Douglas Hurd quotes

People are very interested in politics, they just don't like it labelled politics. (Douglas Hurd)
We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour. View quote
Douglas Hurd
Margaret Thatcher was fearful of German unification because she believed that this would bring an immediate and formidable increase of economic strength to a Germany which was already the strongest economic partner in Europe. View quote
Douglas Hurd
But Germany will always suffer, I fear, from the intensely dramatic character of the crimes of the Third Reich. View quote
Douglas Hurd
There are thus great swathes of the past where understanding is more important and reputable than judgement, because the principal actors performed in line with the ideas and values of that time, not of ours. View quote
Douglas Hurd
A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur. View quote
Douglas Hurd
Prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse. View quote
Douglas Hurd
People know they are lacking something, they are constantly wanting some kind of spiritual guidance. View quote
Douglas Hurd
History provides no precise guidelines. View quote
Douglas Hurd
We, Britain and Germany, can neither of us be happy about our handling of the Iraq war. View quote
Douglas Hurd
Wisely used history can give pleasure and provide us with a useful tool; but we should not become its slaves. (Douglas Hurd)
Men like Hitler and Stalin and their immediate lieutenants cannot plead in defence of their actions that these were justified by the accepted values of that time. View quote
Douglas Hurd
Margaret Thatcher, growing up in a bombed and battered Britain, derived a distrust which has grown with the years not just of Germany but of all continental Europe. View quote
Douglas Hurd
It is normal for politicians in all countries to profess themselves the pupils of history, anxious to draw the right lessons from her teaching. View quote
Douglas Hurd
No military timetable should compel war when a successful outcome, namely a disarmed Iraq may be feasible without war, for example by allowing more time to the UN inspectors. View quote
Douglas Hurd
The tragedy of 9/11 galvanised the American superpower into action, leaving us in Europe divided in its wake. View quote
Douglas Hurd
There is no consensus even today on the merits of Napoleon - and certainly no agreement on the rights and wrongs of the origins of the First World War. View quote
Douglas Hurd
It was essentially for self defence that we went to war in Afghanistan and would go to war in Iraq. View quote
Douglas Hurd
We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgement on the past. View quote
Douglas Hurd
It depends on how it is done but what we are drifting into, which is that people grow up without any sense of a spiritual dimension to life, is just impoverishing. View quote
Douglas Hurd
But it cannot follow that because weapons and troops are now being deployed we are bound to go to war. (Douglas Hurd)
Despite this lamentable lack of balance in our education I do not believe that either children or adults in my country are permeated by a widespread hostility to Germany. View quote
Douglas Hurd
I may be wrong in that, but not I think in putting the questions. In our modern democracy the government needs not a unanimous but a general support for war before it orders our forces to fight. View quote
Douglas Hurd
The first two Prime Ministers whom I served, Ted Heath and Margaret Thatcher drew strikingly different lessons from the Second World War. View quote
Douglas Hurd
There is nothing false or arrogant about German pride in German technical and business skills. View quote
Douglas Hurd