All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.

It's the same each time with progress. First they ignore you, then they say you're mad, then dangerous, then there's a pause and then you can't find anyone who disagrees with you.

I am on the right wing of the middle of the road and with a strong radical bias.

Britain today is suffering from galloping obsolescence.

The Marxist analysis has got nothing to do with what happened in Stalin's Russia: it's like blaming Jesus Christ for the Inquisition in Spain.

Broadcasting is really too important to be left to the broadcasters.

Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure.

If you file your waste-paper basket for fifty years, you have a public library.

We are not just here to manage capitalism but to change society and to define its finer values.

A faith is something you die for, a doctrine is something you kill for. There is all the difference in the world.

Age does take it out of you, and I haven't the energy I had before. Sometimes I have breakfast and sit in this chair, and I wake up and it is lunchtime. In the past, the idea of sleeping through a morning would have horrified me, but you have to accept the limitations that old age imposes on you.

I believe the more difficult the circumstances, the more people will be inclined to trust those in charge at the moment.

I see myself as an old man and an unqualified teacher to the nation. I think being a teacher is probably the most important thing you can be in politics.

I'm not frightened about death. I don't know why, but I just feel that at a certain moment your switch is switched off, and that's it. And you can't do anything about it.

I've been a member of the Labour Party sixty five years, and I remain in it, but I think it's all about campaigning for justice and peace, and if you do that, you get a lot of support.

I've got four lovely children, ten lovely grandchildren, and I left parliament to devote more time to politics, and I think that what is really going on in Britain is a growing sense of alienation. People don't feel anyone listens to them.

I've had a very full life, and I've enjoyed it very much. I've learned a great deal and feel indebted to all the people who have worked so hard.

I've made every mistake - but mistakes are how you learn.

Making mistakes is part of life. The only things I would feel ashamed of would be if I had said things I hadn't believed in order to get on. Some politicians do do that.

My day rotates around my family. I am very lucky.

My filing system is messy but orderly.

Normally, people give up parliament because they want to do more business or spend more time with family. My wife said 'why don't you say you're giving up to devote more time to politics?'. And it is what I have done.

Someone comes every morning at nine o'clock to see if I am still alive. I do get lonely, yes, but I have the children who come and see me. I see all my children every week, and there are the grandchildren, too.

The exhaustion of old age is something people who are younger don't fully appreciate.

The uncut diaries are 16 million words. It's very tiring to do your diary every night before you go to bed.

Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure.

Encouragement is the most important thing in the world for young people rather than league tables which demoralise everyone.

Marxism is now a world faith and must be allowed to enter into a continuous dialogue with other world faiths, including religios faiths.

Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it... You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.

There are few ironclad rules of diplomacy but to one there is no exception. When an official reports that talks were useful, it can safely be concluded that nothing was accomplished.

Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock.

There is no diplomacy like candor.

Diplomacy in general does not resolve conflicts. Wars end not due to peace processes, but due to one side giving up.

Diplomacy is not an end in itself if it does not advance U.S. interests.

All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.

We must continue to pursue peace through diplomacy, but we must also not shrink from our responsibility through the option of strength. We must take advantage of internal resistance and change from within Iran to avert this path of mutual destruction.

You learn, just as you learn good manners, how to approach things with a certain amount of diplomacy.

English, once accepted as an international language, is no more secure than French has proved to be as the one and only accepted language of diplomacy or as Latin has proved to be as the international language of science.

Diplomacy means the art of nearly deceiving all your friends, but not quite deceiving all your enemies.

The safety of the republic being the supreme law, and Texas having offered us the key to the safety of our country from all foreign intrigues and diplomacy, I say accept the key... and bolt the door at once.

The war we are fighting today against terrorism is a multifaceted fight. We have to use every tool in our toolkit to wage this war - diplomacy, finance, intelligence, law enforcement, and of course, military power - and we are developing new tools as we go along.

I don't think that anybody should be ruling in or ruling out anything while we are conducting diplomacy.

Our dependence on foreign energy sources is our Achilles heel, not just in the realm of diplomacy, but in terms of our future as the world's economic leader.

Diplomacy is more than saying or doing the right things at the right time, it is avoiding saying or doing the wrong things at any time.

Humanitarian missions are little different from any other public enterprise, diplomacy included, which is susceptible of misinterpretation by the public, hence ultimately of failure.

I think if I had to do it over again, I'd do it the same way. I would just put more resources into getting the public diplomacy part much stronger than we were able to.