"We are not a sect or a cult. We are part of the broad movement of human progress. The marriage of ambition with justice, the constant striving of the human spirit to do better and to be better. It is that which separates us from Conservatives. It was there when the ancient prophets of the Old Testament first pleaded the cause of the marginal, the powerless, the disenfranchised." - Tony Blair.
"The glory days of Britain are not over. But the Tory days of government are. Let us call our to its destiny. Let us lead it to our New Age of Achievement ... Tony Blair.
"A society of opportunity. A society of responsibility. The society which gives to us because we give to it. History will call it the Decent Society, a new social order for the new Age of Achievement for Britain." - Tony Blair.
"Who, in his heart, does Blair - now believe himself to be? Twice he talked of his `covenant with the British people', most famously used by a certain old party laying down the law for the people of Judah. It sounds odd enough, interpreted in purely secular terms. But Blair, we know, and saw... is not a secular man." - Catherine Bennell, the Guardian.
"Tony sounds as though he would like to merge the Labour Party with the Salvation Army and the Festival of Light. He is Cliff Richard with kids, the sort of man who'd get up during a rainy Wimbledon and sing Summer Holiday." - David Aaronovitch, the London Independent.
"He is the leader of a party which the electorate has punished with 17 years of exile for its misdeeds. Instead of asking humbly for re admission, he spoke as if this had already been accomplished. He fantasised about what the world would say after his period of government. But he is not in power yet. He called Gordon Brown his `iron chancellor': you can't be iron when you are still only a shadow. This was bad taste - a display of arrogance made no more appealing by being cloaked in religiosity. " - The Daily Telegraph.
"A sense of quiet purpose and unity in Mr Blair's party is one thing: to undertake the business of government in advance and to boast about history's verdict upon it is close to the line between confidence and arrogance." - The London Times