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.

The single most important thing in a child's performance is the quality of the teacher. Making sure a child spends the maximum amount of time with inspirational teachers is the most important thing.

It is literally the case that learning languages makes you smarter. The neural networks in the brain strengthen as a result of language learning.

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.

For a few spotty years, I was that tragic geek

Proper history teaching is being crushed under the weight of play-based pedagogy which infantilises children, teachers and our culture.

I'm a decentralizer. I believe in trusting professionals.

It's often the case that successful people invite criticism.

I have come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris [Johnson] cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead.

I will take all the steps necessary to give the NHS at least another £100million per week by 2020.

I believed we needed someone who would be able to build a team, lead and unite. I hoped that person would be Boris Johnson.

Sometimes two people have to fall apart, to realize how much they need to fall back together.

I found it hateful, yet I wanted to be part of it.

If you think a lot of the comments made tonight are not funny but are immature and tasteless that's only because the sense of humor is the first thing to go.

I'm a hopeful romantic. In a couple of drinks, I'll be a lucky romantic. That's why they call me Mr. Lucky.

A minister has to be able to read a clock. At noon, it's time to go home and turn up the pot roast and get the peas out of the freezer.

I always think about the next generation and creating a different blueprint for them. That's my goal: to let them know there's another way.

Lunch should consist of at least 1/3 relationship building talk. If you don't have time for business talk, it was a very successful lunch.

The men who have had the most to give to their fellow men are those who have enriched their minds and hearts in solitude. It is a poor education that does not fit a man to be alone with himself.

Judy Garland was just so delicious in every way and just so honest and generous.

I write about families. That is who we are.