Harold Macmillan quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Harold Macmillan

Harold Macmillan Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Harold Macmillan on Wise Famous Quotes.

I am MacWonder one moment and MacBlunder the next.

No man should ever lose sleep over public affairs.

I was a sort of son to Ike, and it was the other way round with Kennedy.

Stop-Go seemed more sensiblr than using the brake and accelerator at the same time - a practice that later became fashionable.

Power? It's like a Dead Sea fruit. When you achieve it, there is nothing there.

It was a storm in a tea cup, but in politics we sail in paper boats.

If you don't believe in God, all you have to believe in is decency. Decency is very good. Better decent than indecent. But I don't think it's enough.

He is forever poised between a cliche and an indiscretion.

There might be 1 finger on the trigger, but there will be 15 fingers on the safety catch.

Jaw-jaw is better than war-war.

Once the bear's hug has got you, it is apt to be for keeps.

Memorial services are the cocktail parties of the geriatric set.

If people want a sense of purpose they should get it from their archbishop. They should certainly not get it from their politicians.

It isn't those who always addressing each other as comrade who necessarily show the most brotherly feelings.

90% of what we did the Press didn't know about, and 90% of what they did know about they got wrong.

I read a great number of press reports and find comfort in the fact that they are nearly always conflicting.

I'd like that translated, if I may.

Revolt by all means, but only on one issue at a time. To do more would be to confuse the whips.

Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, it means that the dead are living.

There are three bodies no sensible man directly challenges: the Roman Catholic Church, the Brigade of Guards and the National Union of Mineworkers

After long experience of politics, I have never found that there is any inhibition caused by ignorance as regards criticism.

After a long life I have come to the conclusion that when all the Establishment is united it is always wrong.

I have learned that in all negotiations nothing matters except the will to reach agreement.

I have never found, in a long experience of politics, that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.

One nanny said, "Feed a cold"; she was a neo-Keynesian. Another nanny said, "Starve a cold"; she was a monetarist.

We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.

Britain's most useful role is somewhere between bee and dinosaur.

We believe that unless we give opportunity to the strong and able, we shall never have the means to provide real protection for the weak and the old.

Too many people live too much in the past. The past must be a springboard, not a sofa.

A man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.

Marxism is like a classical building that followed the Renaissance; beautiful in its way, but incapable of growth.

At home, you always have to be a politician; when you're abroad, you almost feel yourself a statesman.

You can hardly say boo to a goose in the House of Commons now without cries of "Ungentlemanly," "Not fair" and all the rest.

Most of our people have never had it so good.

It's a good thing to be laughed at. It's better than to be ignored.

(A Foreign Secretary) is forever poised between the cliche and the indiscretion.

When the curtain falls, the best thing an actor can do is to go away.

It's no use crying over spilt summits.

I was determined that no British government should be brought down by the action of two tarts.

History is apt to judge harshly those who sacrifice tomorrow for today.

It is the duty of Her Majesty's government neither to flap nor to falter.

The only quality needed for an MP is the ability to write a good letter.

The wind of change is blowing through the continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.