Quotes By John Major

I think we can get respect for Parliament back providing governments and oppositions are frank.

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

What happens when there is a conflict between the Scottish parliament, if it was established, and the Westminster parliament? Who is supreme?

My father was 64 when I was conceived, my mother 38, which was late for babies in the 1940s.

I think it's extremely unlikely that the European Union will fracture with nations dropping off the edge.

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.

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.

It is time to return to core values, time to get back to basics , to self-discipline and respect for the law, to consideration for the others, to accepting responsibility for yourself and your family - and not shuffling it off on other people and the state.

I think the biggest mistake I made was this wretched ability to see both sides of an argument.

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

There are more myths about Black Wednesday than the Greeks ever created.

Well British troops are superb in the field in terms of conflict.

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

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.

Well, I think there's a distinction between sexing-up the intelligence and sexing-up the presentation of the intelligence.

I don't think it's the role of the prime minister to court the press.

The British don't runaway from terrorism. We have had 30-odd years of terrorism in our own country from the Irish Republican Army. We're used to it.

Whether you agree with me or disagree with me; like me or loathe me, don't bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British nation.

If we want to deliver opportunity for all, we need an economy that delivers jobs for the future.

Disunity costs votes.

I thought I could do something different from any Conservative prime minister before me. But I couldn't.

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.

My mother was the center of the family.