1.
When your back is against the wall, there is only one thing to do, and that is turn around and fight.
John Major
When your situation is dire, there is only one option; stand up and battle.
2.
In the next ten years we will have to continue to make changes which will make the whole of this country a genuinely classless society.
John Major
3.
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
4.
I think it's extremely unlikely that the European Union will fracture with nations dropping off the edge.
John Major
5.
Life is full of surprises.
John Major
6.
Fifty years from now Britain will still be the country of long shadows on county grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs, dog lovers and pools fillers and - as George Orwell said - āold maids bicycling to Holy Communion through the morning mistā and if we get our way - Shakespeare still read even in school.
John Major
7.
Recovery begins from the darkest moment.
John Major
8.
Society needs to condemn a little more and understand a little less.
John Major
9.
Well, I have concerns about the effectiveness of Europe to compete.
John Major
10.
A country of long shadows on county cricket grounds, warm beer, green suburbs, dog lovers, and old maids cycling to holy communion through the morning mist.
John Major
11.
Whether you agree with me, disagree with me, like me or loathe me, don't bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British people.
John Major
12.
The first requirement of politics is not intellect or stamina but patience. Politics is a very long run game and the tortoise will usually beat the hare.
John Major
13.
It is time to return to those core values, time to get back to basics: to self-discipline and respect for the law, to consideration for others, to accepting responsibility for yourself and your family, and not shuffling it off on other people and the state.
John Major
14.
If the answer is more politicians, you are asking the wrong question.
John Major
15.
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
16.
Let's turn British inventions into British industries, British factories and British jobs. Let them make pounds for us, not dollars marks or yen for others.
John Major
17.
I don't have a shred of regret about entering the exchange-rate mechanism.
John Major
18.
I have a huge admiration for the House of Lords, I have a huge admiration for the people who work in the House of Lords, they're great public servants and they do an absolutely tremendous job.
John Major
19.
Disunity costs votes.
John Major
20.
The politician who never made a mistake never made a decision.
John Major
21.
Of course there are regrets. I shall regret always that I found my own authentic voice in politics. I was too conservative, too conventional. Too safe, too often. Too defensive. Too reactive. Later, too often on the back foot.
John Major
22.
I think we can get respect for Parliament back providing governments and oppositions are frank.
John Major
23.
I don't think nations can stand aside for ethnic cleansing and genocide.
John Major
24.
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
25.
I am not running as Son of Margaret Thatcher. I have my own priorities and my own programmes.
John Major
26.
Give the Germans five deutschmarks and they will save it. But give the British Ā£5 and they will borrow Ā£25 and spend it.
John Major
27.
When I was in office the fundraising was done by the party treasurers.
John Major
28.
If is a very big preposition.
John Major
29.
Neil Kinnock's speeches go on for so long because he has nothing to say and so he has no way of knowing when he's finished saying it.
John Major
30.
If we want to deliver opportunity for all, we need an economy that delivers jobs for the future.
John Major
31.
My mother was the center of the family.
John Major
32.
You don't forget crises and neither does the Queen.
John Major
33.
Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be too clever by half. The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters.
John Major
34.
Ronnie Barker will forever be remembered as one of the great comic actors.
John Major
35.
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
36.
If you look at things that really affect people's lives - sport, the arts, charities - they were always at the back of the queue for government money - health, social security, defence, pensions were all way ahead. And each of those areas - sports, the arts, the lottery - got relatively petty cash from the government.
John Major
37.
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
38.
I mean if you have ever found a politician who says, 'No, no, I would do everything exactly as I did,' then you can tell when he is lying because his lips are moving.
John Major
39.
Political suicide can end a career.
John Major
40.
"Government gets things right" does not encourage sales. "Government makes another blunder" does encourage sales, so there's a commercial imperative that pushes sensationalism.
John Major
41.
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
42.
When our backs are against the wall, we must turn around and march forward.
John Major
43.
If you look back historically, admittedly a long time ago, there were three Afghan wars in which Britain didn't even come a good second. In more recent years the Russians were there with 120,000 men for ten years.
John Major
44.
Liberty is equally desirable to the good and to the bad, to the brave and to the dastardly.
John Major
45.
I don't think it's the role of the prime minister to court the press.
John Major
46.
Certainly we've seen the enormous changes across the whole of the Middle East. The democratic genie is out of the bottle.
John Major
47.
What happens when there is a conflict between the Scottish parliament, if it was established, and the Westminster parliament? Who is supreme?
John Major
48.
I will turn directly to the Asylum Bill later.
John Major
49.
The world has gone through tremendous change recently; both nationally andinternationally.
John Major
50.
Some people eat eggs, I wear them.
John Major
