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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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