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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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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
Think
Moment
Prepared
Divide
Thinking
Moments
Lessons
Studying
Like
Political
Lead
Divides
People
Firsts
Courage
Lesson
First
Second
Discovered
Take
Risk
Third
Alienate
Going
Learned
Thirds
Calculated
Long
Study
Decide
Anew

More quotes by Tony Blair

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This is not a battle between the United States of America and terrorism, but between the free and democratic world and terrorism.
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King Fahd was a man of great vision and leadership who inspired his countrymen for a quarter of a century as king. He led Saudi Arabia through a period of unparalleled progress and development.
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I think I made the wrong career choice
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Values unrelated to modern reality are not just electorally hopeless, the values themselves become devalued. They have no purchase on the real world.
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You don't have to keep looking at the future foreign policy in terms, simply, of the past.
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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.
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When Europe and America stand together the world is a better and more prosperous place.
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Those who wish to cause religious conflict are small in number but often manage to dominate the headline.
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If we take all this actions and if it turns out not be true, we have reduced pollution and have better ways to live, the downside is very small. The other way around, and we don’t act, and it turns out to be true, then we have betrayed future generations and we don’t have the right to do that.
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After the terrible events of last week, there is still the shock and disbelief there is anger there is fear but there is also, throughout the world, a profound sense of solidarity there is courage there is a surging of the human spirit.
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One of the most important things in politics is you've got to keep your mind infinitely curious and alive to what is happening differently.
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In Downing Street they called me 'Boss'. Civil servants would always call me 'Prime Minister'.
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I still think there is a residual desire amongst the majority of the public to be given a proper solution.
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The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge.
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My course has never been about triangulation, and neither, really, is Bill Clinton's. It's not - it's about applying your values to the future in a practical and unblinking way, and that is an ideological view that is every bit as strong as views from the left or from the right.
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If we don't act now, then we will go back to what has happened before and then of course the whole thing begins again and he carries on developing these weapons and these are dangerous weapons, particularly if they fall into the hands of terrorists who we know want to use these weapons if they can get them.
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I would've loved to have been in a band, but sadly I just wasn't good enough.
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I'm the f***ing Prime Minister!
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One thing I'm not sure of - and it's a very open question - is whether the type of politics that I represent really has had its day or not. Now I obviously believe passionately it hasn't, that it's still the answer and not the problem, and, you know, the evidence points both ways.
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What I don't know is whether there is a way politically that you can beat away these, some of these populist movements because in the end I don't think they really do provide answers. They ride the anger. But they don't really have the answers. Or whether this is an experiment we're just going to have to go through first.
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