Michael Gove Quotes

Someone like Boris Johnson is reluctant to answer questions about ambition because then the story becomes all about his ambition. Sure, he's got ambition - that's no secret at all. But also, he's very strongly motivated to try to get the kind of Brexit he believes in.

I have come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris [Johnson] cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead.

I really don't have tremendous political ambition. I have policy ambition.

The prime minister's job is to captain his team, his party and his government.

It's interesting to play a politician who gets stuff done.

Though my plans at the moment are vague, I can assure you that I'll never run for the Senate in New York.

First and foremost, when I think of him - I'm prejudiced; I worked for the guy for six and a half years - when I think of him, I think of him first and foremost as an idea politician.

You don’t become a statesman unless you are first a good politician.

A politician rises on the backs of his friends ... but it is through his enemies he will have to govern afterwards.

A politician is a person with whose politics you don't agree; if you agree with him, he is a statesman.

There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions. The Government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is that they are not even very good at politics, and they are entering too much into policy decisions. As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events, and not enough shaping of events. We give the impression of being in office but not in power. Far too many important decisions are made for 36 hours' publicity.

No man can be a politician except he be first a historian.

President Obama makes fantastic stump speeches, but putting together an actual agenda is more complicated.

The E.U. Referendum clearly divided us, and little has been done by those that lead us to bring us back together.

We need to work as hard as President Trump is working.

Jeb Bush, I appreciate you. You a leader. You a Bush.

Bill Clinton was a great politician. Bill Clinton loved a fight. He was willing to fight. But he also wanted to be loved. He wanted to be admired.

Campaigning is different from governing.

I do what I do. Barack Obama does what politicians do.

I like Macron a lot and I very much welcome him - particularly the fact that he made Europe one of the main topics of the election debate.

[on Brexit] It's time for change. I just hope the right people give the right leadership.

I believed we needed someone who would be able to build a team, lead and unite. I hoped that person would be Boris Johnson.

There's a very big difference between campaigning and governing.

I genuinely believe the next leader has to be somebody who sees the opportunity of leaving the EU and is completely determined to deliver on what the people have told us to do.

A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead 10 or 15 years.