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
“Leaving the EU would be a win-win for all. The EU costs us a huge amount of money and subverts our democracy”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: EU exit 'win-win for us all' BBC News (11 March 2016)
“[The UK is] big enough and strong enough to stand on its own”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: EU exit 'win-win for us all', BBC News (11 March 2016)
“Would anyone in their right mind want to join the EU today?”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: EU exit 'win-win for us all', BBC News (11 March 2016)
“You look at the plan to increase the efforts to prop up the single currency with an ever denser system of integration, with more and more regulation about all sorts of social and economic issues which will impact directly on this country, I think the risk is increasingly in staying in the project. I think the best thing we can do is show a lead, show an example and strike out for freedom.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: EU exit 'win-win for us all', BBC News (11 March 2016)
“The EU is 50 years old, it is going in the wrong direction. It is time for real reform. The only way to get that is to leave.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: EU exit 'win-win for us all' BBC News (11 March 2016)
“We will be informed by our most important ally that it is in our interests to stay in the EU, no matter how flawed we may feel that organisation to be. Never mind the loss of sovereignty; never mind the expense and the bureaucracy and the uncontrolled immigration. The American view is very clear.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson urges Obama not to intervene in EU debate BBC News (14 March 2016)
“There was a young fellow from Ankara Who was a terrific wankerer Till he sowed his wild oats With the help of a goat But he didn't even stop to thankera.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson wins The Spectator’s President Erdogan Offensive Poetry competition, 18 May 2016.
Also quoted by: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
“Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically [...] The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods. But fundamentally what is lacking is the eternal problem, which is that there is no underlying loyalty to the idea of Europe. There is no single authority that anybody respects or understands. That is causing this massive democratic void.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: The EU wants a superstate, just as Hitler did" The Telegraph (15 May 2016).
“After we liberate ourselves from the shackles of Brussels we will be able to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs right across the UK.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: EU referendum: Kinnock urges young voters to prevent 'Brexit by default' BBC News (4 June 2016)
“Take back control of huge sums of money, 350 million pounds a week, and spend it on our priorities such as the NHS.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking during the ITV Referendum Debate (9 June 2016)
“Oh shit, we've got no plan. We haven’t thought about it. I didn’t think it would happen. Holy crap, what will we do?”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported comments after the vote for 'leave' in the EU referendum result (24 June 2016), as cited by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell in Johnson at 10: The Inside Story (Atlantic Books, 2023). Quote is from an extract …
“There is no need for haste about severing the UK's ties [with the EU]”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: David Cameron to quit after UK votes to leave EU, BBC News (24 June 2016)
“[The UK is] no less united... nor indeed any less European [following the decision to leave the EU].”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: David Cameron to quit after UK votes to leave EU BBC News (24 June 2016)
“It is vital now to see this [Brexit] moment for what it is. This is not a time to quail, it is not a crisis, nor should we see it as an excuse for wobbling or self-doubt, but it is a moment for hope and ambition for Britain. A time not to fight against the tide of history, but to take that tide at the flood, and sail on to fortune.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: During the announcement that he would not run to become Britain's prime minister. A reference to Brutus's "There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune" in Julius Caesar. (June 3…
“We can all spend an awfully long time going over lots of stuff that I've written over the last 30 years... all of which in my view have been taken out of context, but never mind... I'm afraid that there is such a rich thesaurus now of things that I have said that have been one way or another, through what alchemy I do not know, somehow misconstrued that it would take me too long to engage in a full global itinerary of apology to all concerned.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: in his first meeting with the press during visit by US Secretary of state John Kerry in July 2016 "Theresa May dodges question about Boris Johnson's use of racial slurs", Independent (July 20, 2016); "Kerry poker-faced …
“If Monsieur Hollande wants to administer punishment beatings to anybody who chooses to escape, rather in the manner of some World War Two movie, then I don't think that is the way forward. I think, actually, it's not in the interests of our friends and our partners.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: Boris Johnson warns against 'punishment beatings'" BBC News (18 January 2017)
“There is no plan for no deal because we are going to get a great deal,”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: EU can 'go whistle' over Brexit divorce bill, BBC News, 11 July 2017
“There's a group of UK business people, wonderful guys who want to invest in , on the coast, near where Gaddafi was actually captured and executed as some of you may have seen. And they literally have a brilliant vision to turn Sirte, with the help of the municipality of Sirte, to turn it into the next . The only thing they've got to do is clear the dead bodies away and then they'll be there.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Theresa May faces calls to sack Boris Johnson over Libya comments, in the Guardian; published October 4, 2017
“[At a Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee meeting on 1 November 2017] When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it. [Neither] Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe nor her family has been informed about what crime she has actually committed. And that I find extraordinary, incredible.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[In the Commons on 7 November 2017, after criticism his earlier comments might make Zaghari-Ratcliffe's position worse] My point was that I disagreed with the Iranian view that training journalists was a crime - not that I wanted to lend any credence to Iranian allegations that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been engaged in such activity. I accept that my remarks could have been clearer in that respect, and I'm glad to provide this clarification.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson sorry if Zaghari-Ratcliffe remarks 'caused anxiety', BBC News (7 November 2017).
“Ridiculous outcry over Toby Young. He will bring independence, rigour and caustic wit. Ideal man for job.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tweet (3 January 2018) on Young's appointment to the board of the Office for Students, the university regulator, as cited in "Toby Young tweets: the comments that led to his resignation" Evening Standard (8 January 2018…
“[The attack was] a sign [from President Putin that] no-one could escape the long arm of Russian revenge ... [The attack] was a sign that President Putin or the Russian state wanted to give to potential defectors in their own agencies: 'This is what happens to you if you decide to support a country with a different set of values. You can expect to be assassinated'.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Putin 'will use World Cup like Hitler's Olympics', agrees Johnson, BBC News, 21 March 2018
“If you do that you have to answer the question what next? What if the Iranians do rush for a nuclear weapon? Are we seriously saying that we are going to bomb those facilities at Fordo and Natanz? Is that really a realistic possibility? Or do we work round what we have got and push back on Iran together?”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Iran nuclear deal: Johnson courts Trump on Fox & Friends, BBC News, 7 May 2018
“[T]hrow the baby out with the bathwater”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Iran nuclear deal: Johnson courts Trump on Fox & Friends, BBC News, 7 May 2018
“If he can fix North Korea and if he can fix the Iran nuclear deal then I don't see why he is any less of a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize than Barack Obama, who got it before he even did anything,”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Iran nuclear deal: Johnson courts Trump on Fox & Friends, BBC News, 7 May 2018
“I don't see why he's any less of a candidate for the than Barack Obama.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: Why Trump could deserve Nobel Peace Prize (7 May 2018)
“[America wants to see] a confident free-trading Britain able to do its own deals”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: No 10's post-Brexit customs plans 'crazy', BBC News, 8 May 2018
“[A trade deal with America can not be achieved if the UK remained] in the lunar pull of Brussels”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: No 10's post-Brexit customs plans 'crazy', BBC News, 8 May 2018
“[A customs partnership would create] a whole new web of bureaucracy”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: No 10's post-Brexit customs plans 'crazy', BBC News, 8 May 2018
“[The Brexit] dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Theresa May's new-look cabinet meets amid Brexit turmoil BBC News (10 July 2018)
“If you tell me that the burka is oppressive, then I am with you. If you say that it is weird and bullying to expect women to cover their faces, then I totally agree – and I would add that I can find no scriptural authority for the practice in the Koran. I would go further and say that it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes; and I thoroughly dislike any attempt by any – invariably male – government to encourage such demonstrations of "modesty".”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If a constituent came to my MP’s surgery with her face obscured, I should feel fully entitled – like Jack Straw – to ask her to remove it so that I could talk to her properly. If a female student turned up at school or at a university lecture looking like a bank robber then ditto: those in authority should be allowed to converse openly with those that they are being asked to instruct.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am against a total ban because it is inevitably construed – rightly or wrongly – as being intended to make some point about Islam. If you go for a total ban, you play into the hands of those who want to politicise and dramatise the so-called clash of civilisations; and you fan the flames of grievance. You risk turning people into martyrs, and you risk a general crackdown on any public symbols of religious affiliation, and you may simply make the problem worse.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Denmark has got it wrong. Yes, the burka is oppressive and ridiculous – but that's still no reason to ban it" The Telegraph (5 August 2018)
“It [Theresa May's Chequers plan] is a humiliation. We look like a seven-stone weakling being comically bent out of shape by a 500lb gorilla.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson compares Chequers deal to 'suicide vest' BBC News (9 September 2018)
“Theresa May's Chequers plan for future relations with the EU would mean] abandoning our seat around the table in Brussels and continuing to accept the single market legislation”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson says May's Brexit plan 'worse than status quo' BBC News (11 September 2018)
“[There has been a] collective failure of government, and a collapse of will by the British establishment, to deliver on the mandate of the people.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson sets out his 'Super Canada' Brexit plan, BBC News, 28 September 2018
“[The Chequers proposals represented] the intellectual error of believing we can be half-in, half-out”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson sets out his 'Super Canada' Brexit plan, BBC News, 28 September 2018
“[A Super Canada deal would involve] zero tariffs and zero quotas [on all imports and exports]”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson sets out his 'Super Canada' Brexit plan, BBC News, 28 September 2018
“[A Super Canada deal would involve: mutual recognition agreements covering UK and EU regulations to ensure] conformity of goods with each other's standards”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson sets out his 'Super Canada' Brexit plan, BBC News, 28 September 2018
“[The UK should] chuck Chequers”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson sets out his 'Super Canada' Brexit plan, BBC News, 28 September 2018
“[There had been a] collective failure of government, and a collapse of will by the British establishment, to deliver on the mandate of the people”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson sets out his 'Super Canada' Brexit plan, BBC News, 28 September 2018
“[EU regulations would] cheat the electorate”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson sets out his 'Super Canada' Brexit plan, BBC News, 28 September 2018
“if we get it wrong we will be punished”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Theresa May on why Boris Johnson speech made her cross, BBC News, 2 October 2018
“[I am] grateful to the committee for recognising that there was no intention to mislead the House and that I had been completely transparent”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson apologises to MPs for failing to declare £52,000 in time, BBC News, 6 December 2018
“[I] didn't say anything about Turkey during the referendum. Since I made no remarks...I can't disown them”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: Did Boris Johnson talk Turkey during referendum campaign?, BBC News (18 January 2019)
“Take that [Irish border] backstop out, or at the very least give us a legally binding change - within the text of the agreement - that allows for the UK to come out [of the EU] of its own accord, and then we will be able to say that the agreement is imperfect but at least tolerable.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: May boxed into comfort zone as options disappear BBC News (21 January 2019)
“I think an awful lot of money, an awful lot of police time, now goes into these historic offences and all this malarkey and you know £60million I saw has been spaffed up the wall on some investigation into historic child abuse? What on earth is that going to do to protect the public now?”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: Historical Child Abuse Investigation Is "Spaffing Money Up The Wall" LBC (13 March 2019)
“The British people won't be scared into backing a woeful Brexit deal nobody voted for”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: Boris Johnson 'wrong on no-deal polling claim', BBC News, 12 April 2019
“We are being asked to vote for a customs union and a second referendum. The Bill is directly against our manifesto - and I will not vote for it. We can and must do better - and deliver what the people voted for.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: PM under fire over new Brexit plan BBC News (22 May 2019)
“We will leave the EU on 31 October, deal or no deal. The way to get a good deal is to prepare for a no deal.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tory leadership: Rivals clash over support for no-deal Brexit, BBC News (25 May 2019)