalia, will happen in Great Britain. We have interlocking interests.

When you reduce taxes on higher earners it's vital to be reducing them on lower earning people as well so the nation shares in the approach.

As far as I'm aware, everybody in the shadow cabinet accepts that there's a compelling case on climate change and a strong scientific case.

Britain does not normally these days play a huge part in peacekeeping.

I have always thought that foreign-policy idealism has to be tempered with realism.

If some of the people who write about mojo came with me for a week, they would drop dead on their feet.

It must be quite rare for an interviewer to be interviewed.

It's not too late to stop the Lisbon Treaty.

The British retreat is over and now the advance will begin.

The total economy of Latin America is bigger than China.

There is no budget for travel for a Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Turning away Turkey from the EU would be a great, long-term - a century-long - error by Europe.

We hope that the long darkness through which the Burmese people have lived may now be coming to an end.

Where defining foreign policy as 'ethical' went wrong was that it implied that all decisions would be exclusive in every respect of any dealings with unethical regimes.

The people of Britain want a Home Secretary who will give them back their streets. They want a Home Secretary who will speak up for the victim, not the criminal.

We are not directly involved in Syria. But we will be working with our partners in the European Union and at the United Nations to see if we can persuade the Syrian authorities to go, as I say, more in that direction of respect for democracy and human rights.

You can see over time whether people are prepared to differ or not.

It's really necessary for the United States to continue to give strong leadership to the Middle East peace process, supported by European countries at the same time.

Spending only what the country can afford, rewarding savings, encouraging independence, supporting marriage: people know that these things are common sense.

When the Lord Chancellor violates the trust of his great office of state to solicit party donations from people whose careers he can control, and then says I'm not sorry, and I'd do it again no wonder the public think that power has gone to their heads.

You can gain in your effectiveness as a politician from a wide acquaintance with the world and from a degree of independence that having some outside interests gives.

Wouldn't it be better to have a watertight law designed to catch the guilty, rather than a press release law designed to catch the headlines?

I still agree with the invasion of Iraq. I don't agree with most of the decisions that accompanied it.

I've always been opposed myself to prisoners having the vote.

It is the mission of the next Conservative Government to build the Responsible Society.

The low carbon economy is at the leading edge of a structural shift now taking place globally.

The message I take all round the world is Britain is open for business.

The war in Iraq, clearly has not turned out in the way that was hoped.

I don't think my principles change. I think the way in which you apply those principles to modern society changes.

I gave up lots of things I love doing: writing, and business, and playing the piano and so on.

It's necessary for Israelis and Palestinians to make the compromises that are required to get the direct talks back on track.

People know that you can't spend more than you have.

Those who back the Syrian regime from now on will find themselves in an even more isolated and indefensible minority.

Remember the No campaign is Conservative people, Labour people, people of no party.

Someone once claimed I was not really a Yorkshireman!

We are making progress militarily, there is no doubt about that. You've seen the reports from Misrata, although reports of the Gaddafi forces completely pulling out of Misrata seem to be exaggerated.

We're not getting involved in terms of sending ground forces into Libya. Let's be clear about that. And indeed the UN Resolution forbids that. It says no foreign occupation of any part of Libya.

You have to have as many defences in place as you possibly can. But even then of course - and it's important to stress this - you cannot guarantee being able to prevent every attack or every kind of attack.

Labour have been listening for too long to the so-called experts who think that competition is a dirty word and that communicating facts to our children is elitist.

I think the way things have been left after Iraq is that people won't believe the Government of the day, so they have to know that lessons have been learnt and that all political parties and people, whether they were for or against the invasion of Iraq, have learnt lessons.

If there's one thing above all that sets me apart from Tony Blair it is this - I am not embarrassed to articulate the instincts of the British people.

Iran's continued, widespread persecution of ethnic minorities, human rights defenders and political prisoners is a disgrace and stands as a shameful indictment of Iran's leaders.

Six months after he called for a new approach in Europe, there is little sign of it.

I wouldn't have an election at this point to date. That would be putting party before country.

I don't know whether I will ever go back on to the front, but don't rush me.

We think a great crisis is coming for Europe. The last thing Britain should do is associate ourselves with the fastest shrinking part of the world economy.

He wants to create a House of Cronies, beholden to him alone, ... constitutional vandalism.

Our relationship with the United States is central to our foreign policy and ought to be one of a deep and enduring partnership.

squandered a huge Commons majority, the goodwill of the people of this country, and the best set of economic conditions any government has ever inherited.

That was an encouraging sign. But we want them to go further down the road, and point out how important it is to have American leadership given their economic weight in the world. That would make an enormous difference.

There is a choice. There is no excuse for giving up on Britain. We are surrendering to the European Union our ability to run our own affairs.

We will not be threatened. We intend to be in government after the next general election, so this won't really matter.

It would have been a major disaster if the bag had fallen open.

Seldom in the course of European negotiations has so much been surrendered for so little. This is a poor deal for Britain.

The most expensive haircut I ever had cost ?10.

It must be a sobering lesson for all parties that millions of people have been reluctant or have refused to participate in this election at all and there will be much to reflect on for the Conservative Party.

It's tremendous. We're in good heart, and it is a very important stage in the rebuilding of our party.

No individual is more important than the party

Initial negotiations have been positive. It will be a matter of months rather than a year.

The Deputy Prime Minister will present a bill that is rambling, over-inflated, illogical and ridiculously cumbersome - funny coincidence, that.

Ambition is best tempered with self-knowledge!

I feel fortunate that, by the age of 40, I had crammed in an entire political career.I had been in the Cabinet and been leader of the party, so now I can branch out into other things... it is a very liberating feeling.

I thank the Prime Minister for his remarks about me. Debating with him at the Dispatch Box has been exciting, fascinating, fun, an enormous challenge and, from my point of view, wholly unproductive in every sense. I am told that in my time at the Dispatch Box I have asked the Prime Minister 1,118 direct questions, but no one has counted the direct answers-it may not take long.

How long do Syrian families have to live in fear that their children will be killed or tortured, before the Security Council will act? How many people need to die before the consciences of world capitals are stirred?