Quotes by William Hague

“There's only one growth strategy: work hard.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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 o...”

“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 won...”

“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...”

“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.”

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

“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 fi...”

“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 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.”

“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 a...”

“Getting something like this wrong is not just an academic error or an argument at conference. It affects the jobs of millions. Unlike the ERM, the single currency is for all time. British business ...”

“The truth is that the supporters of British membership of a single currency tend to fall back on one central argument that overshadows all others. They say: It's going to happen and that we can't p...”

“Many of them [European politicians] believe our ultimate objective should be the creation of a single European state, and that this is an inevitable destiny. I believe they are wrong. There is a li...”

“One could find oneself trapped in the economic equivalent of a burning building with no exits. In Asia, those countries that have had the most violent reactions to the financial crisis have been th...”