British Politician Quotes

Winston Churchill

Margaret Thatcher

Tony Blair

David Cameron

Anne of Great Britain

Benjamin Disraeli

Neville Chamberlain

No Western nation has to build a wall round itself to keep its people in.

Margaret Thatcher

I am of opinion that it is highly requisite forthwith to pass a law, prohibiting upon great penalties all trade with our enemies, and more especially the supplying of them with arms, ammunition or provisions of any kind whatsoever.

William Shirley

The basic drive behind real philosophy is curiosity about the world, not interest in the writings of philosophers. Each of us emerges from the preconsciousness of babyhood and simply finds himself here, in it, in the world. That experience alone astonishes some people. What is all this — what is the world? And what are we? From the beginning of humanity some have been under a compulsion to ask these questions, and have felt a craving for the answers. This is what is really meant by any such phrase as "mankind's need for metaphysics."

No amount of study or learning will make a man a leader unless he has the natural qualities of one.

Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell

People are very interested in politics, they just don't like it labelled 'politics'.

Television? The word is half Latin and half Greek. No good can come of it.

During the days of his last illness:

If Mr. Selwyn calls again, show him up: if I am alive I shall be delighted to see him; and if I am dead he would like to see me.

Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland

In Great Britain, governments often change their policies without changing their men. In France, they usually change their men without changing their policy.

Winston Churchill

It is impossible that the whisper of a faction should prevail against the voice of a nation.

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell

Socialists make the mistake of confusing individual worth with success. They believe you cannot allow people to succeed in case those who fail feel worthless.

Kenneth Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking

There is no security for any power unless it be a security in which its neighbours have an equal share.

Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon

He thinks nothing more absurd than the common notion of Instruction, as if Science were to be poured into the Mind, like water into a cistern, that passively waits to receive all that comes.

James Harris (grammarian)

You can bend it and twist it... You can misuse and abuse it... But even God cannot change the Truth.

Michael Levy, Baron Levy

... above all, I must recommend to you the Care of the Navy, the Strength and Glory of this Nation, that you will put it into such a Condition, as may make us considered and respected Abroad. I cannot express My Concern upon this Occasion more suitable to My own Thoughts of it, than by assuring you I have a true English Heart, as jealous of the Honour of the Nation as you can be. And I please Myself with the Hopes, that, by GOD'S Blessing and your Assistance, I may carry the Reputation of it yet higher in the World, than ever it has been in the Time of any of My Ancestors.

James II of England

Under David Cameron, we have this situation where you now need more qualifications to work as a shift manager at McDonald's than to become a teacher.

It is no good putting up notices saying 'Beware of the bull' because very rude things are sometimes written on them. I have found that one of the most effective notices is 'Beware of the Agapanthus'.

Viscount Massereene

O worship the King, all-glorious above;
O gratefully sing his power and his love:
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendour, and girded with praise.

He gave himself diligently to mathematics, which he liked "vastly." "I believe they are useful," he writes, "and I am sure they are entertaining, which is alone enough to recommend them to me."

Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet

It is said to be very hard on his majesty's ministers to raise objections to this proposition. For my own part, I think it is more hard on his majesty's opposition (a laugh) to compel them to take this course.

John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton

Several of the women attending Cabinet —myself included—have been treated by you as little more than female window dressing.

I expected to find a contest between a government and a people: I found two nations warring in the bosom of a single state.

Of Canada

John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham

A long line of cases shows that it is not merely of some importance, but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.

No one for a moment can pretend that printing is so great a discovery as writing, or algebra as a language.

Benjamin Disraeli

Where the Left imagine social justice to be the realization of certain abstract ideas — equality and emancipation — the Right see it as a system of naturally occurring and beneficial relationships. Social justice is the fulfilment of the individual's need for positive liberty through social membership.

Religion and Science are to be finally reconciled... when Religion has abandoned every dogma and every positive belief, and takes the shape of a final negative proposition that Science never rejected [that its explanations are proximate and relative], and has long affirmed.

J. M. Robertson