The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations

Book excerpt: This revised new edition, now available as a handy pocket-sized paperback, provides more than 4,500 quotations, covering the people, events, and ideas of some 2,500 years of politics: the inspiring speeches and the disastrous gaffes. Antony Jay has selected the best sayings of and aboutpoliticians both past and present, ranging from Karl Marx to George W. Bush and Elizabeth I to Ken Livingstone, and touching on subjects as diverse as warfare, nationalism, honesty, and the ever-sensitive issue of taxation. Newspaper headlines, Slogans, and other special categories are groupedtogether for easier access, and an extensive index helps you to find out who really said that half-remembered phrase. With the addition of Sound bites of 2000-4, events covered include the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the enlargement of the EuropeanUnion.Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water, the sharks are circling again.Anonymous British Cabinet Minister on the forthcoming report of the European ConventionStates like these...constitute an axis of evil.George W. BushI wasn't even in the index.Edwina Currie, on John Major's autobiographyYou know what some people call us: the nasty party.Theresa MayA good day to bury bad news.Summary of Jo Moore's email of 11 September 2001You don't look tall if you surround yourself by short grasses.Michael Portillo on Iain Duncan SmithEntitlement cards will not be compulsory, but everyone will have to have one.John PrescottThere is no list, and Syria isn't on it.Jack Straw