Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Boris Johnson
210 quotes
“The tragedy of the stooge is that even if he thinks this through, he wants so much to believe that his relationship with the candidate is special that he shuts out the truth. The terrible art of the candidate is to coddle the self-deception of the stooge.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an essay entitled "Politics" on his campaign for the presidency, published in 1988 in The Oxford Myth (Weidenfeld & Nicholson), a book edited by Rachel Johnson, his sister, as quoted in Andrew Gimson Boris: The Adv…
“I accused men of being responsible for a social breakdown which is costing us all, as taxpayers, £9.1 billion per year, and which is producing a generation of ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With £90 billion currently spent on welfare, the great economic issues of our time are social. They are moral. And yet the Government is virtually incapacitated from utterance by its own bumbling.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The modern British male is useless. If he is blue collar, he is likely to be drunk, criminal, aimless, feckless and hopeless, and perhaps claiming to suffer from low self-esteem brought on by unemployment. If he is white collar, he is likely to be little better.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Something must be found, first, to restore women's desire to be married. That means addressing the feebleness of the modern Briton, his reluctance or inability to take control of his woman and be head of a household.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The male sex is to blame for the appalling proliferation of single mothers" The Spectator (19 August 1995).
“Weep O ye shirt-makers of Jermyn Street ye Cool Britannia tailors and whatever exists of human finer feeling In the Ministry of Sound, the tank-topped bumboys blub into their Pils. In the delicatessens of Elgin Crescent the sawdust is sodden with tears For months years Carla Powell will go into mourning her plumage as black as night For Mandy is dead dead ere his prime!”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: He Lived by the spin, he died by the spin" The Daily Telegraph (24 December 1998), p. 16
“On the other hand we don’t want our children being taught some rubbish about homosexual marriage being the same as normal marriage and that is why I am more than happy to support Section 28 ...”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Dome is wonderful: it explains Blair's vacuity" The Daily Telegraph (27 January 2000), p. 28
“Labour's appalling agenda, encouraging the teaching of homosexuality in schools, and all the rest of it.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Spectator (15 April 2000)
“Dark forces dragged me away from the keyboard, swirling forces of irresistible intensity and power.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A wise guy playing the fool to win", The Sunday Times (16 July 2000), p. 17.
“If you see anyone who is obeying the law, apart from the odd motorised rickshaw, please give me a ring. The national speed limit is, de facto, 99mph, because everyone knows that you lose your licence at 100mph. The law of the land is disregarded by good people, held in contempt by Middle England, and scorned by no less a person than Jack Straw, who saw fit to scream through the sound barrier when he was Home Secretary.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yes, cannabis is dangerous, but no more than other perfectly legal drugs. It's time for a rethink, and the Tory party - the funkiest, most jiving party on Earth - is where it's happening.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No one obeys the speed limit except a motorised rickshaw", The Daily Telegraph, 12 July 2001, p. 27.
“Ok, I said to myself as I sighted the bird down the end of the gun. This time, my fine feathered friend, there is no escape.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving picaninnies; and one can imagine that Blair, twice victor abroad but enmired at home, is similarly seduced by foreign politeness. They say he is shortly off to the Congo. No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in Watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: If Blair's so good at running the Congo, let him stay there" The Daily Telegraph (10 January 2002)
“I don't see why people are so snooty about Channel 5. It has some respectable documentaries about the Second World War. It also devotes considerable airtime to investigations into lap dancing, and other related and vital subjects.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What has the BBC come to? Toilets, that's what", The Daily Telegraph (14 March 2002), p. 29.
“We are confident in our story and will be fighting this all the way. I am very sorry that Alastair Campbell has taken this decision but I can see that he got his tits in the wringer.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Catherine Macleod, "Angry Blair takes on press", The Herald (Glasgow), 24 April 2002, p. 1.
“Nor do I propose to defend the right to talk on a mobile while driving a car, though I don't believe that is necessarily any more dangerous than the many other risky things that people do with their free hands while driving - nose-picking, reading the paper, studying the A-Z, beating the children, and so on.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To the lady who berated me, I say: on your bike", The Daily Telegraph (1 August 2002), p. 21.
“It is hard to think of a measure that the Government could have brought to the House that I could support more unreservedly and with greater pleasure than this Bill to expand the European Union. To sum up my response, I would merely say, "And about time too.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am not by any means an ultra-Eurosceptic. In some ways, I am a bit of a fan of the European Union. If we did not have one, we would invent something like it—some means of association between the sovereign states of Europe, perhaps an organisation in Brussels—overnight.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 1021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From his contribution during a debate (21 May 2003) on the "European Union (Accessions) Bill" Hansard HC vol 405 cc. 1021-1121, 1080, 1082
“I forgot that to rely on a train, in Blair's Britain, is to engage in a crapshoot with the devil.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A horse is a safer bet than the trains", The Daily Telegraph, 3 July 2003, p. 22.
“I have as much chance of becoming Prime Minister as of being decapitated by a frisbee or of finding Elvis.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ephraim Hardcastle, Daily Mail, 22 July 2003, p. 13.
“The dreadful truth is that when people come to see their MP, they have run out of better ideas.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What's wrong with 40 Liverpool Road?", The Daily Telegraph, 18 September 2003, p. 24.
“The Lib Dems are not just empty. They are a void within a vacuum surrounded by a vast inanition.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The least said about Lib Dems, the better", The Daily Telegraph, 25 September 2003, p. 24.
“I could not fail to disagree with you less.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2004 winner of the Foot in Mouth Award from the Plain English Campaign, for his comment on the 12 December 2003 edition of Have I Got News For You
“Not even Mr Blair has been able to erode the unions conviction that we all have a “right” to a minimum wage... Both the minimum wage and the Social Charter would palpably destroy jobs.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any seat would be mad not to take him. He's a terrific chap.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Keeping it in the family", The Daily Telegraph, 23 January 2004, p. 29.
“It is just flipping unbelievable. He is a mixture of Harry Houdini and a greased piglet. He is barely human in his elusiveness. Nailing Blair is like trying to pin jelly to a wall.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The BBC was doing its job - bring back Gilligan", The Daily Telegraph, 29 January 2004, p. 21.
“As snow-jobs go, this beats the Himalayas.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The BBC was doing its job - bring back Gilligan", The Daily Telegraph, 29 January 2004, p. 21.
“That is the best case for Bush; that, among other things, he liberated Iraq. It is good enough for me.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Daily Telegraph 26 February 2004
“Some readers will no doubt say that a devil is inside me; and though my faith is a bit like Magic FM in the Chilterns, in that the signal comes and goes, I can only hope that isn't so.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What's so funny about the Passion?", The Daily Telegraph, 4 March 2004, p. 24.
“If Amsterdam or Leningrad vie for the title of Venice of the North, then Venice - what compliment is high enough? Venice, with all her civilisation and ancient beauty, Venice with her addiction to curious aquatic means of transport, yes, my friends, Venice is the Henley of the South.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Paying through the Doge for Europe", The Daily Telegraph, 11 March 2004, p. 22.
“[On Tony Blair] He's lost the plot, people tell me. He's drifting rudderless in the wide Sargasso Sea of New Labour's ideological vacuum.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Blair dead in the water? No such luck", The Daily Telegraph, 29 April 2004, p. 24.
“Look the point is ... er, what is the point? It is a tough job but somebody has got to do it.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Toby Helm, "Boris Johnson named shadow arts minister", The Daily Telegraph, 7 May 2004, p. 12.
“It was a stellar performance. I may as well give up now and make way for an older man.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hickey, The Express, 12 May 2004.
“There is absolutely no one, apart from yourself, who can prevent you, in the middle of the night, from sneaking down to tidy up the edges of that hunk of cheese at the back of the fridge.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Face it: it's all your own fat fault", The Daily Telegraph, 27 May 2004, p. 24.
“My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: You ask the questions", The Independent, 17 June 2004, p. 7.
“I didn't see it, but it sounds barbaric. It's become like cock-fighting: poor dumb brutes being set upon each other by conniving television producers.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: David Smith, "Focus: Big Brother brawl", The Observer, 20 June 2004, p. 17.
“Try as I might, I could not look at an overhead projection of a growth profit matrix, and stay conscious.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Beth Pearson, "Has Howard got news for Boris?", The Herald (Glasgow), 13 November 2004, p. 15.
“I have not had an affair with Petronella. It is complete balderdash. It is an inverted pyramid of piffle. It is all completely untrue and ludicrous conjecture. I am amazed people can write this drivel.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Simon Walters, "Boris, Petsy and a 'pyramid of piffle'", Mail on Sunday, 7 November 2004, p. 7.
“Tremendous, little short of superb. On cracking form.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: David Charter, Joanna Bale, "Tories suggest door will open for Boris Johnson to return", The Times, 15 November 2004, p. 7.
“I advise you all very strongly - go for a run, get some exercise, and have a beautiful day.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Valentine Low, "Shiver me timbers Boris", Evening Standard, 15 November 2004, p. 3.
“Nothing excites compassion, in friend and foe alike, as much as the sight of you ker-splonked on the Tarmac with your propeller buried six feet under.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Trust me, being sacked isn't all bad", The Daily Telegraph, 2 December 2004, p. 26.
“My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Trust me, being sacked isn't all bad", The Daily Telegraph, 2 December 2004, p. 26.
“But here's old Ken - he's been crass, he's been insensitive and thuggish and brutal in his language - but I don't think actually if you read what he said, although it was extraordinary and rude, I don't think he was actually anti-Semitic.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quotes of the Day", The Times, 18 February 2005, p. 2.
“Howard is a dynamic performer on many levels. There you are. He sent me to Liverpool. Marvellous place. Howard was the most effective Home Secretary since Peel. Hang on, was Peel Home Secretary?”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ben Macintyre, "'Hello, I'm your MP. Actually no, I'm your candidate. Gosh'", The Times, 19 April 2005, p. 23.
“I'm having Sunday lunch with my family. I'm vigorously campaigning, inculcating my children in the benefits of a Tory government.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2-minute interview: Boris Johnson", The Guardian, 11 April 2005, p. 7.
“What we hate, what we fear, is being ignored.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Labour's cleaning up on the council tax", 21 April 2005, p. 24.
“I love tennis with a passion. I challenged Boris Becker to a match once and he said he was up for it but he never called back. I bet I could make him run around.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hickey, The Express, 21 March 2005.
“The proposed ban on incitement to "religious hatred" makes no sense unless it involves a ban on the Koran itself; and that would be pretty absurd, when you consider that the Bill's intention is to fight Islamophobia.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Daily Telegraph 21 July 2005
“I'm backing David Cameron's campaign out of pure, cynical self-interest.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conference Diary", The Independent, 5 October 2005, p. 7.
“I think I was once given cocaine but I sneezed so it didn't go up my nose. In fact, it may have been icing sugar.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Londoner's Diary", Evening Standard, 17 October 2005, p. 15.