110+ Tony Blair Quotes On Reform, Legacy And Saddam

Tony Blair was an English politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. He was the leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007 and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007. He is the only Labour Party leader to have won three consecutive general elections. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Tony Blair on leadership, leadership, reform.

Top 10 Tony Blair Quotes

1. The kaleidoscope has been shaken. The pieces are in flux. Soon they will settle again. Before they do, let us re-order this world around us.
2. There is no meeting of minds, no point of understanding with such terror. Just a choice: Defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat it we must.
3. Global warming is too serious for the world any longer to ignore its danger or split into opposing factions on it.
4. A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in.. And how many want out.
5. I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.
6. One of the paradoxes of globalization is that, in the developing world, we've seen massive reductions in property.
7. The emphasis placed by more and more companies on corporate social responsibility, symbolises the recognition that prosperity is best achieved in an inclusive society.
8. If there are further steps to European integration, the people should have their say at a general election or in a referendum.
9. I can only go one way. I've not got a reverse gear.
10. ...we must support and protect individuals and companies engaged in life saving medical research

Tony Blair Short Quotes

• I want to see a publicly-owned railway, publicly accountable.
• Our tolerance is part of what makes Britain, Britain. Conform to it; or don't come here.
• I believe Mrs. Thatcher's emphasis on enterprise was right.
• Stirring is OK. It just depends what happens in the end.
• Their barbarism will stand as their shame for all eternity.
• This mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today
• I feel like everyone else in this country today. I am utterly devastated.
• The free enterprise system has not failed; the financial system has failed.
• I will do what it takes to help Ed Miliband win general election.
• Personally, I have already turned down the Downing St thermostat by 1 degree

Tony Blair Quotes About Leadership

King Fahd was a man of great vision and leadership who inspired his countrymen for a quarter of a century as king. He led Saudi Arabia through a period of unparalleled progress and development. — Tony Blair

The best philanthropy is not just about giving money but giving leadership. The best philanthropists bring the gifts that made them successful-the drive, the determination, the refusal to accept that something can't be done if it needs to be into their philanthropy. — Tony Blair

It is not a sensible or intelligent response for us in Europe to ridicule American arguments and parody their political leadership. — Tony Blair

I do not seek unpopularity as a badge of honour, but sometimes it is the price of leadership and the cost of conviction. — Tony Blair

You've got to listen but you've also got to lead. — Tony Blair

Ideals survive through change. They die through inertia in the face of challenge. — Tony Blair

That's the art of leadership. To make sure that what shouldn't happen, doesn't happen. — Tony Blair

Tony Blair Quotes About Reform

People divide into groups where they talk to each other, but don't talk across the divide. And yet most of the challenges we face in the world today are challenges that are to do with trade, with technology, with how you make sure that people are properly educated, reform your health care system. — Tony Blair

What we have got to do now is use this event, the resignation of the whole commission, to drive through root and branch reform. — Tony Blair

The understanding which has driven New Labour's reform is to put the individual citizen - the patient, the parent, the pupil, the law abiding citizen - at the centre of each public service, with the service reformed to meet their individual requirements — Tony Blair

Times are tough but they are tough because the government is trying to do the right thing, whether on public service reform, education, health, anti-social behaviour and welfare, or in counter-terrorism. — Tony Blair

Tony Blair Quotes About Saddam

The intelligence is clear: (Saddam) continues to believe his WMD programme is essential both for internal repression and for external aggression. — Tony Blair

As I have said throughout, I have no doubt that they will find the clearest possible evidence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. — Tony Blair

The threat from Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction - chemical, biological, potentially nuclear weapons capability - that threat is real. — Tony Blair

I may find Saddam Hussein's regime abhorrent - any normal person would - but the survival of it is in his hands. — Tony Blair

We expected, I expected to find actual usable, chemical or biological weapons after we entered Iraq. But I have to accept, as the months have passed, it seems increasingly clear that at the time of invasion, Saddam did not have stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons ready to deploy. — Tony Blair

Conflict is not inevitable, but disarmament is... everyone now accepts that if there is a default by Saddam the international community must act to enforce its will. — Tony Blair

I abhor Saddam's regime, but the basis has to be disarmament. — Tony Blair

The view we took at the time and we take it now is that the war was justified legally because he [Saddam Hussein] remained in breach of UN resolutions. — Tony Blair

The world is a better place with Saddam in prison not in power. — Tony Blair

And the problem is, I can apologise for the information that turned out to be wrong, but I can't, sincerely at least, apologise for removing Saddam. — Tony Blair

Tony Blair Quotes About Hussein

I still think the world is better off and safer without Saddam Hussein. — Tony Blair

I think all of our experience with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein teaches us that diplomacy has very little chance of working unless it is clear to him that if diplomacy does not work, that the threatened reality of force is there. — Tony Blair

The money from Iraqi oil will be yours - it will no longer be used by Saddam Hussein for his own benefit. — Tony Blair

Saddam Hussein's regime is despicable, he is developing weapons of mass destruction, and we cannot leave him doing so unchecked. He is a threat to his own people and to the region and, if allowed to develop these weapons, a threat to us also. — Tony Blair

Tony Blair Quotes About Live

Mine is the first generation able to contemplate the possibility that we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war. — Tony Blair

If you're living in a community that's become fragmented and left behind, there's not proper investment in it and so on, in the end, the answer is to make sure that we go and we help those communities, we educate the people properly, we build the necessary infrastructure of support for people. — Tony Blair

I actually did trouble to read Marx first hand. I found it illuminating in so many ways; in particular, my perception of the relationship between people and the society in which they live was irreversibly altered. — Tony Blair

If we take all this actions and if it turns out not be true, we have reduced pollution and have better ways to live, the downside is very small. The other way around, and we don’t act, and it turns out to be true, then we have betrayed future generations and we don’t have the right to do that. — Tony Blair

You wouldn't be human if you didn't feel both a sense of responsibility and a deep sadness for those who have lost their lives. — Tony Blair

People should go about their daily lives, to work, to live, to travel, to shop, to do the things people did in the same way as they did them before 11 September. — Tony Blair

But in terms of how people live together, how we minimize the prospects of conflict and maximize the prospects of peace, the place of religion in our society today is essential. — Tony Blair

I think crime is a huge issue for people. If you were living in the poorest state, and you've got drug dealers at the end of the street, and your life's in misery, and you're afraid of your kids going out the door. I mean, the job of progressive politicians is to do something about that. — Tony Blair

Make the wrong choices now and future generations will live with a changed climate, depleted resources and without the green space and biodiversity that contribute both to our standard of living and our quality of life — Tony Blair

I couldn't live with myself if I thought that these big strategic choices for my generation were there, and I wasn't even making them - or I was making them according to what was expedient rather than what I actually thought was right. — Tony Blair

Tony Blair Quotes About Choice

However much I dislike the idea of abortion, you should not criminalize a woman who, in very difficult circumstances, makes that choice. — Tony Blair

The first big choice: a government with the strength to deliver stability, or a government that takes the country back to boom and bust. — Tony Blair

Yes, I feel I've got something to say. If people want to listen, that's great, and if they don't, that's their choice. — Tony Blair

Any parent wants the best for their children. I am not going to make a choice for my child on the basis of what is the politically correct thing to do. — Tony Blair

I think I made the wrong career choice — Tony Blair

Tony Blair Famous Quotes And Sayings

Understand the causes of terror? Yes, we should try, but let there be no moral ambiguity about this: nothing could ever justify the events of September 11 and it is to turn justice on its head to pretend it could — Tony Blair

The problem is some of the populism on both the far left and the far right, it can make a Tweet but not make a policy. And, you know, when you are dealing with issues that are as important and serious as this, I understand why people search for simple solutions. — Tony Blair

September 11 was, and remains, above all an immense human tragedy. But September 11 also posed a momentous and deliberate challenge not just to America but to the world at large. The target of the terrorists was not only New York and Washington but the very values of freedom, tolerance and decency which underpin our way of life. — Tony Blair

This mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today. It is perpetrated by fanatics who are utterly indifferent to the sanctity of human life, and we the democracies of this world are going to have to come together and fight it together. — Tony Blair

This is not a battle between the United States of America and terrorism, but between the free and democratic world and terrorism. — Tony Blair

It is not an arrogant government that chooses priorities, it's an irresponsible government that fails to choose. — Tony Blair

Power without principle is barren, but principle without power is futile. This is a party of government, and I will lead it as a party of government. — Tony Blair

Deportation is a decision taken by the home secretary under statute, The new grounds will include fostering hatred, advocating violence to further a person's beliefs, or justifying or validating such violence. — Tony Blair

Moreover, for decades we have been prone to far greater swings in the economic cycle than our continental counterparts. It has been boom and bust....Under this Government, there is an entirely new framework for economic management in place. — Tony Blair

Real progress cannot be measured by money alone. We must ensure that economic growth contributes to our quality of life, rather than degrading it — Tony Blair

There are people who are anxious about immigration for reasons that are perfectly sensible. They think it's uncontrolled. They think it's, therefore, arbitrary in its consequences, and there are some communities affected much more deeply than others. — Tony Blair

What I don't know is whether there is a way politically that you can beat away these, some of these populist movements because in the end I don't think they really do provide answers. They ride the anger. But they don't really have the answers. Or whether this is an experiment we're just going to have to go through first. — Tony Blair

I had discovered long ago the first lesson of political courage: to think anew. I had then learned the second: to be prepared to lead and to decide. I was now studying the third: how to take the calculated risk. I was going to alienate some people, like it or not. The moment you decide, you divide. — Tony Blair

Those who wish to cause religious conflict are small in number but often manage to dominate the headline. — Tony Blair

The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge. — Tony Blair

How do we deal with not just the acts of violence, but the extremist ideology that lies behind them? Because though the numbers of fanatics that go and join and kill for a group like ISIS are measured in tens of thousands, those that support the wider ideology, I'm afraid, you measure in tens of millions or more. — Tony Blair

The problem with the old ideology was that it suppressed the individual by starting with society. But it is from a sense of individual duty that we connect the greater good and the interests of the community — Tony Blair

I just want to say this. I want to say it gently but I want to say it firmly: There is a tendency for the world to say to America, ‘the big problems of the world are yours, you go and sort them out,’ and then to worry when America wants to sort them out. — Tony Blair

One thing, change, is what everyone says. The question is, what type of change? What's the right change to produce a different outcome for the people left behind by globalization? — Tony Blair

We know the problems, and we know the solution: sustainable development. The issue is the political will. — Tony Blair

I think the journey for a politician goes from wanting to please all the people all the time, to a political leader that realises in the end his responsibility is to decide. And when he decides, he divides. — Tony Blair

If we are going to carry on growing, and we will, because no country is going to forfeit its right to economic growth, we have to find a way of doing it sustainably. — Tony Blair

In Downing Street they called me 'Boss'. Civil servants would always call me 'Prime Minister'. — Tony Blair

We, therefore, here in Britain stand shoulder to shoulder with our American friends in this hour of tragedy, and we, like them, will not rest until this evil is driven from our world. — Tony Blair

Labour is the party of law and order in Britain today. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime. — Tony Blair

The British are special. The world knows it. In our innermost thoughts we know it. This is the greatest nation on earth. — Tony Blair

I shall not rest until, once again, the destinies of our people and our party are joined together again in victory at the next general election Labour in its rightful place in government again. — Tony Blair

When my parents were growing up the world's population was under three billion. During my children's lifetime, it is likely to exceed nine billion. You don't need to be an expert to realise that sustainable development is going to become the greatest challenge we face this century — Tony Blair

No one is to blame for the breakdown in trust between politics, media and the public. — Tony Blair

The only society that works today is also one founded on mutual respect, on a recognition that we have a responsibility collectively and individually, to help each other on the basis of each other's equal worth. A selfish society is a contradiction in terms. — Tony Blair

We can debate this or that aspect of climate change, but the reality is that most people now accept our climate is indeed subject to change as a result of greenhouse gas emissions. — Tony Blair

One of the things that I've been doing over the past few years is reevaluating my own powers of political analysis. — Tony Blair

If there is one thing Britain should learn from the last 50 years, it is this: Europe can only get more important for us. — Tony Blair

Some may belittle politics, but we know - who are engaged in it - that it is where people stand tall. And, although I know it has its many harsh contentions, it is still the arena that sets the heart beating a little faster. And if it is, on occasions, the place of low skulduggery, it is more often the place for the pursuit of noble causes. — Tony Blair

As for those that carried out these attacks there are no adequate words of condemnation. Their barbarism will stand as their shame for all eternity. — Tony Blair

I have absolutely no doubt at all that we will find evidence of weapons of mass destruction programmes. — Tony Blair

We expected, I expected to find actual usable, chemical or biological weapons after we entered Iraq. — Tony Blair

The 21st century will not be about the battle between capitalism and socialism but between the forces of progress and the forces of conservatism. — Tony Blair

My view is that we're entering into a situation of enormous instability, insecurity, fragility. — Tony Blair

I don't think there Is a way politically to beat "Insurgent Movement Of Populism". — Tony Blair

Nothing is more important to England's arrangements for the World Cup than the state of David Beckham's foot. — Tony Blair

I would've loved to have been in a band, but sadly I just wasn't good enough. — Tony Blair

You only require two things in life: your sanity and your wife. — Tony Blair

Actually the royal family were very gracious and good to me. But I also found that the British establishment were never quite sure what to make of me. I was a Labour figure, but I'd come from a very middle-class background. In one sense I offended both traditional right and traditional left. But I thought that was no bad thing. — Tony Blair

Ever so often in the history of human endeavour, there comes a breakthrough that takes humankind across a frontier into a new era. ... today's announcement is such a breakthrough, a breakthrough that opens the way for massive advancement in the treatment of cancer and hereditary diseases. And that is only the beginning. — Tony Blair

I can stand here today, leader of the Labour Party, Prime Minister, and say to the British people: you have never had it so ... prudent. — Tony Blair

A challenge so far-reaching in its impact and irreversible in its destructive power, that it alters radically human existence... There is no doubt that the time to act is now. — Tony Blair

Once his wife goes to sleep it takes a minor nuclear explosion to wake her. — Tony Blair

I'm not prepared to have someone tell me there is only one view of what Europe is. Europe isn't owned by any of them, Europe is owned by all of us. — Tony Blair

If you don't see the Internet as an opportunity, it will become a threat. In two or three year's time, the Internet will become as commonplace in the office as the telephone. — Tony Blair

I think, there is a possibility - I would say it's more than that - that we will come to a view of foreign policy going forward that learns from the past but doesn't get captured by it. — Tony Blair

My view always is that we should learn the lessons, both of the last sort of 50 years of policy-making and it is possible to get to a foreign policy that is engaged and active without going back to where we were in the post-9/11 world. — Tony Blair

The jolt that Tony Blair received 35,000ft above the Pacific Ocean was not normal turbulence. — Tony Blair

I also, as I think most people do, have a healthy instinct that if we upset the balance of nature, we are in all probability going to suffer a reaction. With world growth, and population as it is, this reaction must increase. — Tony Blair

We have a situation where we are rich really as a world overall, and yet we have the capacity to destroy ourselves, either through nuclear weapons or through environmental degradation, and we allow the life chances of hundreds of millions of people to be destroyed because we haven't found the will to tackle it — Tony Blair

There are those people who basically don't like those who are different. Now, that is a prejudice and it's a prejudice that's dangerous because in the world today, the world works through connectivity. It works through going across the boundaries, but faith and culture and race in a nation. — Tony Blair

I believe the bicentenary offers us a chance not just to say how profoundly shameful the slave trade was - how we condemn its existence utterly and praise those who fought for its abolition - but also to express our deep sorrow that it could ever have happened and rejoice at the better times we live in today. — Tony Blair

I think it is vitally important to study History. If we are going to lead Britain safely into the future, it is essential that we understand our country's historical roots. If we can learn the lessons of the past, we will be able to avoid making mistakes in the future. — Tony Blair

You get these insurgent movements of populism, left and right. An insurgent movement of populism took my political party over in the UK for example. — Tony Blair

I am not sure that we would always want 16-year-olds to do all the things they can do. I am afraid that I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman on the voting age. I think that it should remain as it is. — Tony Blair

Ah yes, liberal democrats unified as ever in opportunism and in error. — Tony Blair

Bill Clinton has been a true leader of the western world. He has been a friend and a counsel to me and other leaders right around the world. — Tony Blair

For me, 9/11 was a game changer. It altered my perception of the security threat we faced. I took the position that Britain should be shoulder to shoulder with the U.S. It was a big decision; I didn't take it lightly, or in ignorance of its consequences. It's a big commitment for a country to give, but I believed it was the right thing to do. — Tony Blair

The moment you stigmatize a whole group of people - for example, Muslims - then, obviously, you make the decent, law-abiding Muslims feel as if they're under threat in some way or that their legitimacy, as members or citizens of society, is brought into question. — Tony Blair

In 1997, we faced daunting challenges. Boom and bust economics..... Now, for all that remains to be done, dwell for a moment on what has been achieved. — Tony Blair

Examine the legacy that we inherited and what we did. We had boom-and-bust economics and a doubled national debt. — Tony Blair

Surely we have the wit and will to develop economically without despoiling the very environment we depend upon — Tony Blair

I do believe that if you reach a just and fair settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians it will have a massive influence on countering extremism. Which is not to say that the Israel-Palestinian situation is the source of the problem, but it is very potent fuel. — Tony Blair

There is no way you're going to have an event like 9/11 and expect things to remain the same. They killed 3,000 people in New York on that day, and if they could have they would've killed 300,000. — Tony Blair

Lord Cranborne told the leader of the opposition to 'back me or sack me' - he succeeded in doing both. — Tony Blair

Real integrity means an answer. It doesn't just mean - it doesn't mean riding the anger. And this is very difficult to do. — Tony Blair

We in a sense went for the Bernie Sanders model OK? Now we're also in turmoil as a result of this result. — Tony Blair

Look, I am very competitive. — Tony Blair

Life Lessons by Tony Blair

1. Tony Blair taught us the importance of taking responsibility for our decisions and actions, no matter how difficult the circumstances.
2. He also showed us that it is possible to remain optimistic and keep striving for progress, even in the face of adversity.
3. Lastly, he demonstrated the power of collaboration and compromise to achieve great things, while still remaining true to our core values.