David Cameron famous quotes

Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us. Society is stronger when we make vows to each other and we support each other. I don't support gay marriage in spite of being a conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a conservative.
-- David Cameron

#Believe #Gay #Ties

For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone.
-- David Cameron

#Law #Long #Citizens

If you can work and if you're offered a job and you don't take it, you cannot continue to claim benefits. It will be extremely tough.
-- David Cameron

#Jobs #Benefits #Tough

I intend to end the something for nothing culture
-- David Cameron

#Culture #Ends

I know the British people and they are not passengers - they are drivers.
-- David Cameron

#People #British #Passengers

It would be wrong to suggest that Scotland could not be another such successful, independent country.
-- David Cameron

#Country #Independent #Successful

You do not have to be an economist to know that putting up the cost of employing someone is a pretty barking thing to do when you're trying to get out of a recession.
-- David Cameron

#Trying #Cost #Economist

Edward Heath and Richard Nixon took personal awkwardness with each other to new and excruciating levels.
-- David Cameron

#Levels #Awkwardness

I am not a British isolationist. I don't just want a better deal for Britain. I want a better deal for Europe too.
-- David Cameron

#Europe #Want #British

I don't want to be Prime Minister of England, I want to be Prime Minister of the whole of the United Kingdom.
-- David Cameron

#Want #Kingdoms #England

It is vital that we get these policies right as we take forward our plans to drive down the deficit and transform our economy.
-- David Cameron

#Transformation #Economy #Plans

The political system is broken, the economy is broken and so is society. That is why people are so depressed about the state of our country.
-- David Cameron

#Country #People #Broken

We need the Chinese to - you know, spend more, save less - consume more and not be so focused on exports. There are big changes we need in the world.
-- David Cameron

#Chinese #Needs #World

Countries are different. They make different choices. We cannot harmonise everything.
-- David Cameron

#Country #Choices #Different

If we are going to try to get across to the poorest people in the world that we care about their plight and we want them to join one world with the rest of us, we have got to make promises and keep promises.
-- David Cameron

#People #Promise #Trying

I mean, I'm a conservative. I believe that, you know, if you borrow too much, you just build up debts for your children to pay off. You put pressure on interest rates. You put at risk your economy. That's the case in Britain. We're not a reserve currency, so we need to get on and deal with this issue.
-- David Cameron

#Children #Believe #Mean

But we will say something else. That for far too long in this country, people who can work, people who are able to work, and people who choose not to work: you cannot go on claiming welfare like you are now.
-- David Cameron

#Country #Long #People

Christmas gives us the opportunity to pause and reflect on the important things around us - a time when we can look back on the year that has passed and prepare for the year ahead.
-- David Cameron

#Christmas #Opportunity #Years

More of the same will just produce more of the same: less competitiveness, less growth, fewer jobs.
-- David Cameron

#Jobs #Growth #Produce

On the one hand we have got to ask, are there some areas of universal benefits that are no longer affordable? But on the other hand let us look at the issue of dependency where we have trapped people in poverty through the extent of welfare that they have.
-- David Cameron

#Hands #Issues #People

Britain is characterized not just by its independence but, above all, by its openness.
-- David Cameron

#Independence #Britain #Openness

No treaty should be ratified without consulting the British people in a referendum
-- David Cameron

#People #Should #British

It’s probably the most unpopular policy I’m responsible for. I know it is very unpopular, culling badgers. But I believe it is the right thing to do. You have to make choices as a politician. Sometimes it means doing something you know people don’t like.
-- David Cameron

#Believe #Mean #People

In a race for limited resources, it is the energy efficient that will win the race
-- David Cameron

#Winning #Race #Energy

The economies in Europe that will prosper, are those that are the greenest and the most energy efficient
-- David Cameron

#Europe #Energy #Economy

Far from being a drag on growth, making our energy sources more sustainable, our energy consumption more efficient, and our economy more resilient to energy price shocks - those things are a vital part of the growth and wealth that we need
-- David Cameron

#Growth #Energy #Needs

It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money, and it's time we focused not just on GDP, but on GWB - general well-being
-- David Cameron

#Gdp #More To Life #Well Being

We can't afford to waste time going slow on changing our party so now is not the time to put our foot on the brake. Now is the time to press on the accelerator.
-- David Cameron

#Party #Feet #Waste

What we’re putting forward is the most radical reform of the welfare state… for 60 years. I think it will have a transformative effect in making sure that everyone is better off in work and better off working rather than on benefits.
-- David Cameron

#Thinking #Years #Benefits

We cannot go on as we are with 2.6 million people on incapacity benefit, 500,000 of them are under 35. Are we really saying there are half a million people in this country under 35 who are simply too ill to work? I don’t think that’s right.
-- David Cameron

#Country #Thinking #People

When you’re taking the country through difficult times and difficult decisions you’ve got to take the country with you. That means permanently trying to make the argument that what you’re doing is fair and seen to be fair.
-- David Cameron

#Country #Mean #Decision

We all say in our own lives that money isn't everything. Love matters, friendships matter. My relationship with my kids matters. It shouldn't be a giant leap to take that thought and introduce it into political dialogue
-- David Cameron

#Love #Family #Happiness

We're all agreed that climate change is one of the greatest and most daunting challenges of our age. We have a moral imperative to act and act now.
-- David Cameron

#Challenges #Age #Energy

...if we all turned down the thermostat in our house by just one degree, we would save over £650 million worth of energy and nearly nine million tonnes of carbon emissions every year. That would be the equivalent of taking three million cars off our roads...we can bring about a Green Consumer Revolution in this country to improve our lives, enrich our economy and protect our environment.
-- David Cameron

#Country #Years #Car

I think in any organisation it's right to set out what you stand for, what you're fighting for and bring that together in one document so that people can see that the modern compassionate Conservative Party is in it for everybody - not just the rich
-- David Cameron

#Party #Fighting #Thinking

There should be no means of communication which we cannot read.
-- David Cameron

#Communication #Mean #Should

We must consider teaching the Egyptian revolution in schools.
-- David Cameron

#Teaching #School #Revolution

I want to talk about the internet, the impact it is having on the innocence of our children, how online ***** is corroding childhood and how, in the darkest corners of the internet, there are things going on that are a direct danger to our children, and that must be stamped out.
-- David Cameron

#Children #Impact #Childhood

Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.
-- David Cameron

#People #Flow #Prison

Look at me and think of Schwarzenegger.
-- David Cameron

#Thinking #Looks #Schwarzenegger

Lots of people call me Dave, my mum calls me David, my wife calls me Dave, I don't really notice what people call me.
-- David Cameron

#People #Wife #Dave

I think the prospect of bringing back grammar schools has always been wrong and I've never supported it. And I don't think any Conservative government would have done it.
-- David Cameron

#School #Thinking #Government

The driving force behind today's terrorist threat is Islamist fundamentalism. The struggle we are engaged in is, at root, ideological. During the last century a strain of Islamist thinking has developed which, like other totalitarianisms, such as Nazi-ism and Communism, offers its followers a form of redemption through violence.
-- David Cameron

#Struggle #Thinking #Roots

You've taxed too much, borrowed too much and are a roadblock to reform.
-- David Cameron

#Reform #Too Much #Roadblock

Billions raised, billions spent. No idea where the money has gone. With a record like that the chancellor should be running for treasurer of the Labour Party.
-- David Cameron

#Running #Party #Ideas

People are crying out for a Conservative Party that is decent, reasonable, common sense and in it for the long term of this country.
-- David Cameron

#Country #Party #Common Sense

I think it will help people have a better work-life balance, that's really important - that's the centre ground for me, it's the issues people care about in their lives.
-- David Cameron

#Thinking #Issues #People

In the past we used to think of poverty in absolute terms - meaning straightforward material deprivation... We need to think of poverty in relative terms - the fact that some people lack those things which others in society take for granted.
-- David Cameron

#Past #Thinking #People

When people's love is divided by law, it is the law that needs to change.
-- David Cameron

#Love Is #Law #People

There is not, in my view, a single European demos.
-- David Cameron

#Views #Demos

Easter is all about remembering the importance of change, responsibility, and doing the right thing for the good of our children.
-- David Cameron

#Easter #Children #Responsibility

I am Conservative to the core of my being, as those who know me best will testify.
-- David Cameron

#Conservative #Know Me

All those countries who keep their aid promises should be proud of what they've done
-- David Cameron

#Country #Promise #Done

I'm all for apprenticeships, but this is no time for a novice.
-- David Cameron

#Novices #Apprenticeship

I believe it is wrong to undermine public safety, and indeed public confidence in the concept of human rights, by allowing highly dangerous criminals and terrorists to trump the rights of the people of Britain to live in security and peace
-- David Cameron

#Believe #Rights #People

From Caesar's legions to the Napoleonic wars. From the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the industrial revolution to the defeat of nazism. We have helped to write European history, and Europe has helped write ours.
-- David Cameron

#War #Writing #Europe

Cap the well, yes. Clear up the mess, yes. Make compensation - yes, absolutely. But would it be right to have legislation that independently targets BP rather than other companies? I don't think that - would be right.
-- David Cameron

#Thinking #Would Be #Target

Britain is not in the single currency, and we're not going to be. But we all need the eurozone to have the right governance and structures to secure a successful currency for the long term.
-- David Cameron

#Successful #Long #Needs

After the Berlin Wall came down I visited that city and I will never forget it. The abandoned checkpoints. The sense of excitement about the future. The knowledge that a great continent was coming together. Healing those wounds of our history is the central story of the European Union.
-- David Cameron

#Wall #Healing #Cities

2012 has been an extraordinary year for our country. We cheered our Queen to the rafters with the Jubilee, showed the world what we're made of by staging the most spectacular Olympic and Paralympic Games ever and - let's not forget - punched way above our weight in the medals table.
-- David Cameron

#Country #Queens #Years

You will feel the full force of the law and if you are old enough to commit these crimes you are old enough to face the punishments. And to these people I would say this: you are not only wrecking the lives of others, you are potentially wrecking your own life too.
-- David Cameron

#Law #Punishment #People

We have the character of an island nation: independent, forthright, passionate in defence of our sovereignty. We can no more change this British sensibility than we can drain the English Channel. And because of this sensibility, we come to the European Union with a frame of mind that is more practical than emotional.
-- David Cameron

#Character #Independent #Emotional

We believe in a flexible union of free member states who share treaties and institutions and pursue together the ideal of co-operation, to represent and promote the values of European civilisation in the world, advance our shared interests by using our collective power to open markets, and to build a strong economic base across the whole of Europe.
-- David Cameron

#Strong #Believe #Europe

There is a growing frustration that the EU is seen as something that is done to people rather than acting on their behalf. And this is being intensified by the very solutions required to resolve the economic problems.
-- David Cameron

#Frustration #People #Acting

The EU must be able to act with the speed and flexibility of a network, not the cumbersome rigidity of a bloc. We must not be weighed down by an insistence on a one size fits all approach which implies that all countries want the same level of integration. The fact is that they don't and we shouldn't assert that they do.
-- David Cameron

#Country #Levels #Want

I believe something very deeply. That Britain's national interest is best served in a flexible, adaptable and open European Union and that such a European Union is best with Britain in it.
-- David Cameron

#Believe #Unions #Britain

I think it true that, you know, sometimes things start to change even before a government changes and, actually, I think you can begin to see even the Labour machine beginning to understand that it has become over-reliant on targets and processes, that local governments have been over-bossed and bullied.
-- David Cameron

#Thinking #Government #Target

Strong views exist on both sides but I believe MPs voting for gay people being able to marry too, is a step forward for our country.
-- David Cameron

#Country #Strong #Believe

Warm congratulations to my friend Barack Obama. Look forward to continuing to work together.
-- David Cameron

#Congratulations #Working Together #Looks

The prime minister says he has a vision for change, well put that to the people of the country.
-- David Cameron

#Country #People #Vision

What Churchill described as the twin marauders of war and tyranny have been almost entirely banished from our continent. Today, hundreds of millions dwell in freedom, from the Baltic to the Adriatic, from the Western Approaches to the Aegean.
-- David Cameron

#War #Today #Twins

Today, hundreds of millions dwell in freedom, from the Baltic to the Adriatic, from the Western Approaches to the Aegean. And while we must never take this for granted, the first purpose of the European Union - to secure peace - has been achieved and we should pay tribute to all those in the EU, alongside Nato, who made that happen.
-- David Cameron

#Purpose #Unions #Pay

There's another way we are getting behind business - by sorting out the banks. Taxpayers bailed you out. Now it's time for you to repay the favour and start lending to Britain's small businesses.
-- David Cameron

#Business #Way #Favour

Our participation in the single market, and our ability to help set its rules is the principal reason for our membership of the EU. So it is a vital interest for us to protect the integrity and fairness of the single market for all its members.
-- David Cameron

#Integrity #Membership #Helping

It does not seem to me that the steps which would be needed to make Britain - and others - more comfortable in their relationship in the European Union are inherently so outlandish or unreasonable.
-- David Cameron

#Steps #Doe #Would Be

If we left the European Union, it would be a one-way ticket, not a return. So we will have time for a proper, reasoned debate. At the end of that debate you, the British people, will decide.
-- David Cameron

#People #Would Be #Unions

I want completing the single market to be our driving mission. I want us to be at the forefront of transformative trade deals with the US, Japan and India as part of the drive towards global free trade. And I want us to be pushing to exempt Europe's smallest entrepreneurial companies from more EU directives.
-- David Cameron

#Japan #Europe #India

I think we need to just be very clear about what we're trying to do in Afghanistan. Frankly, we're not trying to create the perfect democracy. We're never going to create some ideal society. We are simply there for our own national security.
-- David Cameron

#Thinking #Perfect #Democracy

We will reflect the country we aspire to govern, and the sound of modern Britain is a complex harmony, not a male voice choir.
-- David Cameron

#Country #Voice #Sound

Competitiveness demands flexibility, choice and openness - or Europe will fetch up in a no-man's land between the rising economies of Asia and market-driven North America.
-- David Cameron

#Men #Europe #Land

Because with courage and conviction I believe we can deliver a more flexible, adaptable and open European Union in which the interests and ambitions of all its members can be met.
-- David Cameron

#Believe #Ambition #Unions

Yes, America must do the right thing, but to provide moral leadership, America must do it in the right way, too.
-- David Cameron

#America #Way #Moral

At a time when we're having to take such difficult decisions about how to cut back without damaging the things that matter the most, we should strain every sinew to cut error, waste and fraud.
-- David Cameron

#Cutting #Errors #Hype

I have no time for those who say there is no way Scotland could go it alone. I know first-hand the contribution Scotland and Scots make to Britain's success - so for me there's no question about whether Scotland could be an independent nation.
-- David Cameron

#Independent #Hands #Scotland

We spend billions of pounds on welfare, yet millions are trapped on welfare. It's not worth their while going into work.
-- David Cameron

#Pounds #Welfare #Billions

There is such a thing as society. It's just not the same thing as the state.
-- David Cameron

#States

I think it was right to remove Saddam Hussein. I think it was the right decision then and I still think it was right now.
-- David Cameron

#Thinking #Decision #Hussein

The biggest danger to the European Union comes not from those who advocate change, but from those who denounce new thinking as heresy. In its long history Europe has experience of heretics who turned out to have a point.
-- David Cameron

#Thinking #Europe #Long

Taken as a whole, Europe's share of world output is projected to fall by almost a third in the next two decades. This is the competitiveness challenge - and much of our weakness in meeting it is self-inflicted. Complex rules restricting our labour markets are not some naturally occurring phenomenon.
-- David Cameron

#Fall #Taken #Self

People feel that the EU is heading in a direction that they never signed up to. They resent the interference in our national life by what they see as unnecessary rules and regulation. And they wonder what the point of it all is. Put simply, many ask 'why can't we just have what we voted to join - a common market?'
-- David Cameron

#People #Regulation #Common

People are increasingly frustrated that decisions taken further and further away from them mean their living standards are slashed through enforced austerity or their taxes are used to bail out governments on the other side of the continent.
-- David Cameron

#Taken #Mean #Government

Let me completely condemn these sickening scenes; scenes of looting, scenes of vandalism, scenes of thieving, scenes of people attacking police, of people even attacking firefighters. This is criminality pure and simple and it has to be confronted.
-- David Cameron

#Simple #People #Firefighter

In a global race, can we really justify the huge number of expensive peripheral European institutions? Can we justify a commission that gets ever larger? Can we carry on with an organisation that has a multibillion pound budget but not enough focus on controlling spending and shutting down programmes that haven't worked?
-- David Cameron

#Race #Numbers #Focus

Half a century ago, the amazing courage of Rosa Parks, the visionary leadership of Martin Luther King, and the inspirational actions of the civil rights movement led politicians to write equality into the law and make real the promise of America for all her citizens.
-- David Cameron

#Leadership #Kings #Real

I don't just want a better deal for Britain. I want a better deal for Europe too. So I speak as British prime minister with a positive vision for the future of the European Union. A future in which Britain wants, and should want, to play a committed and active part.
-- David Cameron

#Europe #Play #Vision

I believe man-made climate change is one of the most serious threats that this country and this world face.
-- David Cameron

#Country #Believe #Men