Harold MacMillan Quotes
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It's no use crying over spilt summits.
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There are three bodies no sensible man directly challenges: the Roman Catholic Church, the Brigade of Guards and the National Union of Mineworkers
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Stop-Go seemed more sensiblr than using the brake and accelerator at the same time - a practice that later became fashionable.
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No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Wife or mother, if it is both, he is twice blessed indeed.
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Once the bear's hug has got you, it is apt to be for keeps.
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After a long life I have come to the conclusion that when all the Establishment is united it is always wrong.
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The wind of change is blowing through the continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.
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To be alive at all involves some risk.
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We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.
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I read a great number of press reports and find comfort in the fact that they are nearly always conflicting.
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You can hardly say boo to a goose in the House of Commons now without cries of "Ungentlemanly," "Not fair" and all the rest.
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Too many people live too much in the past. The past must be a springboard, not a sofa.
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If people want a sense of purpose they should get it from their archbishop. They should certainly not get it from their politicians.
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After long experience of politics, I have never found that there is any inhibition caused by ignorance as regards criticism.
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It isn't those who always addressing each other as comrade who necessarily show the most brotherly feelings.
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Churchill was fundamentally what the English call unstable - by which they mean anybody who has that touch of genius which is inconvenient in normal times.
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It was a storm in a tea cup, but in politics we sail in paper boats.
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I was determined that no British government should be brought down by the action of two tarts.
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History is apt to judge harshly those who sacrifice tomorrow for today.
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I'd like that translated, if I may.
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Although I am still in favour of a National Government in these difficult times, and shall probably be found in the great majority of cases in the Government Lobby, there are some issues that have arisen, or are likely to arise, upon which I am unable to give the Government the support which it has, perhaps, the right to expect from those receiving the Government Whip. It occurs to me, therefore, that it would perhaps be more satisfactory if I was no longer regarded as being among the supporters of the present Administration.
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When the curtain falls, the best thing an actor can do is to go away.
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90% of what we did the Press didn't know about, and 90% of what they did know about they got wrong.
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One nanny said, "Feed a cold"; she was a neo-Keynesian. Another nanny said, "Starve a cold"; she was a monetarist.
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Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, it means that the dead are living.
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Revolt by all means, but only on one issue at a time. To do more would be to confuse the whips.
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You will find the Americans much as the Greeks found the Romans: great, big, vulgar, bustling people more vigorous than we are and also more idle, with more unspoiled virtues but also more corrupt.
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If ever the call comes to them, the young will go straight from the ranks of the neutralists into the ranks of he Majesty's Forces, as they have so often done in the past.
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It is a good thing to be laughed at. It is better than to be ignored.
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A Foreign Secretaryand this applies also to a prospective Foreign Secretaryis always faced with this cruel dilemma. Nothing he can say can do very much good, and almost anything he may say may do a great deal of harm. Anything he says that is not obvious is dangerous; whatever is not trite is risky. He is forever poised between the cliche and the indiscretion.
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Harold MacMillan
- Born: February 10, 1894
- Died: December 29, 1986
- Occupation: Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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