Douglas Hurd Quotes

• Prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse.

  Douglas Hurd

  People, Way, Prison

  14 Copy quote

• Diplomacy is unfashionable in the world of knee-jerk reaction and the dogmatic sound bite on television.

  Douglas Hurd

  Knee Jerk Reactions, Knees, Sound

  4 Copy quote

• People know they are lacking something, they are constantly wanting some kind of spiritual guidance.

  Douglas Hurd

  Spiritual, People, Kind

  5 Copy quote

• Silence is regarded as a sort of sin now, and it has to be filled with a lot of gossip and soundbites.

  Douglas Hurd

  Gossip, Silence, Sin

  4 Copy quote

• If Margaret Thatcher had been Prime Minister at the time, there would have been no Treaty of Maastricht.

  Douglas Hurd

  Prime, Ministers, Treaties

  6 Copy quote

• War on Iraq runs the risk of turning the Middle East into an inexhaustible recruiting ground for anti- western terrorism.

  Douglas Hurd

  Running, War, Iraq

  4 Copy quote

• People are very interested in politics, they just don't like it labelled 'politics'.

  Douglas Hurd

  People

  Interview with Rhian Harris, cherwell.org. May 15, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• Margaret Thatcher was fearful of German unification because she believed that this would bring an immediate and formidable increase of economic strength to a Germany which was already the strongest economic partner in Europe.

  Douglas Hurd

  Europe, Germany, Economic

  16 Copy quote

• History provides no precise guidelines.

  Douglas Hurd

  Guidelines, Precise

  7 Copy quote

• But Germany will always suffer, I fear, from the intensely dramatic character of the crimes of the Third Reich.

  Douglas Hurd

  Character, Suffering, Germany

  7 Copy quote

• There are thus great swathes of the past where understanding is more important and reputable than judgement, because the principal actors performed in line with the ideas and values of that time, not of ours.

  Douglas Hurd

  Past, Ideas, Understanding

  7 Copy quote

• We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour.

  Douglas Hurd

  Favour, Politician, Should

  "Escaping from History". Speech in Berlin, www.kas.de. April 18, 2005.

  7 Copy quote

• Some people find it difficult to argue with a woman Prime Minister and shrivel up.

  Douglas Hurd

  People, Arguing, Ministers

  4 Copy quote

• We, Britain and Germany, can neither of us be happy about our handling of the Iraq war.

  Douglas Hurd

  War, Iraq, Germany

  8 Copy quote

• Wisely used history can give pleasure and provide us with a useful tool; but we should not become its slaves.

  Douglas Hurd

  Giving, Tools, Slave

  4 Copy quote

• Men like Hitler and Stalin and their immediate lieutenants cannot plead in defence of their actions that these were justified by the accepted values of that time.

  Douglas Hurd

  Men, Action, Justified

  22 Copy quote

• A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur.

  Douglas Hurd

  Iraq, Spurs, Might

  6 Copy quote

• Margaret Thatcher, growing up in a bombed and battered Britain, derived a distrust which has grown with the years not just of Germany but of all continental Europe.

  Douglas Hurd

  Growing Up, Years, Europe

  8 Copy quote

• It is normal for politicians in all countries to profess themselves the pupils of history, anxious to draw the right lessons from her teaching.

  Douglas Hurd

  Country, Teaching, Lessons

  8 Copy quote

• We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgment on the past.

  Douglas Hurd

  Past, Judgment, Enjoyable

  7 Copy quote

• Ten Downing Street is a house, not an office. That is its most important characteristic.

  Douglas Hurd

  Downing Street, Office, House

  4 Copy quote

• No military timetable should compel war when a successful outcome, namely a disarmed Iraq may be feasible without war, for example by allowing more time to the UN inspectors.

  Douglas Hurd

  Military, War, Successful

  6 Copy quote

• The tragedy of 9/11 galvanised the American superpower into action, leaving us in Europe divided in its wake.

  Douglas Hurd

  Europe, America, Leaving

  7 Copy quote

• There is no consensus even today on the merits of Napoleon - and certainly no agreement on the rights and wrongs of the origins of the First World War.

  Douglas Hurd

  War, Rights, Agreement

  52 Copy quote

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