Quote Unquote

Of course it is about good standards and good values. What it is not about is a witch-hunt against individual transgressions - John Major, defending his 'back to basics' programme

I'll tell you exactly what 'back to basics' means. It's that wonderful combination - champagne, shooting and conservation. If we had a bit more of those and a bit less of the other, we'd all be in better shape - Nicholas Soames, food minister

Certain things ought to be swept under the carpet. This is especially true nowadays, when people's sexual lives are no longer controlled by old- fashioned morality - Norman Stone, Professor of Modern History at Oxford

If hypocrisy is the name of the game, I should ask you to consider the morals of the tabloid editors - Lord Hailsham

We are not there to prevent parties that want to fight from making war - Francois Mitterrand on the UN presence in Bosnia

We do not want and must not dig new trenches in Europe - Helmut Kohl

Religion seems to have lost its grip, political ideals have disappeared in a desperate scrabble for votes. Only art remains as an assertion of the timeless and the miraculous - John Mortimer

In case you hadn't noticed, it's been raining a lot recently - Bill Burroughs, weather expert

Well, for one thing, I find I no longer win every golf game I play - George Bush on what it is like not to be President

You don't have to talk down to children - most of them are 30, mentally, these days - Robin Williams, actor and comic