Tony Blair Quotes

There is a myth that though we love freedom, others don’t---that our attachment to freedom is a product of our culture---that freedom, democracy, human rights, the rule of law are American values or Western values. Member of Congress, they are not Western values. They are universal values of the human spirit.

Anywhere, anytime ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same: freedom, not tyranny; democracy, not dictatorship; the rule of law, not the rule of the secret police.

The price of freedom is less than the cost of repression.

… by a free country I mean a country where people are allowed, so long as they do not hurt their neighbors, to do as they like. I do not mean a country where six men may make five men do exactly as they like. That is not my notion of freedom.

If a nation wishes, it can have both free elections and slavery.

A country that goes out of its way to imprison the innocent has no business preaching democracy to the world.

The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Freedom is contagious. That's why despots fear it so much.

You can't, in the 21st century, continue to live in a system where people live under martial law for 30 years.

Getting rid of the dictator is only a first step in establishing a free society. The dictatorship must also be disassembled.

Because if you lived, as I did, several years under Nazi totalitarianism, and then 20 years in communist totalitarianism, you would certainly realize how precious freedom is, and how easy it is to lose your freedom.

Two things form the bedrock of any open society - freedom of expression and rule of law. If you don't have those things, you don't have a free country.

Japan and Australia share the universal values of freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and fundamental human rights.

I wholeheartedly support the aspirations of the Ukrainian people for a democratic, free and just society where the rule of law prevails without corruption or government violence directed against citizens.

I have no desire to go in for tyranny or to play the part of King Charles. I hate tyranny in any field of human activity.

It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.

You can't become a dictator through checks and balances.

It is from weakness that people reach for dictators and concentrated government power. Only the strong can be free. And only the productive can be strong.

Freedom's skeptics must understand that the democracy that hates you is less dangerous than the dictator who loves you.

We must be ever vigilant against those who would strong arm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into a dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends be avoiding these beginnings.

There is a very long history of oppression in the Arab world, particularly in the states he mentions: Iran, Iraq, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, as well as in Sudan and Tunisia. These regimes are not based on democracy and their legitimacy comes from military dictatorships or inherited systems. The basic right of an individual to voice his or her opinion is not granted in any kind of form in the Arab world.

Protect the people from the oppression of dictatorships.

We have seen today a gallant, civilized and democratic people betrayed and handed over to a ruthless despotism.

Because we are free we can never be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere.

The difference between being out of step with a dictator and being out of step with the democratic majority is practically negligible. The important thing is to be in step.