John Major Quotes

I want to see us build a country that is at ease with itself, a country that is confident and a country that is able and willing to build a better quality of life for all its citizens.

John Major

• Life
• Country
• Quality

I have been reading the press more regularly than others over 50 years and it seems to me that there are things that have changed in the press that have changed its character.

John Major

• Character
• Reading

When the euro was born, it was born in the wrong economic circumstances.

John Major

The politician who never made a mistake never made a decision.

John Major

• Decision
• Mistake

I'm very proud of what my parents achieved and what they stood for. They didn't have much, but in many ways they were richer than most.

John Major

• Parents
• Proud

A consensus politician is someone who does something that he doesn't believe is right because it keeps people quiet when he does it.

John Major

• People
• Believe

The right hon. and learned Member is the man who likes to say yes in Europe — Monsieur Oui, the poodle of Brussels.

John Major

In housing in the fifties in Britain and the sixties, we pulled down the terraces - destroyed whole communities and replaced them with tower blocks and we built walkways that became rat-runs for muggers. That was the fashionable opinion. But it was wrong.

John Major

• Opinion

I inherited a sick economy and passed on a sound one. But one abiding regret for me is that, in between, I did not have the resources to put in place the educational and social changes about which I cared to much; I made only a beginning, and it was not enough.

John Major

• Beginning
• Sick
• Regret

Society needs to condemn a little more and understand a little less.

John Major

• Society

I am walking over hot coals suspended over a deep pit at the bottom of which are a large number of vipers baring their fangs.

John Major

• Deep
• Walking

I want Britain to punch its weight in the European Community.

John Major

• Community

I like the best of the British press. The best of the British press is very good.

John Major

• Good

I think the majority of the British people are still sanguine about the need for war.

John Major

• People
• War

Well what would happen is that if Greece defaulted and couldn't pay its debts, all the Greek bonds that are held in other banking systems across Western Europe would suddenly have no value. You could as a knock-on effect create a banking crisis in Western Europe.

John Major

• Value
• Greek

Too many people looked to me in the eye and did not tell me the truth.

John Major

• People
• Truth

You've had an extremely weak euro on the foreign exchange markets, you've had a very dubious policy being followed.

John Major

I don't think nations can stand aside for ethnic cleansing and genocide.

John Major

Well, I have concerns about the effectiveness of Europe to compete.

John Major