Boris Johnson Quotes

Part of the Brexit debate was about control, having a say over our laws and money and letting politicians stand up for what the people voted for, not signing away our sovereignty.

A world in which others controlled the course of their own development, would be a world in which the American system would be seriously endangered.

There were many reasons why people voted to leave the European Union in 2016. But my impression, having campaigned to remain in the E.U., is that above all else, people throughout this country sought to regain a feeling of control - not just of our laws, but over our lives too, and the people we elect into office.

The government should not present the anomaly which it now presents—a government the freest, perhaps the most democratic in the world with reference to local and domestic matters in which you rule yourselves as fully as any people in the world, while in your foreign affairs, your relations with other countries, whether peaceful or warlike, commercial, financial, or otherwise, you may have no more voice than the people of Japan.

The United Kingdom has committed the heresy of breaking the chains of the E.U. This is a signal victory for democracy. It is a slap in the face to the European system which was increasingly based on fear, blackmail, and lies.

To be honest, I am very worried about the possibility of the U.K. leaving the E.U. But of course, like in the case of Catalonia, we have to respect the right to decide of the British people on a relationship that part of the Brits consider is not satisfying enough.

The argument that won the Brexit campaign is the one that said take back control... which is another way of saying we want to control our destinies again. This is an existential issue for the whole of Europe, not just for the U.K., because this sentiment is not limited to the United Kingdom.

All we want is to carry out the greatest expression of a free democracy and vote on Catalonia's future. This is not about independence: it is about fundamental civil rights and the universal right of self-determination.

They get the faceless bureaucrats in Brussels and Strasbourg who have ruled and told the Brits how to live and making promises for them that their lives would get better and talking about a future based on globalism versus family and individual and local community. That's what Brexit was all about.

As a nation we have the right to decide our own affairs, to mould our own future. This does not pose any danger to anybody. Our nation is fully aware of the responsibility for its own fate in the complicated situation of the contemporary world.

By all means, let's have free trade and no trade barriers and a common market. But where did it all suddenly become about our own economic and political destiny being surrendered to Brussels with agendas that arguably have very little to do with the interests of the British people and British voters?

Empire and liberty.

In the 1999 resolution regarding Taiwan's future passed by the Democratic Progressive Party, it is stated very clearly that any change to the status quo of Taiwan must be decided by the people of Taiwan through referenda.

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

The world is not a big Red sea in which this country is being scuttled, but a vast arena of political upheaval, in which the quest for freedom, ever stronger, has overthrown the colonial empires of the past. It isn't a tidy world, nor is it a secure one. But it is one in which the United States set the revolutionary example.

Being a minority in a supergovernment [world government], the political, economic, and social control of our own country would ultimately pass from our own hands, and all the assurances of our fundamental institutions would be lost.

American interests dictate that we teach other peoples to govern themselves.

Sovereignty is not the birthright of a ruler. Every man, woman and child will shout 'Quit Kashmir'. The Kashmiri nation has expressed its will. I ask for a plebiscite on this question.

The declaration that our People are hostile to a government made by themselves, for themselves, and conducted by themselves, is an insult.

Any nation's right to form a government and an economic system of its own choosing is inalienable.... Any nation's attempt to dictate to other nations their form of government is indefensible.

People don't want to go back to the days, pre-referendum, when the Westminster establishment sidelined and ignored Scotland. They want Scotland's voice to be heard.

Europe should be a continent of nation states who are free trading, with our own identities, not a bunch of Eurocrats nobody voted for.

If you have a Tory government at Westminster that takes us out of Europe against our will, there may be people in Scotland who think, 'You know what, we might be better off independent.'

I think France should be free, independent, and be the cultural heart of the world because those play a balance in the world.

The arguments in the Brexit vote and in the American presidential campaign are about the same. In a friendly way, may I also give some advice to the American people to make the right choice when the moment comes.