Top 80 William Hague Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Unless there is meaningful change in Syria and an end to the crackdown, President Assad and those around him will find themselves isolated internationally and discredited within Syria.”

— William Hague

52. “You have to have as many defences in place as you possibly can. But even then of course – and it’s important to stress this – you cannot guarantee being able to prevent every attack or every kind of attack.”

— William Hague

53. “It is the mission of the next Conservative Government to build the Responsible Society.”

— William Hague

54. “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.”

— William Hague

55. “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, whether they were for or against the invasion of Iraq, have learnt lessons.”

— William Hague

56. “I’ve always been opposed myself to prisoners having the vote.”

— William Hague

57. “Wouldn’t it be better to have a watertight law designed to catch the guilty, rather than a press release law designed to catch the headlines?”

— William Hague

58. “Very few conflicts in the history of the world have been satisfactorily concluded according to a published timetable, because you lose all flexibility in dealing with your opponents.”

— William Hague

59. “I gave up lots of things I love doing: writing, and business, and playing the piano and so on.”

— William Hague

60. “Someone once claimed I was not really a Yorkshireman!”

— William Hague

61. “We are making progress militarily, there is no doubt about that. You’ve seen the reports from Misrata, although reports of the Gaddafi forces completely pulling out of Misrata seem to be exaggerated.”

— William Hague

62. “Remember the No campaign is Conservative people, Labour people, people of no party.”

— William Hague

63. “Elected presidents are for countries.”

— William Hague

64. “The world is not going into concentric blocs of power. It is actually going into a diffusion of power with more centres of decision-making than ever in human civilisation. That requires you to place yourself in far more hubs of power than ever before.”

— William Hague

65. “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 offence by the same Prime Minister no wonder the public are cynical about politics.”

— William Hague

66. “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.”

— William Hague

67. “When you reduce taxes on higher earners it’s vital to be reducing them on lower earning people as well so the nation shares in the approach.”

— William Hague

68. “Those who back the Syrian regime from now on will find themselves in an even more isolated and indefensible minority.”

— William Hague

69. “For the security of the UK, it matters a lot for Somalia to become a more stable place.”

— William Hague

70. “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.”

— William Hague

71. “Britain does not normally these days play a huge part in peacekeeping.”

— William Hague

72. “Well, if you’re looking for me to lead a normal representative life, well good luck finding a foreign secretary who’d be like that – totally dependant on the political system and has never earned any money. Then you’ll get the politicians you deserve.”

— William Hague

73. “The EU should be concentrated on adapting to globalisation and global competitiveness, not building more powerful centralised institutions in Brussels.”

— William Hague

74. “You do have to do business with and to try to influence people you don’t agree with, or find disagreeable, so it’s important to stress that balance.”

— William Hague

75. “I think Britain would be alright, if only we had a different Government.”

— William Hague

76. “How long do Syrian families have to live in fear that their children will be killed or tortured, before the Security Council will act? How many people need to die before the consciences of world capitals are stirred?”

— William Hague

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

— William Hague

78. “Where defining foreign policy as ‘ethical’ went wrong was that it implied that all decisions would be exclusive in every respect of any dealings with unethical regimes.”

— William Hague

79. “It is not my policy to hit voters during the election.”

— William Hague

80. “Gordon Brown promised to abolish boom and bust. He has kept half his promise.”

— William Hague

81. “It makes life very simple actually. You could be giving a TV interview in howling gale and it no longer matters.”

— William Hague

82. “Not all politicians are bonkers, but most of them are.”

— William Hague

83. “It’s necessary for Israelis and Palestinians to make the compromises that are required to get the direct talks back on track.”

— William Hague

84. “The appalling crackdown that we witnessed in Hama and other Syrian cities on 30 and 31 July only erode the regime’s legitimacy and increase resentment. In the absence of an end to the senseless violence and a genuine process of political reform, we will continue to pursue further EU sanctions.”

— William Hague

85. “At a time of such hope and optimism in the Middle East, we cannot let the Libyan government violate every principle of international law and human rights with impunity.”

— William Hague

86. “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.”

— William Hague