Pierre Trudeau Quotes

88 Sourced Quotes

Liberalism is the philosophy for our time, because it does not try to conserve every tradition of the past, because it does not apply to new problems the old doctrinaire solutions, because it is prepared to experiment and innovate and because it knows that the past is less important than the future.

Pierre Trudeau
We peer so suspiciously at each other that we cannot see that we Canadians are standing on the mountaintop of human wealth, freedom and privilege.

Pierre Trudeau
Trudeau: Well there are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don't like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is, go on and bleed. But it's more important to keep law and order in the society than to be worried about weak-kneed people who don't like the looks of a soldier—
CBC reporter Tim Ralfe [interrupting]: At any cost? How far would you go with that? How far would you extend that?
Trudeau: Well, just watch me.

Pierre Trudeau
The federal government is the balance wheel of the federal system, and the federal system means using counterweights.

Pierre Trudeau
I was too busy doing my job and living my life to spend time keeping notes for some future volume of memoirs.

Pierre Trudeau
I never actually got around to taping conversations with my guests, but there are a lot of things you can learn from a man like Nixon.

Pierre Trudeau
There is no such thing as a model or ideal Canadian. What could be more absurd than the concept of an "all Canadian" boy or girl? A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate.

Pierre Trudeau
Our hopes are high. Our faith in the people is great. Our courage is strong. And our dreams for this beautiful country will never die.

Pierre Trudeau
The state has an active role to play in ensuring that there is equilibrium between the constituent parts of the economy, the consumers and the producers.

Pierre Trudeau
What is wonderful about a university like LSE is that you not only receive teaching of very high quality, you also learn where to find the knowledge you are seeking. And you make unexpected discoveries; it was a Marxist professor who introduced me to the work of Cardinal Newman, a great master of English prose as well as theology.

Pierre Trudeau
I would not know how to instill a taste for adventure in those who have not acquired it.... And yet there are people who suddenly tear themselves away from their comfortable existence and, using the energy of their bodies as an example to their brains, apply themselves to the discovery of unsuspected pleasures and places.

Pierre Trudeau
There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.

Pierre Trudeau
The past is to be respected and acknowledged, but not to be worshipped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness.

Pierre Trudeau
What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature.

Pierre Trudeau
The next time you see Jesus Christ, ask Him what happened to the just society He promised 2,000 years ago.

Pierre Trudeau
I must say that "Give Peace a Chance" has always seemed to me to be sensible advice.

Pierre Trudeau
I would have to point out in the strongest terms the autocracy of the Liberal structure and the cowardice of its members. I have never seen in all my examination of politics so degrading a spectacle as that of all these Liberals turning their coats in unison with their Chief, when they saw the chance to take power.

Pierre Trudeau
The Jesuits were good educators, exceptional teachers. In an era and in a society where freedom of speech was not held in high regard, of course, that the discourse be focused on what they were teaching, but we were able to go beyond this framework without incurring too great a risk.

Pierre Trudeau
Paddling a canoe is a source of enrichment and inner renewal.

Pierre Trudeau
I, for one, will be convinced that the Canada we know and love will be gone forever. But, then, Thucydides wrote that Themistocles' greatness lay in the fact that he realized Athens was not immortal. I think we have to realize that Canada is not immortal; but, if it is going to go, let it go with a bang rather than a whimper.

Pierre Trudeau
If you want to see me again, don't bring signs saying "Trudeau is a pig" and don't bring signs that he hustles women, because I won't talk to you. I didn't get into politics to be insulted. And don't throw wheat at me either. If you don't stop that, I'll kick you right in the ass.

Pierre Trudeau
We must now establish the basic principles, the basic values and beliefs which hold us together as Canadians so that beyond our regional loyalties there is a way of life and a system of values which make us proud of the country that has given us such freedom and such immeasurable joy.

Pierre Trudeau
Bilingualism is not an imposition on the citizens. The citizens can go on speaking one language or six languages, or no languages if they so choose. Bilingualism is an imposition on the state and not the citizens.

Pierre Trudeau
Oh, for Christ's sake shut up. Obviously the New Democratic Party is not only misinformed but uninterested in the subject.

Pierre Trudeau
I saw the charter as an expression of my long-held view that the subject of law must be the individual human being; the law must permit the individual to fulfil himself or herself to the utmost.

Pierre Trudeau
The community of man should be treated in the same way you would treat your community of brothers or fellow citizens.

Pierre Trudeau
If Canada is to survive, it can only survive in mutual respect and in love for one another.

Pierre Trudeau
Canada regards herself as responsible to all mankind for the peculiar ecological balance that now exists so precariously in the water, ice and land areas of the Arctic archipelago. We do not doubt for a moment that the rest of the world would find us at fault, and hold us liable, should we fail to ensure adequate protection of that environment from pollution or artificial deterioration.

Pierre Trudeau