Top 100 Gove Quotes
#1. The Nick Boles text is kiboshed [Mike] Gove's chances. It undermined people's confidence in him. It made it look as if he's been conspiring all along. It did more damage to his reputation than anything else.
Andrea Leadsom
#2. I think honestly that Michael [Gove] came to this decision[Prime Minister candidate] very late, that he needed to step up.
Nicky Morgan
#3. I didn't think I was the right person to do that job but I do think Michael Gove is and that's why I'm backing him.
Nicky Morgan
#4. Now [Mike] Gove has destroyed Boris Johnson.
James Kirkup
#5. No one fights with more principle and passion than Michael Gove.
Dominic Raab
#6. [Michael] Gove will be the underdog fighting for the underdog in this leadership race.
Dominic Raab
#7. There is definitely a mood in the party for making sure that two cabinet heavyweights we have got, who come from different traditions, different sides of the EU referendum campaign, Theresa May and Michael Gove - it would be right to put them to the party in the country.
Nicky Morgan
#8. Michael Gove is an incredibly talent guy and a Brexiteer. But he has been telling all of us for the last five years that he doesn't want to [be the Prime Minister] and he doesn't think he's got it in him to do it so his conversion on the road to Damascus has come pretty late.
Andrew Mitchell
#9. Michael Gove is the right leader for the country.
Dominic Raab
#10. I was very much surprised by the Johnson/Gove proposals to make it harder for Europeans to work in the U.K. if Britain were to vote to leave the E.U.
Mark Rutte
#11. Whether Theresa May had stabbed has stabbed the former Mayor of London in the back and Michael Gove had stabbed him in the front. That's about it. It makes House of Cards look like Teletubbies.
Nigel Evans
#12. I think that Michael [Gove] felt things had changed.
Dominic Raab
#13. I have concluded unequivocally that the right person is Michael Gove and I am delighted to be endorsing his candidacy.
Nicky Morgan
#14. Let's be honest, the fact that Michael [Gove] announced very late in the process this morning that he was going to put his name forward, showed how much he had wrestled with this.
Nicky Morgan
#15. What's a fact is that we give more than £350 million to the European Union and hand over control of that money to the European Union every week.
Michael Gove
#16. The people who are backing the Remain campaign are people who have done very well, thank you, out of the European Union.
Michael Gove
#17. I will take all the steps necessary to give the NHS at least another £100million per week by 2020.
Michael Gove
#18. Life would have been easier for me if I had taken the path of least resistance.
Michael Gove
#19. The reason I entered politics was a belief that the people of this country - having achieved so much that was good and noble in our past - had the potential to do amazing things in the future.
Michael Gove
#20. One of the problems we have is children are not in school long enough in the day and during the year.
Michael Gove
#21. A lot of schools benefit from parents who are first- or second-generation immigrants, who expect the best for their children.
Michael Gove
#22. One of the reasons why Australia and Canada have support for migration is because they control the numbers.
Michael Gove
#23. I want there to be an open and positive debate about the path the country will now take. Whatever the verdict of that debate I will respect it.
Michael Gove
#24. I'm not interested in defending the position of those who already have money, power and privilege.
Michael Gove
#25. The British prime minister will want to have a strong and positive relationship with European leaders always.
Michael Gove
#26. With the single exception of Park Lane, every north-south route in London slows traffic to the pace of a wounded gnat with pleurisy struggling with a squaddie's backpack.
Michael Gove
#27. There wasn't a Scottish nationalist MP elected at any general election when we were outside the E.U.
Michael Gove
#28. The free market is not a god; we have to do everything we can to make the market competitive.
Michael Gove
#29. There are all sorts of people who will say disobliging things about me. I don't mind that. I would rather people said, 'This is a man that sticks to his principles, not a man who's worried about popularity.'
Michael Gove
#30. I love my parents in the way most children would: for having been there at every point in my youth and childhood, ready to pick me up when I fell and support me when I stumbled.
Michael Gove
#31. I just think it is entirely normal for the United Kingdom to be an independent nation state.
Michael Gove
#32. People should vote for democracy, and Britain should vote for hope.
Michael Gove
#33. I think overall our national security is strengthened if we are able to make the decisions that we need and the alliances that we believe in outside the current structures of the European Union.
Michael Gove
#34. It is literally the case that learning languages makes you smarter. The neural networks in the brain strengthen as a result of language learning.
Michael Gove
#35. I'm one of many who have seen their parents and their friends lose their jobs, lose their income, lose their livelihood because of the European Union.
Michael Gove
#36. I will do exactly as the Prime Minister asks me.
Michael Gove
#37. We need to face the fact that we need more money in order to deliver Jeremy Hunt's absolutely correct drive to guarantee even better standards of care.
Michael Gove
#38. I'm a decentralizer. I believe in trusting professionals.
Michael Gove
#39. I want people to concentrate not on my job but on their jobs.
Michael Gove
#40. I was encouraged to stand for Parliament by David Cameron, and he has given me the opportunity to serve in what I believe is a great, reforming government. I think he is an outstanding Prime Minister.
Michael Gove
#41. I know myself, from my own background, the E.U. depresses employment and destroys jobs. My father had a business destroyed by the common fisheries policy.
Michael Gove
#42. We have, in the E.U., a market rigged in favour of the rich and stacked against the poor, and I think that's wrong.
Michael Gove
#43. There aren't many contemporary Christian leaders who are both energetic in their condemnation of the crimes of communism and robust in their analysis of the evil of Islamism, but Justin Welby stands out.
Michael Gove
#44. I found reading Alan Bennett striking because you have this sudden flash of recognition when you read about a boy who has intellectual interests utterly different from his parents.
Michael Gove
#45. Anyone who's working in manufacturing here should know they will have increased opportunities if we leave the European Union.
Michael Gove
#46. Let me first of all congratulate both of the candidates who have made it through - both Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom are formidable politicians and they have fought great campaigns and they deserve to be in the final two.
Michael Gove
#47. I was very lucky in that I had a couple of teachers who were particularly supportive.
Michael Gove
#48. Boris Johnson is a man of great attributes and great qualities.
Michael Gove
#49. Democratic self-government has manifestly brought benefits to India, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, South Africa, South Korea, and scores of nations all making their way in the world.
Michael Gove
#50. There are economic risks if we leave, economic risks if we remain.
Michael Gove
#51. Were I ever alone in the dock, I would not want to be arraigned before our flawed tribunals, knowing my freedom could be forfeit as a result of political pressures. I would prefer a fair trial, under the shadow of the noose.
Michael Gove
#52. It is vital that teachers can be paid more without having to leave the classroom. This will be particularly important to schools in the most disadvantaged areas as it will empower them to attract and recruit the best teachers.
Michael Gove
#53. Hanging may seem barbarous, but the greater barbarity lies in the slow abandonment of our common law traditions.
Michael Gove
#54. I have a different starting premise from those 100 academics who are so heavily invested in the regime of low expectations and narrow horizons which they have created.
Michael Gove
#55. Learning a foreign language, and the culture that goes with it, is one of the most useful things we can do to broaden the empathy and imaginative sympathy and cultural outlook of children.
Michael Gove
#56. They [British people] told us to restore democratic control of immigration policy and to spend their money on national priorities such as health, education and science instead of giving it to Brussels.
Michael Gove
#57. It's often the case that successful people invite criticism.
Michael Gove
#58. Teachers themselves know if there's a colleague who can't keep control or keep the interest of their class, it affects the whole school.
Michael Gove
#59. I have specifically argued that we need to change our relationship with the European Union by fundamentally reforming not just our relationship but the European Union itself.
Michael Gove
#60. I prefer to take the view of businesspeople who are actually generating jobs and creating wealth.
Michael Gove
#61. The big shift in approach on education that we are taking - which is different from what happened before - is that we trust teachers and we trust heads.
Michael Gove
#62. I hope that in the days to come, I'll be able to convince my colleagues that I should be one of the candidates that Conservative party members can choose from.
Michael Gove
#63. I can't foretell the future, but I don't believe that the act of leaving the European Union would make our economic position worse; I think it would make it better.
Michael Gove
#64. Our security and sovereignty stand together.
Michael Gove
#65. The accumulation of cultural capital - the acquisition of knowledge - is the key to social mobility.
Michael Gove
#66. Children in dysfunctional homes at risk of abuse are kept in danger for too long because politically correct rules mean we won't challenge unfit parents.
Michael Gove
#67. As long as there are people in education making excuses for failure, cursing future generations with a culture of low expectations, denying children access to the best that has been thought and written, because Nemo and the Mister Men are more relevant, the battle needs to be joined.
Michael Gove
#68. I think the principal purpose of education is to allow each of us, when we become adults, to shape our own future.
Michael Gove
#69. I absolutely haven't set out to burnish a reputation as a macho figure by picking fights.
Michael Gove
#70. My judgment about what is right for this country will always guide me.
Michael Gove
#71. I recognise that fishing is perhaps not the most high-employment industry in this country, but it's a symbol of what we lost when we entered the E.U.: control over national resources that, if we retained them, we could have husbanded in our interest and, indeed, in the interest of others.
Michael Gove
#72. Ed Balls keeps saying that we are committed to scrapping the EMA. I have never said this. We won't.
Michael Gove
#73. The challenges facing Britain required not just a cool head, but a heart burning with the desire for change - not business as usual but a bold vision.
Michael Gove
#74. My parents adopted me, and then, by the age of four or five, I was asking all sorts of questions, and they found themselves with a son who was interested in the sorts of things that they valued but weren't natural to them.
Michael Gove
#75. The British people voted for change.They sent us a clear instruction that they want Britain to leave the European Union and end the supremacy of EU law.
Michael Gove
#76. We need a national ambition to build hundreds of thousands of new homes a year, both private and socially-rented - led by someone who will not take no for an answer and who will push for diggers in the ground and homes for all come what may.
Michael Gove
#77. If we leave the European Union, yes there will be bumps in the road, inevitably, but we will be in a better position to deal with them.
Michael Gove
#78. The first four months of my life were spent in care, before I was adopted by my wonderful parents - my mum and dad - Ernie and Christine. They went on to adopt my sister, who is profoundly deaf, and invested both of us with a love and support that informs everything I do today.
Michael Gove
#79. The next leader of this country needs to be someone who believes heart and soul that Britain should be outside the European Union.
Michael Gove
#80. I won't criticise anyone else's statements, and the public will make up their own minds. And if the public think that any side or any individual has strayed too far away from what's expected of public representatives, then they'll make that judgement.
Michael Gove
#81. Scottish nationalism has grown since we entered the European Union.
Michael Gove
#82. I think it's appropriate that we simplify, clarify and strengthen, so instead of this nebulousness, we have clarity and authority invested in teachers once more.
Michael Gove
#83. The First World War may have been a uniquely horrific war, but it was also plainly a just war.
Michael Gove
#84. I know what it's like to see someone lose their job as a result of the European Union. I saw my father lose his job, I saw his business go to the wall, I saw 24 people who he employed also lose their jobs.
Michael Gove
#85. I think the people of this country have had enough of experts with organisations from acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong.
Michael Gove
#86. I was a union member in my youth as well and I went on strike, and I don't think it solved anything. It only made the situation worse for everyone involved.
Michael Gove
#87. In my view, our immigration policy means that we have some people who can come into this country - who we might want to say no to - and others, who we might want to attract, who can't currently come in.
Michael Gove
#88. No-one is forced to stand for Parliament; no-one is compelled to become a minister. If you take on those roles, which are great privileges, you also take on big responsibilities.
Michael Gove
#89. The economic basis on which Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish nationalists made the case for separation was based on an oil price much higher than it is at the moment, so there will be no case for it.
Michael Gove
#90. I am delighted by the support I have received from colleagues. It reflects the optimistic message that I've been putting forward.
Michael Gove
#91. Proper history teaching is being crushed under the weight of play-based pedagogy which infantilises children, teachers and our culture.
Michael Gove
#92. One of the things I know about the European Union is that the European Union can destroy jobs.
Michael Gove
#93. The ability to choose who governs us, and the freedom to change laws we do not like, were secured for us in the past by radicals and liberals who took power from unaccountable elites and placed it in the hands of the people.
Michael Gove
#94. There are huge challenges ahead for this country but also huge opportunities. We can make this country stronger and fairer.
Michael Gove
#95. You know you don't see hospital consultants going on strike, and I don't believe that teachers and head teachers should. It's within their rights, it's a civil right, but I think it is wrong in terms of the reputation of the profession.
Michael Gove
#96. If I'm the British prime minister I won't be dictated to on the timetable or the manner of the negotiations.
Michael Gove
#97. I think that the message I have of optimism and hope about Britain's bright future outside the European Union is shared by many Conservative members and voters - indeed by a majority of the country.
Michael Gove
#99. What I think is wrong is spending £9m of taxpayers' money on one particular piece of one-sided propaganda.
Michael Gove
#100. The people I admire most are those doing outstanding things for the poorest children, such as Michael Wilshaw at Mossbourne academy, Dan Moynihan and all those at the Harris academies, and those at chains such as Ark and the Haberdashers, who are driving up standards in the poorest areas.
Michael Gove
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