“May I say, for the benefit of those who have been carried away by the gossip of the last few days, that I know what’s going on.”

Over and above communication and vigilance, there are two factors I have always mentioned. They are sleep, and a sense of history.

Tories never actually talk about getting rid of their leader, then suddenly there us a flash of steel between he shoulder-blades and rigormortis sets in.

All these financiers, all the little gnomes of Zürich and the other financial centres, about whom we keep on hearing.

The government have only a small majority in the House of Commons. I want to make it quite clear that this will not affect our ability to govern. Having been charged with the duties of Government we intend to carry out those duties.

We are redefining and we are restating our socialism in terms of the scientific revolution

In politics a week is a very long time.

I get a little nauseated, perhaps, when I hear the phrase ‘freedom of the press’ used as freely as it is, knowing that a large part of our proprietorial press is not free at all.

I’m going on, and the Labour government’s going on.

If I had the choice between smoked salmon and tinned salmon, I’d have it tinned. With vinegar.

If you rattle along at great speed everybody inside is too exhilarated or too seasick to cause any trouble. But if you stop everybody gets out and argues about where to go next.

Everybody should have an equal chance – but they shouldn’t have a flying start.

I believe the greatest asset a head of state can have is the ability to get a good night’s sleep.

The ambition of the present Labour government is that every worker in the country will have a greater than average income.

At home and abroad I have repeatedly been asked what are the main essentials of a successful prime minister.

Every dog is allowed one bite, but a different view is taken of a dog that goes on biting all the time. He may not get his licence returned when it falls due.

A week is a long time in politics.

What happens to one of the three or five or twelve will happen to them all. Whatever grief or triumph may touch any one will touch every one, as they are carried forward into the unknowable under the brilliant, terrifying sun which nourishes all.

Fain would I glide down a gentle river, but I am carried away by a torrent.

We had our own civilization in Africa before we were captured and carried off to this land.

Have you finished your column for tomorrow’s headline?” it was vee. She came up beside me, jotting notes on the notepad she carried everywhere. “i’m thinking of writing mine on the injustice of seating charts. I got paired with a girl who said she just finished lice treatment this morning.

When you hear designers complaining about the challenge of their profession, you have to say: don’t get carried away-it’s only dresses.

Getting high is a lot more real than listening to a politician. You can think that getting high actually did happen – that you danced, and got sweaty, and carried on. It really did happen.

Some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand–a center of gravity.

I had an uncle who, looking back, was probably not the most-educated physician around but he carried it off so well.