Top 122 Nicola Sturgeon Quotes

One of the attributes Glasgow is best known for all over the world is the friendliness of her people.

People in Scotland don’t take too kindly to being lectured by a Tory Chancellor.

I don’t feel we need to be independent for me to feel confident in my Scottish identity. I think Scotland is pretty comfortable in its identity. We won’t need independence to preserve it… if we don’t become independent, it won’t disappear; it isn’t under existential threat.

True gender equality in Scotland – and elsewhere – is still some way off.

Scotland is not a region of the U.K.; Scotland is a nation, and if we cannot protect our interests within a U.K. that is going to be changing fundamentally, then that right of Scotland to consider the options of independence has to be there.

Any politician or campaigner trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public won’t get very far.

The debate around the ageing population should, in my view, focus much more on how we grow the active, working population.

I think it is important the communities are listened to and that their voice is heard, particularly with local government boundaries more than parliamentary boundaries, because you are talking very much about communities. It can be a very emotive thing.

The fact that healthier lifestyles and advances in medicine mean that we are living longer is actually something to be celebrated.

I know you’ve got to earn people’s trust, and you’ve got to earn it day after day after day.

The fact is Scottish Labour has lost its way.

For the Scottish government, the practice of having meetings in different parts of the country is well established, but for the U.K. government, it is a much rarer event.

I’m the leader of the SNP. I think you would expect me to say I would vote SNP in whatever constituency I lived in.

Taxing people for having a spare bedroom and forcing them into rent arrears or the possibility of losing homes they have lived in for years has always been a cruel and heartless measure, and so it is good that the Scottish Parliament has been able to step in.

I’m manifestly not the same as Alex Salmond. I’m a different gender, for example… I’m being flippant, but maybe this is a partly gender-driven difference: I’m very keen that we find a way of reaching out across party divides to find things we agree on, as well as the things we disagree on.

Voting Labour in the past hasn’t protected Scotland against Tory governments.

I don’t cook very often. Actually, I’d go further: I can’t cook.

I believe we should support people to live, and I am therefore in favour of good quality palliative care.

Scotland’s relationship with Malawi is perhaps unique – with almost every town or village in Scotland having some connection.

My politics are wildly different from hers, but someone who has been good for women in politics, stamped her authority on European and world affairs, is Angela Merkel.

I am quite driven. I know what I think, and I know what I want to achieve, but I also hope that people who are asked to describe me would describe me as pretty down-to-earth, loyal, friendly. The more experience I have got in politics, I think the more I have allowed me to shine through.

I’ve got absolutely no desire or intention of damaging England.

Politics is a very male-dominated, male-driven profession. I was not just a woman but a young woman, and I suppose you end up trying to behave in a way that you think is expected of you.

It is one of the little known facts about modern Scottish politics that it is not quite as cut-throat as people think it is.

Thatcher was the motivation for my entire political career. I hated everything she stood for.

I was fascinated, long before I joined the SNP, in the world around me; current affairs really interested me.

I’ve not hidden and I’ll never hide the fact that I want Scotland to be an independent country. But as long as we’re part of the Westminster system, it’s really important to people in Scotland that we get good decisions coming out of Westminster. So we’ve got a vested interest in being a constructive participant.

There was nothing in my childhood that said, ‘She’s going to be first minister of the country one day.’

It would be a very serious mistake for the U.K. to vote to leave the European Union, and I think it would be democratically indefensible for Scotland, if we had voted to stay in, to face the prospect of being taken out.

Clearly, any issues about breaching of expenses rules should be properly investigated.

Tory governments are bad for Scotland.

There’s nothing in my background that would have said I was destined to be a senior politician.

My political awakening, if I can be as grand as to call it that, was all about what was happening around me. It wasn’t some romantic, patriotic vision of Scotland going back to what it had been 300 years previously.

Vote SNP for a party that always stands up for Scotland, that is stronger for Scotland, and a government that will keep the country moving in the right direction.

I like Indian takeaway.

An independent Scotland – like all countries – will face challenges, and we will have our ups and downs. But the decisions about how we use our wealth will be ours.

One of Ed Miliband’s shadow ministers has said he would never vote for the renewal of Trident.

Tax credits are designed to help people who work hard but who, through no fault of their own, don’t earn enough to keep their families out of poverty.

Do I look like one of the most dangerous women in Britain? Come on!

I hope nobody in England is afraid of the SNP – there is absolutely no need to be.

There can be no greater privilege in life than to be chosen to lead your country.

If you have a Tory government at Westminster that takes us out of Europe against our will, there may be people in Scotland who think, ‘You know what, we might be better off independent.’

Governments in countries across the world have a duty to do everything possible to keep the public safe from terrorist attacks.

My early years as a political activist were dominated by the poll tax.

People don’t want to go back to the days, pre-referendum, when the Westminster establishment sidelined and ignored Scotland. They want Scotland’s voice to be heard.

For parents – women in particular – good quality, affordable childcare is vital.

Scotland never voted for Margaret Thatcher.

Many hard working people in low paid jobs get housing benefit.

Scotland has a great deal to offer the world in terms of our approach to key economic and social issues.

I’ve never had a voice coach, but I am about to name drop horrendously here: I did once get some advice on how to project my voice from Sean Connery, which was lovely. It’s all about where you breathe. That’s my claim to fame.

I think the Tories are doing – and are intent on doing – damage to things I hold dear.

To every woman out there who thinks that they might like to get involved in politics or stand for parliament, I say go for it. If I can do it, so can you.

A good education is the most important gift we can give our young people.

It is hard to overstate the economic importance of the U.S.A. to Scotland, and that makes it essential that we engage with companies and potential investors and get the message across that we are open for business.

Our opposition to Trident is very clear, very firm, very long-standing, very principled, and we would seek to build an alliance to prevent the renewal of Trident.

One thing we’ve learned is that there’s not anything that Nigel Farage won’t blame on foreigners.

Talent is really important in politics, but experience is also really important.

I’m a politician, and as you know, politicians are rarely very funny.

An independent Scotland could afford pensions full stop – after all, it is our taxes and national insurance contributions that fund them now.

I admire Obama.

Parties that win elections should form the government, not parties that lose elections.

I do struggle to identify an occasion when I was held back because I’m a woman… You don’t think about it at the time, but looking back at it, of course.

I’m not going to do anything that sees a Tory government be likely.

My message is a simple one – the E.U. is not perfect, but Scotland’s interests are best served by being a member.

I’m quite hypercritical of myself. It’s a very Scottish thing, always thinking that you’ve got to be that bit better than everyone else to be good enough.

It still annoys me when I read really derogatory things about how a woman looks because you would usually not read these things about a man, and that still has the potential to put women off public life.

The U.K. government sets a cap on how much can be spent on discretionary housing payments.

I wish we lived in a world where how you looked or what you wore wasn’t an issue for men or women, and it’s by and large not an issue for men, so I wish it wasn’t an issue for women, but it is.