“The fact is, we're looking for a very small number of very evil needles in a very large haystack, which is the city of London.”

Home Secretary Charles Clarke, BBC radio, July 2005 following the London bombings

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The fact is, we're looking for a very small number of very evil needles in a very large haystack, which is the city of …" by Charles Clarke?
Charles Clarke photo
Charles Clarke 3
British Labour Party politician 1950

Related quotes

Joseph Fourier photo

“The principles of the theory are derived, as are those of rational mechanics, from a very small number of primary facts”

Source: The Analytical Theory of Heat (1878), Ch. 1, p. 6
Context: If we consider further the manifold relations of this mathematical theory to civil uses and the technical arts, we shall recognize completely the extent of its applications. It is evident that it includes an entire series of distinct phenomena, and that the study of it cannot be omitted without losing a notable part of the science of nature.
The principles of the theory are derived, as are those of rational mechanics, from a very small number of primary facts, the causes of which are not considered by geometers, but which they admit as the results of common observations confirmed by all experiment.

Clive Staples Lewis photo
Arsène Wenger photo

“The speed at which we moved the ball in small spaces and our quality was superb. We played the ball through needles and it was very difficult for Aston Villa.”

Arsène Wenger (1949) French footballer and manager

Aston Villa 1-2 Arsenal (1 December 2007) http://www.soccerway.com/news/2007/December/01/premiership-rivals-will-struggle-against-us-says-wenger/
Interviews

Arthur Conan Doyle photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“I've been briefed on every contingency you can possibly imagine. Many contingencies. A lot of—a lot of positive. Different numbers. All different numbers. Very large numbers. And some small numbers too, by the way.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Regarding coronavirus. Posed question: "Mr. President, have you been briefed that up to 100 million Americans would ultimately be exposed to the virus?"

Briefing at the White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-meeting-republican-senators-2/ ()
2020s, 2020, March

Steve Kilbey photo
Robert H. Jackson photo

“He who must search a haystack for a needle is likely to end up with the attitude that the needle is not worth the search.”

Robert H. Jackson (1892–1954) American judge

Brown v. Allen, 344 U.S. 443, 537 (1953) (concurring)
Judicial opinions

Richard Brinsley Sheridan photo
Augustin Louis Cauchy photo

“… very often the laws derived by physicists from a large number of observations are not rigorous, but approximate.”

Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789–1857) French mathematician (1789–1857)

... très souvent les lois particulières déduites par les physiciens d'un grand nombre d'observations ne sont pas rigoureuses, mais approchées.
[Augustin Louis Cauchy, Sept leçons de physique, Bureau du Journal Les Mondes, 1868, 15]

Related topics