Chris Patten
19 quotes
Biography
"at its worst amounts to a sort of Zen fascism; less extreme, it denounces growth and seeks to stop the world so that we can all get off."
"In a democracy everybody has a right to be represented, including the jerks."
"There is a sort of exotic preposterousness about a lot of elections, the way arguments are made even cruder."
"[M]y anxiety is not that this community's autonomy would be usurped by Beijing, but that it could be given away bit by bit by some people in Hong Kong.<!--According to video archives, Patten said "Peking" instead of "Beijing".-->"
"As governor, I experienced the vitality of life in a booming and free Asian city, saw routinely the best and worst aspects of human nature, and was made to revisit some of the principles in which I have always believed but to which I had rarely given much thought previously. In the darker hours of occasionally fretful nights I found myself face to face with the moral dimensions of political action to a greater extent than ever before."
"No other place has quite the same blend of East and West, ancient and modern, spectacular and humdrum."
"It is not unusual for electorates to want contradictory things, and politicians often make promises accordingly."
"[O]n July 1, 1997, Hong Kong became the only example of decolonization deliberately accompanied by less democracy and a weaker protection of civil liberties. This was a cause for profound regret, especially for the departing colonial power. But it was China's doing and China's decision. I am pleased that Britain narrowly avoided complicity in the dishonourable act of denying the citizens of free Hong Kong what they had been promised in 1984."
"Asians...put more emphasis on order, stability, hierarchy, family and self-discipline than Westerners do."
"Those of us who had a perfectly happy childhood should be able to sue for deprivation of literary royalties."
"It's obviously an issue [democracy] which is hugely important to a new generation."
"You know perfectly well there have been attacks on the rule of law, on the independence of the judiciary; abductions around Hong Kong streets; suggestions that Hong Kong’s autonomy needs to be curtailed in the future; suggestions that the autonomy of Hong Kong’s tremendous universities is something that has to be looked at again; there is a sense that free speech is under threat."
"Xi Jinping and his court have regarded Hong Kong and Hong Kong's freedoms as an existential problem for them because Hong Kong represents so much of what they dislike."
"It matters to everyone [sic] of us that the press tell it as it is, not as the government wants us to hear."
"While we were allegedly taking part in a golden age of China, the head of the Chinese Communist Party was instructing party officials and government officials to engage in an intense struggle against all the things that we and other liberal democracies stand for: Rule of law, parliamentary democracy, universally valid human rights, historical inquiry, all those sorts of things."
"Prostitute...tango dancer...a sinner for a thousand years."
"I believe in trying to get a balance between individual freedom on the one hand and social responsibility on the other."
"But the ability to articulate what you are doing, to be clear about it, and to stick to it is, I think, the essence of political leadership."
"I think that what most surprises anybody who goes into politics from even a modestly cerebral background is the vulgarity of much of the cut and thrust of politics."