2007

• If the legislation is passed I will lead a grassroots campaign of civil disobedience to thwart the identity cards programme ... I, and I expect thousands of people like me, will simply refuse ever to register.
  • Clegg vows to defy ID cards law The Guardian (31 October 2007)

2008

• We would support the government by not voting for a referendum [on the Lisbon treaty]. We would vote against a referendum on the treaty and vote in accordance with our long-held position that the real referendum that needs to be had is whether we stay in the EU or not.
  • Nick Clegg, BBC Today Programme (22 January, 2008)

2010

• Maybe he one day - perhaps we will have to wait for his memoirs - could account for his role in the most disastrous decision of all, which is the illegal invasion of Iraq.
  • Remarks to Jack Straw at Prime Minister's Questions clarifying the government's position on the Iraq war after telling MPs the conflict had been "illegal" (21 July 2010)

2011

• Human Rights Act are not, as some would have you believe, foreign impositions. These are British rights, drafted by British lawyers. Forged in the aftermath of the atrocities of the Second World War. Fought for by Winston Churchill. So let me say something really clear about the Human Rights Act. In fact I'll do it in words of one syllable: It is here to stay.
  • 2011 speech to the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham (2011)

2013

• Years of uncertainty caused by a future EU referendum would hit jobs and growth and this is not in the national interest
  • David Cameron promises in/out referendum on EU BBC News (23 January 2013)

• What people have dubbed the snooper's charter - I have to be clear with you, that's not going to happen.
  • Remarks on LBC radio on the Snooper CharterNick Clegg: No 'web snooping' bill while Lib Dems in government BBC.co.uk (25 April 2013)

2014

• [I promise] real remedies for the way the world is today not dangerous fantasies about a bygone world that no longer exists. And that is why I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that we remain part of the European Union because that is how we protect the Britain we love.
  • Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage in heated BBC debate over EU BBC News (3 April 2014)

• The home secretary and the Home Office – they can try to make the case as many times as they like but this idea, which was the idea of the heart of the snooper's charter, that every single website that you visit and every single website that anyone visits in this country is logged somewhere, that's just not going to happen while I'm in government.
  • Remarks on LBC 97.3 radio show on the Snooper Charters No revival of snooper's charter bill before election, says Nick Clegg The Guardian (26 June 2014)

2015

• [Leaving the EU would be a] terrible thing for the British economy
  • Election 2015: EU exit economic self harm, says Clegg BBC News (29 March 2015)

• In 2007 after a night of disappointing election results for our party in Edinburgh, Alex Cole Hamilton said this: if his defeat was part-payment for the ending of child detention, then he accepted it with all his heart. Those words revealed a selfless dignity which is very rare in politics but common amongst Liberal Democrats. If our losses today are part payment for every family that is more secure because of a job we helped to create, every person with depression who is treated with a compassion they deserve, every child who does a little better in school, every apprentice with a long and rewarding career to look forward to, every gay couple who know that their love is worth no less than anyone else’s and every pensioner with a little more freedom and dignity in retirement then I hope at least our losses can be endured with a little selfless dignity too.
  • Resignation speech after losing the 2015 general election UK The Independent (8 May 2015)

2016

• If I was a Brexit voter, I would feel increasingly betrayed that I voted in the belief that all these Brexiteers knew what they were doing
  • Boris Johnson makes light of 'semi-parodic' pro-EU column BBC News (16 October 2016)

2017

• Whether we like it or not the single market, the biggest destination of our goods and services, is a market place of rules,
  • Brexit: Labour would back 'sensible compromise' BBC News (22 January 2017)

• In politics, you live by the sword, and you die by the sword.
  • At the election count in 2017 at Sheffield Hallam, where he lost his seat in the House of Commons. Sky News (9 June 2017)