Douglas Hurd Quotes
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We, Britain and Germany, can neither of us be happy about our handling of the Iraq war.
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Men like Hitler and Stalin and their immediate lieutenants cannot plead in defence of their actions that these were justified by the accepted values of that time.
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Margaret Thatcher was fearful of German unification because she believed that this would bring an immediate and formidable increase of economic strength to a Germany which was already the strongest economic partner in Europe.
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The tragedy of 9/11 galvanised the American superpower into action, leaving us in Europe divided in its wake.
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It is normal for politicians in all countries to profess themselves the pupils of history, anxious to draw the right lessons from her teaching.
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No military timetable should compel war when a successful outcome, namely a disarmed Iraq may be feasible without war, for example by allowing more time to the UN inspectors.
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Prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse.
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Margaret Thatcher, growing up in a bombed and battered Britain, derived a distrust which has grown with the years not just of Germany but of all continental Europe.
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People know they are lacking something, they are constantly wanting some kind of spiritual guidance.
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But Germany will always suffer, I fear, from the intensely dramatic character of the crimes of the Third Reich.
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A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur.
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People are very interested in politics, they just don't like it labelled politics.
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History provides no precise guidelines.
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The first two Prime Ministers whom I served, Ted Heath and Margaret Thatcher drew strikingly different lessons from the Second World War.
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Despite this lamentable lack of balance in our education I do not believe that either children or adults in my country are permeated by a widespread hostility to Germany.
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We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgement on the past.
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We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour.
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It was essentially for self defence that we went to war in Afghanistan and would go to war in Iraq.
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I may be wrong in that, but not I think in putting the questions. In our modern democracy the government needs not a unanimous but a general support for war before it orders our forces to fight.
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Wisely used history can give pleasure and provide us with a useful tool; but we should not become its slaves.
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There is nothing false or arrogant about German pride in German technical and business skills.
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It depends on how it is done but what we are drifting into, which is that people grow up without any sense of a spiritual dimension to life, is just impoverishing.
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There is no consensus even today on the merits of Napoleon - and certainly no agreement on the rights and wrongs of the origins of the First World War.
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But it cannot follow that because weapons and troops are now being deployed we are bound to go to war.