"I joined this party because I believe in freedom. We are the only party believing that if you give people freedom and responsibility, they will grow stronger and society will grow stronger.
I want you to come with me. We'll be tested, and challenged, but we'll never give up. We'll never turn back. So let the message go out from this conference, a modern compassionate Conservatism is right for our times, right for our party — and right for our country. If we go for it, if we seize it, if we fight for it with every ounce of passion, vigour and energy from now until the next election, nothing and no one can stop us."
I want you to come with me. We'll be tested, and challenged, but we'll never give up. We'll never turn back. So let the message go out from this conference, a modern compassionate Conservatism is right for our times, right for our party — and right for our country. If we go for it, if we seize it, if we fight for it with every ounce of passion, vigour and energy from now until the next election, nothing and no one can stop us."
— Speech to Conservative Party Conference, 4 October 2005
"I think it was right to remove Saddam Hussein. I think it was the right decision then and I still think it was right now."
— BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast, 21 October 2005
"There is such a thing as society. It's just not the same thing as the state."
— Speech after winning the Conservative Party leadership contest, 6 December 2005
"I want to talk about the future. He was the future once."
— From his first speech as Leader of the Opposition (on the subject of Tony Blair) at Prime Minister's Question Time, 7 December 2005
"We will reflect the country we aspire to govern, and the sound of modern Britain is a complex harmony, not a male voice choir."
— Speech aimed at Liberal Democrats, 16 December 2005
"I think the prospect of bringing back grammar schools has always been wrong and I've never supported it. And I don't think any Conservative government would have done it."
— BBC Sunday AM, 15 January 2006
"I am Conservative to the core of my being, as those who know me best will testify."
— As quoted in The Daily Telegraph, 23 January 2006
"Issues that once divided Conservatives from Liberal Democrats are now issues where we both agree. Our attitude to devolution and localisation of power. Iraq. The environment. I'm a liberal Conservative."
— Letter to constituents in Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, 7 February 2006
"Lots of people call me Dave, my mum calls me David, my wife calls me Dave, I don't really notice what people call me."
— Interview with Richard Bacon on XFM, 28 September 2006
"Look at me and think of Schwarzenegger."
— As quoted by Chris Ayres in The Times, 13 October 2007
"Too many twits make a twat."
— Expressing his views on Twitter, interview on Absolute Radio, 29 July 2009
"Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp."
— Speech on 27 July 2010, as quoted in The Guardian
"We are a shining example of a country where multiple identities work. Where you can be Welsh and Hindu and British, Northern Irish and Jewish and British; where you can wear a kilt and a turban; where you can wear a hijab covered in poppies. Where you can support Man Utd, the Windies and Team GB at the same time. Of course, I'd rather you supported West Ham."
— Speech in London, as quoted by The Guardian, April 2015; it caused derision as Cameron had previously claimed to support Aston Villa.
"We just thought people in Yorkshire hated everyone else, we didn't realise they hated each other so much."
— Unguarded comment caught on camera in Leeds while discussing rival devolution bids, as quoted by The Guardian, 11 September 2015
"I believe that Britain will be safer, stronger and better off by remaining in a reformed European Union."
— February 20, 2016
"If there is one constant in the ebb and flow of our island story, it is the character of the British people.
Above all we are obstinately practical, rigorously down-to-earth, natural debunkers. We approach issues with a cast of mind rooted in common sense, we're rightly suspicious of ideology and sceptical of grand schemes and grandiose promises."
Above all we are obstinately practical, rigorously down-to-earth, natural debunkers. We approach issues with a cast of mind rooted in common sense, we're rightly suspicious of ideology and sceptical of grand schemes and grandiose promises."
— 9 May 2016
"I will do everything I can as Prime Minister to steady the ship over the coming weeks and months but I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination."
— Speech delivered outside outside 10 Downing Street, announcing that he would resign as Prime Minister after British voters chose to leave the European Union in a referendum, 24 June 2016
"It might be in my party's interest for him to sit there, but it's not in the national interest, and I would say, for heaven's sake man, go."
— Speaking to Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn in the House of Commons, Prime Minister's Questions, 29 June 2016
"After all, as I once said: I was the future, once."
— Final words as Prime Minister in the House of Commons, Prime Minister's Questions, 13 July 2016
Quotes about Cameron
"He wants a Bill of Rights for Britain drafted by a Committee of Lawyers. Have you ever tried drafting anything with a Committee of Lawyers?"
— Prime Minister Tony Blair's farewell speech to the Labour Party conference, 26 September 2006
"There is nothing to him. He is like a hollow Easter egg with no bag of sweets inside."
— Charlie Brooker, comments for The Guardian, 2 April 2007
"It seems to me he has lost the art of communication; but not, alas, the gift of speech."
— Prime Minister Gordon Brown
"I'm all for apprenticeships, but this is no time for a novice."
— Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speech to the Labour Party conference, 23 September 2008
"An actor who has never had a proper job."
— Sir Tam Dalyell
"He struck me as the type of guy who would stand at the back of the dance hall and just move his shoulders. He has got no rhythm. He looked like the kind of guy who would be an embarrassing uncle."
— George Sampson, as quoted in "Stinging in the Rain" by Gordon Smart in The Sun, 1 July 2008
"He seems content-free to me. Never had a job, except in PR, and it shows. People ask, 'What do you think of him?' and my answer is: 'He doesn't make me think.'"
"He had a melted face... he had a face like a whoopy cushion before someone had sat on it... he had a face which looked sort of like the aperture of a whoopy cushion if someone did sit on it."
— Time Trumpet, Episode One
"Even Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask when he robbed people."
— Former Labour leader Ed Miliband, on the 2015 budget
"He embodies all the things I hate most about England, and I'm English!"
