Pierre Trudeau Quotes

88 Sourced Quotes

In my religion I really cannot think of cases where violence is justified.

Pierre Trudeau
I recognize that in some cases it's more important to have freedom and justice than to have peace.

Pierre Trudeau
In my political philosophy I think that there sometimes is room for violence.

Pierre Trudeau
I can see that in certain political situations you have to use force to overthrow police states.

Pierre Trudeau
When I had been appointed to the Cabinet in 1967, I had been struck by the amateurism that reigned in the upper echelons of the federal government.

Pierre Trudeau
I feel religion is basically and essentially a communication between a man and his God and I think it is the most personal thing of all and I don't think it concerns too many people.

Pierre Trudeau
Freedom can flow from order. That is not to say that freedom always flows from order because you can have a totalitarian order and you can have an undemocratic order from which freedom will not flow, but that surest way to destroy freedom is to have chaos.

Pierre Trudeau
You know you have a lot of impatience with reality as you see it when you're a young man and full of dynamism and strength and ideals and so on.

Pierre Trudeau
I was inclined to judge the validity of a man's faith more by the depth of his roots in reality and brotherhood and love. So I felt more at home, shall we say with some Zoroastrians in the Far East, than I did with some Catholic missionaries.

Pierre Trudeau
Obviously I prefer freedom, but I know, and I think all history has told us, that freedom cannot flow from anarchy and disorder.

Pierre Trudeau
I think that more and more young people are discovering that gainful employment isn't the only thing in life. That they can perhaps be just as useful to society and themselves by travelling across the land or around the world, learning more about humanity and going through the various experiences which will make their adulthood more productive.

Pierre Trudeau
Who is it that said that 'you have not converted a man because you have silenced him?' This is true of the use of the military on people.

Pierre Trudeau
As does every young man studying philosophy, I naturally asked myself questions about the truth of all this, and about the meaning of freedom, predestination, and liberty of choice and so on. But to have asked questions of yourself about it, I think is not too important. Let's say - I remain - I remained a believer.

Pierre Trudeau
I think the sense of exclusivity that tended to be associated with religions in past times has now disappeared. At least it has disappeared in its political and social manifestations as far as I can see.

Pierre Trudeau
It seems to me it would be pretty awful if Canadians came to choose political leaders not for their political ideas and actions, but because of their adherence or their devotedness to one faith or another.

Pierre Trudeau
A country, after all, is not something you build as the pharaohs built the pyramids, and then leave standing there to defy eternity. A country is something that is built every day out of certain basic shared values.

Pierre Trudeau
The twentieth century really belongs to those who will build it. The future can be promised to no one.

Pierre Trudeau
I walked until midnight in the storm, then I went home and took a sauna for an hour and a half. It was all clear. I listened to my heart and saw if there were any signs of my destiny in the sky, and there were none — there were just snowflakes.

Pierre Trudeau
Democracy demands that elected members be able to realize fully the role for which they have been chosen.

Pierre Trudeau
We aimed far and high, but we did not miss the mark.

Pierre Trudeau
Of course a bilingual state is more expensive than a unilingual one — but it is a richer state.

Pierre Trudeau
I don't know if the member of Prince Edward-Hastings thinks he's on camera, but he's not.

Pierre Trudeau
On U.S.-Canadian relations:
Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered the beast, one is affected by every twitch and groan.

Pierre Trudeau
I remember thinking that walking on the beach as a free man is pretty desirable.

Pierre Trudeau
As against the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith, there has to be a visible hand of politicians whose objective is to have the kind of society that is caring and humane.

Pierre Trudeau
I don't really know what a cyclotron is but I am certainly very happy Canada has one!

Pierre Trudeau
Let us overthrow the totems, break the taboos. Or better, let us consider them cancelled. Coldly, let us be intelligent.

Pierre Trudeau
What is considered sinful in one of the great religions to which citizens belong isn't necessarily sinful in the others. Criminal law therefore cannot be based on the notion of sin; it is crimes that it must define.

Pierre Trudeau
A good camper knows that it is more important to be ingenious than to be a genius.

Pierre Trudeau
I believe a constitution can permit the co-existence of several cultures and ethnic groups with a single state.

Pierre Trudeau