83 Notable Quotes By Boris Johnson
It would be a sad day if we British stopped being cynical, but you sometimes wonder whether we overdo it.
I want you to know that I have nothing against Orlando, though you are, of course, far more likely to get shot or robbed there than in London.
My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.
There are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.
I want London to be the most cycle-friendly city on Earth, and I want more people to be happy and safe on bicycles.
I love tennis with a passion. I challenged Boris Becker to a match once and he said he was up for it but he never called back. I bet I could make him run around.
There is absolutely no one, apart from yourself, who can prevent you, in the middle of the night, from sneaking down to tidy up the edges of that hunk of cheese at the back of the fridge.
I promised to run the most open and transparent administration in Britain. That is why, with this brutally honest and unprecedented progress report, I am determined to level with Londoners.
I have as much chance of becoming Prime Minister as of being decapitated by a frisbee or of finding Elvis.
Never in my life did I think I would be congratulated by Mick Jagger for achieving anything.
I lead a life of blameless domesticity and always have done.
It's not reasonable for companies that have chief executives and board members who are paid very considerable sums to subsidise low pay through in-work benefits.
The Lib Dems are not just empty. They are a void within a vacuum surrounded by a vast inanition.
It is possible to have a pretty good life and career being a leech and a parasite in the media world, gadding about from TV studio to TV studio, writing inconsequential pieces and having a good time. But in the end you have a great sense of personal dissatisfaction.
Sometimes I can think of so many ways of expressing myself that I feel I'm an old typewriter, and too many keys come forward at once - and I get jammed.
I have more in common with a three-toed sloth or a one-eyed pterodactyl or a Kalamata olive than I have with Winston Churchill.
We cannot turn our backs on Europe. We are part of Europe.
London is—after Athens and Rome—the third most influential city in history.
The beauty and riddle in studying the motives of any politician is in trying to decide what is idealism and what is self-interest; and often we are left to conclude that the answer is a mixture of the two.
I think people have a legitimate right to minimise their tax obligations if they can, but they should pay their fair whack. I do think it's important to be transparent.
I do think human beings cannot be faulted for wishing to judge themselves and their lives and their achievements by others around them; that is a natural human feeling.
My speaking style was criticised by no less an authority than Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was a low moment, my friends, to have my rhetorical skills denounced by a monosyllabic Austrian cyborg.
It just happens I write fast and always have done.
The job of mayor of London is unbelievably taxing, particularly in the run-up to the Olympics.
There's an idea that London is a planet on its own: that it's starting to diverge from the rest of the solar system. We need to combat that.
If you turn a blind eye to fare evasion, if you accustom people to getting away with minor crime, you are making it more likely that they will go on to commit more serious crimes. That is why we have so much disorder in London. It is a disgrace.
If we get outside the EU, if we leave the EU system, we will be relieved of a huge amount of unnecessary regulation that is holding this country back. We will be able to set our own priorities, make our own laws and set our own tax policies to suit the needs of this country. We have a huge opportunity also to make people's votes count for more.
Obama's extraordinary political skills suggest he is more than capable of rising above any personal historical grudges he may have inherited.
We can find our voice in the world again: a voice that is commensurate with the fifth-biggest economy on Earth.
I've done eight years as mayor of London. I enjoyed it hugely; it was a massive privilege.
