John Howard quotes

Truth is absolute, truth is supreme, truth is never disposable in national political life. (John Howard)
The most important civil liberty... is to stay alive and to be free from violence and death... View quote
John Howard
I accept that in a free society you have to justify reductions in people's liberties. I accept that, bearing in mind my starting point is that the most important human right is the right to life... View quote
John Howard
I've never believed in lower wages. Never. Never believed in lower wages, I've never believed in lower wages as an economic instrument. View quote
John Howard
The 'black armband' view of our history reflects a belief that most Australian history since 1788 has been little more than a disgraceful story of imperialism, exploitation, racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination. I take a very different view. I believe that the balance sheet of our history is one of heroic achievement and that we have achieved much more as a nation of which we can be proud of than which we should be ashamed. View quote
John Howard
A conservative is someone who does not think he is morally superior to his grandfather. View quote
John Howard
I accept that climate change is a challenge, I accept the broad theory about global warming. I am sceptical about a lot of the more gloomy predictions. View quote
John Howard
I don't think it is wrong, racist, immoral or anything, for a country to say 'we will decide what the cultural identity and the cultural destiny of this country will be and nobody else. View quote
John Howard
There is much in American society which I admire, but I have long held the view that the absence of an effective safety net in that country means that too many needy citizens fall by the wayside. That is not the path that Australia will tread. Nor do we want the burdens of nanny state paternalism that now weigh down many economies in Europe. View quote
John Howard
In the end, young people are at risk of being disinherited from their community if that community lacks the courage and confidence to teach its history. View quote
John Howard
If I were running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory not only for [Barack] Obama but also for the Democrats. (John Howard)
I think when people talk about civil liberties, they sometimes forget that action taken to protect the citizen against physical violence and physical attack is a blow in favour and not a blow against civil liberties. View quote
John Howard
It's too much to expect in an academic setting that we should all agree, but it is not too much to expect discipline and unvarying civility. View quote
John Howard
I thank all of those who weren't born in this country for coming here and making a contribution to Australia. We are the least discriminatory country in the world, in my view. View quote
John Howard
Nobody should underestimate how much the world changed on the 11th of September 2001. View quote
John Howard
Leadership of the Liberal Party is a great honour, of which I remain profoundly conscious. It is, moreover, the unique gift of the party room. View quote
John Howard
I think history will judge him very harshly for not having seized the opportunity in the year 2000 to embrace the offer that was very courageously made by the then Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barack, which involved the Israelis agreeing to 90 per cent of what the Palestinians had wanted. View quote
John Howard
We spent too much time in the first half of the nineties pondering whether we had to become less European so we could become more Asian, whether we had to become less British so we could become more multicultural. We had this perpetual seminar on our national identity, contributed to overwhelmingly by the cultural dietitians. I never thought Australians had any doubt as to what their identity was. And I think we've moved on from all of that. View quote
John Howard
There's no way that a GST will ever be part of our policy... never ever, it's dead it was killed by the voters in the last election. View quote
John Howard
I don't think there's any reason on Earth why people should have access to automatic and semiautomatic weapons unless they're in the military or in the police. View quote
John Howard
In my estimation, there should always be a mixture of economic liberalism - which means small government, a great emphasis on markets - but also a certain degree of social conservatism, not to favor change unless that change is beneficial. So I describe myself as an economic liberal and a social conservative. (John Howard)
Terrorists oppose nations such as the United States and Australia not because of what we have done but because of who we are and because of the values that we hold in common. View quote
John Howard
Australians have made a lot of mistakes, we have treated Aboriginal people very badly, and we have our share of racists and bigots. But a lot of the agenda of the cultural Left in this country is basically that the past has been a disgrace, that we've achieved very little, we've become the most materialistic country in the world and that we're mean-spirited. We're pretty awful people and we should be ashamed of ourselves and start all over again. Well, I don't hold that view, and the overwhelming majority of Australians don't hold that view, and they reject it. View quote
John Howard
But we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come. View quote
John Howard
You can't fatten the pig on market day. View quote
John Howard