Chris Patten

We have our own system, ... and journalists in our system are not put in prison for embarrassing the government by revealing…

— Chris Patten

There is a sort of exotic preposterousness about a lot of elections, the way arguments are made even cruder.

— Chris Patten

In a democracy everybody has a right to be represented, including the jerks.

— Chris Patten

Hong Kong represents the kind of Asia with which both West and East are comfortable... It offers, in that sense, a vision…

— Chris Patten

I think that what most surprises anybody who goes into politics from even a modestly cerebral background is the vulgarity of much…

— Chris Patten

Those of us who had a perfectly happy childhood should be able to sue for deprivation of literary royalties.

— Chris Patten

Multilateralism is not an easy option. We're going to find that the world is very difficult. And relationships between America and the…

— Chris Patten

Anyone who supposed that when Margaret Thatcher left Number Ten she was going to take a Trappist vow did not know that…

— Chris Patten

It is a sort of great Victorian truth that actually, trying to do the right thing is pretty good for you and…

— Chris Patten

We're not trying to recreate Yugoslavia

— Chris Patten

It is almost always wrong that the time isn't ripe to decide something. That is always said of difficult problems.

— Chris Patten

I don't think that capitalism should be unbridled, if by "unbridled" you mean unregulated.

— Chris Patten

Undoubtedly, at the moment, the major cause of CO2 emission is what happens in developed countries.

— Chris Patten

It'd make a wonderful change to have the leader of a pluralist democracy who acted on that, who told people just how…

— Chris Patten

I believe in trying to get a balance between individual freedom on the one hand and social responsibility on the other.

— Chris Patten

In democracy everyone has the right to be represented, even the jerks.

— Chris Patten

But the ability to articulate what you are doing, to be clear about it, and to stick to it is, I think,…

— Chris Patten

Of course, there were huge disagreements in the arguments of military intervention, .. There is no point at the moment on focusing…

— Chris Patten

Hong Kong's people will get what they want, despite China's objections. Freedom invariably wins in the end.

— Chris Patten

It is curious that atheists have proved to be so intolerant of those who have a faith.

— Chris Patten

I think that if politics is just about getting your backside on important seats, then it's a pretty worthless endeavor.

— Chris Patten

You don't have to wait until people say they accept everything you say until you are actually prepared to sit down and…

— Chris Patten

Green politics at its worst amounts to a sort of Zen fascism; less extreme, it denounces growth and seeks to stop the…

— Chris Patten

Throwing young men out of work, throwing people into poverty and ending business life don't promote stability in the Palestinian territories,.

— Chris Patten

So, what I say to people is that politics has got to be about principle and values above all. Of course, there…

— Chris Patten