David Cameron Quotations

At a time when we're having to take such difficult decisions about how to cut back without damaging the things that matter the most, we should strain every sinew to cut error, waste and fraud.

I mean, I'm a conservative. I believe that, you know, if you borrow too much, you just build up debts for your children to pay off. You put pressure on interest rates. You put at risk your economy. That's the case in Britain. We're not a reserve currency, so we need to get on and deal with this issue.

After the Berlin Wall came down I visited that city and I will never forget it. The abandoned checkpoints. The sense of excitement about the future. The knowledge that a great continent was coming together. Healing those wounds of our history is the central story of the European Union.

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

We have the character of an island nation: independent, forthright, passionate in defence of our sovereignty. We can no more change this British sensibility than we can drain the English Channel. And because of this sensibility, we come to the European Union with a frame of mind that is more practical than emotional.

In a global race, can we really justify the huge number of expensive peripheral European institutions? Can we justify a commission that gets ever larger? Can we carry on with an organisation that has a multibillion pound budget but not enough focus on controlling spending and shutting down programmes that haven't worked?

People are increasingly frustrated that decisions taken further and further away from them mean their living standards are slashed through enforced austerity or their taxes are used to bail out governments on the other side of the continent.

The EU must be able to act with the speed and flexibility of a network, not the cumbersome rigidity of a bloc. We must not be weighed down by an insistence on a one size fits all approach which implies that all countries want the same level of integration. The fact is that they don't and we shouldn't assert that they do.

Let me completely condemn these sickening scenes; scenes of looting, scenes of vandalism, scenes of thieving, scenes of people attacking police, of people even attacking firefighters. This is criminality pure and simple and it has to be confronted.

It does not seem to me that the steps which would be needed to make Britain - and others - more comfortable in their relationship in the European Union are inherently so outlandish or unreasonable.

Today, hundreds of millions dwell in freedom, from the Baltic to the Adriatic, from the Western Approaches to the Aegean. And while we must never take this for granted, the first purpose of the European Union - to secure peace - has been achieved and we should pay tribute to all those in the EU, alongside Nato, who made that happen.

The political system is broken, the economy is broken and so is society. That is why people are so depressed about the state of our country.

Christmas gives us the opportunity to pause and reflect on the important things around us - a time when we can look back on the year that has passed and prepare for the year ahead.

On the one hand we have got to ask, are there some areas of universal benefits that are no longer affordable? But on the other hand let us look at the issue of dependency where we have trapped people in poverty through the extent of welfare that they have.

I am not a British isolationist. I don't just want a better deal for Britain. I want a better deal for Europe too.

When you’re taking the country through difficult times and difficult decisions you’ve got to take the country with you. That means permanently trying to make the argument that what you’re doing is fair and seen to be fair.

People feel that the EU is heading in a direction that they never signed up to. They resent the interference in our national life by what they see as unnecessary rules and regulation. And they wonder what the point of it all is. Put simply, many ask 'why can't we just have what we voted to join - a common market?'

Half a century ago, the amazing courage of Rosa Parks, the visionary leadership of Martin Luther King, and the inspirational actions of the civil rights movement led politicians to write equality into the law and make real the promise of America for all her citizens.

More of the same will just produce more of the same: less competitiveness, less growth, fewer jobs.

Taken as a whole, Europe's share of world output is projected to fall by almost a third in the next two decades. This is the competitiveness challenge - and much of our weakness in meeting it is self-inflicted. Complex rules restricting our labour markets are not some naturally occurring phenomenon.

If we are going to try to get across to the poorest people in the world that we care about their plight and we want them to join one world with the rest of us, we have got to make promises and keep promises.

I have no time for those who say there is no way Scotland could go it alone. I know first-hand the contribution Scotland and Scots make to Britain's success - so for me there's no question about whether Scotland could be an independent nation.

What we're putting forward is the most radical reform of the welfare state... for 60 years. I think it will have a transformative effect in making sure that everyone is better off in work and better off working rather than on benefits.

We will say to people that if you can work, and if you want to work, we will do everything we can to help you. We will give you the training, we will give you the support, we will give you the advice to get you going and get you back at work.

I think we need to just be very clear about what we're trying to do in Afghanistan. Frankly, we're not trying to create the perfect democracy. We're never going to create some ideal society. We are simply there for our own national security.

You do not have to be an economist to know that putting up the cost of employing someone is a pretty barking thing to do when you're trying to get out of a recession.

There's another way we are getting behind business - by sorting out the banks. Taxpayers bailed you out. Now it's time for you to repay the favour and start lending to Britain's small businesses.

Our participation in the single market, and our ability to help set its rules is the principal reason for our membership of the EU. So it is a vital interest for us to protect the integrity and fairness of the single market for all its members.

I watched, for the 17th and hopefully the last time, The 'Guns of Navarone' on New Year's Eve. I always watch just in case the explosives don't go off in the end. You have to watch the end, just to make sure it's OK.

Countries are different. They make different choices. We cannot harmonise everything.

I know the British people and they are not passengers - they are drivers.

There is a growing frustration that the EU is seen as something that is done to people rather than acting on their behalf. And this is being intensified by the very solutions required to resolve the economic problems.

If we left the European Union, it would be a one-way ticket, not a return. So we will have time for a proper, reasoned debate. At the end of that debate you, the British people, will decide.

Because with courage and conviction I believe we can deliver a more flexible, adaptable and open European Union in which the interests and ambitions of all its members can be met.

I don't just want a better deal for Britain. I want a better deal for Europe too. So I speak as British prime minister with a positive vision for the future of the European Union. A future in which Britain wants, and should want, to play a committed and active part.

We need the Chinese to - you know, spend more, save less - consume more and not be so focused on exports. There are big changes we need in the world.

I want completing the single market to be our driving mission. I want us to be at the forefront of transformative trade deals with the US, Japan and India as part of the drive towards global free trade. And I want us to be pushing to exempt Europe's smallest entrepreneurial companies from more EU directives.

I don't want to be Prime Minister of England, I want to be Prime Minister of the whole of the United Kingdom.

The biggest danger to the European Union comes not from those who advocate change, but from those who denounce new thinking as heresy. In its long history Europe has experience of heretics who turned out to have a point.

From Caesar's legions to the Napoleonic wars. From the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the industrial revolution to the defeat of nazism. We have helped to write European history, and Europe has helped write ours.

I believe something very deeply. That Britain's national interest is best served in a flexible, adaptable and open European Union and that such a European Union is best with Britain in it.

But we will say something else. That for far too long in this country, people who can work, people who are able to work, and people who choose not to work: you cannot go on claiming welfare like you are now.

You will feel the full force of the law and if you are old enough to commit these crimes you are old enough to face the punishments. And to these people I would say this: you are not only wrecking the lives of others, you are potentially wrecking your own life too.

If you can work and if you're offered a job and you don't take it, you cannot continue to claim benefits. It will be extremely tough.

For me, and I suspect for lots of other people too, bad things actually sometimes make you think more about faith and the fact that you're not facing these things on your own.

One of the pleas you get when you're talking to the tourist industry or the energy industry or the whoever is, 'Please, can we just have the same minister for longer than five minutes?'

What Churchill described as the twin marauders of war and tyranny have been almost entirely banished from our continent. Today, hundreds of millions dwell in freedom, from the Baltic to the Adriatic, from the Western Approaches to the Aegean.

Britain is not in the single currency, and we're not going to be. But we all need the eurozone to have the right governance and structures to secure a successful currency for the long term.

I think it true that, you know, sometimes things start to change even before a government changes and, actually, I think you can begin to see even the Labour machine beginning to understand that it has become over-reliant on targets and processes, that local governments have been over-bossed and bullied.

We spend billions of pounds on welfare, yet millions are trapped on welfare. It's not worth their while going into work.

Yes, America must do the right thing, but to provide moral leadership, America must do it in the right way, too.

It is vital that we get these policies right as we take forward our plans to drive down the deficit and transform our economy.

There is not, in my view, a single European demos.

Edward Heath and Richard Nixon took personal awkwardness with each other to new and excruciating levels.

Competitiveness demands flexibility, choice and openness - or Europe will fetch up in a no-man's land between the rising economies of Asia and market-driven North America.

Cap the well, yes. Clear up the mess, yes. Make compensation - yes, absolutely. But would it be right to have legislation that independently targets BP rather than other companies? I don't think that - would be right.

Now that I have won, we will change.

Now they'll know they are with the L.A. Galaxy or D.C. United.

Many of those people carrying those placards were clearly inciting violence or inciting hatred and that is against the law. It does not need any new glorification laws.

Selfless duty. A rock of stability. Integrity. The highest standards in every respect.

I would say it is more homely than chi-chi but all the more charming for that,

The only thing that's been disrupted are sleep patterns around here. We've all been working 16 or 18 hours a day, and either you don't get enough sleep when you try, or you stay awake wondering what needs to be done next.

But equally we stand by every word. We're not going to run away from it.

He will bring his influence to bear, in order to help us to go in the direction that he and we both want to go.

His private affair is a private matter. Clearly he looks a fool but our job in opposition is to call him to account on his ministerial record.

Whatever happened to no reverse gear? Whatever happened to the historic turning point? If you keep turning it's not going to be very historic.

He has presided over systemic failure, he's failed to deal with it. He cannot give the Home Office the leadership it so badly needs.

Jose is a true goal scorer that will help improve our offense tremendously. We are very excited about having Jose join our program this year. We know he can work in our system and have great success.

Look at the economy of today. I go to the store and see people on fixed incomes. It hits home; they're my neighbors, too. Why would I want to charge someone an extra $25 a month?

I want us to give to this country a modern, compassionate Conservatism that is right for our times.

Our clients want it. It will outweigh the negatives. A lot of clubs fail to market their club.

It does not need any new glorification laws. The things they are inciting people to do are against the law today.

I think the prime minister should bring forward his reshuffle and make these arrangements and say goodbye to Charles Clarke.

Those who believe that pressure for deeper integration in Europe has somehow gone away are wrong,

We have a massive mountain to climb if we're to win the next election.

We will reapply immediately with the new site plan. It's our due diligence to maximize this piece of plan.

We'll be able to comply. But now we're working to take it a step further.

Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us. Society is stronger when we make vows to each other and we support each other. I don't support gay marriage in spite of being a conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a conservative.

For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone.

I like democracy. I like to be able to throw out my political leaders when they get things wrong, and we don't get to do that with Brussels.

Simply asking the British people to carry on accepting a European settlement over which they have had little choice is a path to ensuring that when the question is finally put - and at some stage it will have to be - it is much more likely that the British people will reject the EU.

It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money, and it's time we focused not just on GDP, but on GWB - general well-being

Lots of people call me Dave, my mum calls me David, my wife calls me Dave, I don't really notice what people call me.

Over the longer term, the institutions and powers of the EU will continue to expand and certain policymaking powers, heretofore vested in the member states, will be delegated or transferred to, or pooled and shared with EU institutions. As a result, the sovereignty of the member states will increasingly be eroded.

Corruption is one of the greatest enemies of progress in our time. It is the cancer at the heart of so many of the world's problems.

I intend to end the something for nothing culture

The last thing I'd say is that you can achieve a lot of things in politics. You can get a lot of things done. And that, in the end - the public service, the national interest: that is what it's all about. Nothing is really impossible if you put your mind to it. After all, as I once said: I was the future once.

It would be wrong to suggest that Scotland could not be another such successful, independent country.

You can be walking down the street for a chat, but until you've got the selfie out of the way, people aren't ready to talk.

It's not just other countries in Europe having a say over what we do. It's unelected bureaucrats in Brussels on sort of six-figure, huge salaries telling us how we run our country despite having never stood for an election themselves.

Government has the power to help improve well-being

You've taxed too much, borrowed too much and are a roadblock to reform.

It’s probably the most unpopular policy I’m responsible for. I know it is very unpopular, culling badgers. But I believe it is the right thing to do. You have to make choices as a politician. Sometimes it means doing something you know people don’t like.

I believe man-made climate change is one of the most serious threats that this country and this world face.

It's time to place the market within a moral framework - even if that means standing up to companies who make life harder for parents and families.

Billions raised, billions spent. No idea where the money has gone. With a record like that the chancellor should be running for treasurer of the Labour Party.

No treaty should be ratified without consulting the British people in a referendum

We must consider teaching the Egyptian revolution in schools.

I mean UKIP, I mean it's just a sort of, you know, bunch of fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists, basically.

In a race for limited resources, it is the energy efficient that will win the race