Michael Howard Quotes

The true use of history, whether civil or military, is not to make man clever for the next time, it is to make him wise forever.

People often of masterful intelligence, trained usually in law or economics or perhaps in political science, who have led their governments into disastrous decisions and miscalculations because they have no awareness whatever of the historical background, the cultural universe, of the foreign societies with which they have to deal.

We must rediscover the habit of thinking the best of each other

I make no apologies for any inconsistencies or contradictions in my essays. Those who do not change their minds in the course of a decade have probably stopped thinking all together. The true use of history, whether civil or military, is not to make man clever for the next time, it is to make him wise forever.

The important thing when you are going to do something brave is to have someone on hand to witness it.

So long as the international community consists of sovereign states, war between them remains a possibility, of which all governments have to take reasonable account.

A common language is the most obvious binding element in any society.

What is Parliament for if it is not to be a means to make ministers accountable for the services for which they are responsible.

Let us be clear. Prison works. It ensures that we are protected from murderers, muggers and rapists, and it makes many who are tempted to commit crime think twice.

History is what we read, write and think about the past.

There is only one opinion poll that I am interested in and that is the one that will take place on election day.

We cannot possibly take them all into this country [asylum seekers] - it is a completely unrealistic expectation.

We're not saying, 'We're politicians, trust us.' We know you don't trust us.

Tony Blair is already secretly grinning at the prospect of his third victory. You don't have to settle for that.

I will never stand again for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

I am happy to debate the past with the Prime Minister... I have a big dossier on his past, and I did not even have to sex it up.

I believe abortion should be available to everyone, but the law should be changed. In the past I voted for a restriction to 22 weeks, and I would be prepared to go down to 20.