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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

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Tony Blair
Age: 71
Born: 1953
Born: May 6
Autobiographer
Diplomat
Former Prime Minister Of The United Kingdom
Lawyer
Politician
Edinburgh
Scotland
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair
Anthony Blair
Rt. Hon. Anthony Charles Lynton Blair
Responsibility
Divides
Political
Wanting
Ends
Decide
Politician
Time
Journey
Think
Please
Realises
Thinking
Goes
Decides
People
Leader
Realising

More quotes by Tony Blair

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Yes, I did have to struggle very hard to get this [the vote on the Iraq war] through, but the reason I did it was because I thought it was the right thing to do. I didn't take this on myself... just because I thought, 'Let's give myself a really hard time for a couple of years!'
Tony Blair
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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
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The threat from Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction - chemical, biological, potentially nuclear weapons capability - that threat is real.
Tony Blair
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Whatever the short term clashes between protecting the environment and eradicating poverty, medium term and long term it is clear. Unless we grow sustainably, at some point we face catastrophe
Tony Blair
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Today the impulse towards interdependence is immeasurably greater. We are witnessing the beginnings of a new doctrine of international community.
Tony Blair
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Fifteen years ago, if you said business will help save the environment people would have laughed at you. Today, I believe that is a serious proposition.
Tony Blair
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The British people are the boss.
Tony Blair
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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
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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
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Those who wish to cause religious conflict are small in number but often manage to dominate the headline.
Tony Blair
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I think the single most important political distinction today is actually between open-minded versus closed-minded, and that's why I think this crosses the boundaries of traditional - center-right and center-left have much more in common with each other right now than the right does with the center-right, and the left does with the center-left.
Tony Blair
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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
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I'm the f***ing Prime Minister!
Tony Blair
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Our ultimate weapon is not our guns but our beliefs...The spread of freedom is the best security for the free. It is our last line of defense and our first line of attack.
Tony Blair
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You don't have to keep looking at the future foreign policy in terms, simply, of the past.
Tony Blair
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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
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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
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Enough of talking: It is time now to do.
Tony Blair
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The relationship between Britain and the US is fantastically important when confronting terrorism.
Tony Blair
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Before people crow about the absence of weapons of mass destruction, I suggest they wait a bit.
Tony Blair