"I didn't become leader to transform the Liberal Democrats into an enlarged form of the Electoral Reform Society. It's not the be all and end all for us. There are other very, very key ambitions in politics, not least social mobility and life chances, that I care about as passionately if not more."
"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."
Mahatma Gandhi on Society"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life."
Robert A. Heinlein on Society"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
Jiddu Krishnamurti on Society"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
Dwight D. Eisenhower on Society"There is more to life than increasing its speed."
Mahatma Gandhi on Society"The British political system and the whole clapped out Westminster architecture, and the language that we use about politics, it's completely unsustainable. You either decide to be part of that transition to do something different. Or you cling to old certainties."
"Liberalism is a really old British tradition and it has a completely different attitude towards the individual and the relationship between the individual and the state than the collectivist response of Labour, and particularly Old Labour, does."
"I don't want to clip on the armour every morning. I've seen some politicians do this and they get a bit mangled and bitter. I just refuse to do that. I refuse to be angry or bitter or complain, and I remain open. I may sometimes be a bit too open but I'm not going to change that one bit."
"Most of what needs to be changed in the euro zone can be done without treaty changes. The demand for treaty change is as political as it is legal and I don't think it's going to happen soon."
"I am quite strict as a dad but I don't want to be censorious."