Pierre Trudeau Quotes
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Let us overthrow the totems, break the taboos. Or better, let us consider them cancelled. Coldly, let us be intelligent.
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In academic life you seek to state absolute truths; in politics you seek to accommodate truth to the facts around you.
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I was too busy doing my job and living my life to spend time keeping notes for some future volume of memoirs.
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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.
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I believe military force can be used to redress or change the balance of power in the world, but I think that that's always a losing operation if you're not trying to do it in a way which corresponds to the basic desires of the people on whom you are acting.
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We don't think every man should be free to pass on everything to his descendants.
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Well, I am trying to put Quebec in its place - and the place of Quebec is in Canada, nowhere else.
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Canada is seen to some as a confederation of shopping centres.
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Society is responsible for its social organization, and if it can't provide the wherewithal for men to be gainfully employed then it should pay the penalty and give them welfare.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Because I am a deep believer in the civil society, I think we should be prepared to pay the consequences of breaking the law and that is either paying the penalty for it, or leaving the country.
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Canadians should realise when they are well off under the Monarchy. For the vast majority of Canadians, being a Monarchy is probably the only form of government acceptable to them. I have always been for parliamentary democracy and I think the institution of Monarchy with the Queen heading it all has served Canada well.
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The past is to be respected and acknowledged, but not to be worshipped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness.
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In specific terms I don't think I could make any suggestions, but in general terms I believe that it is because Canadians have been under the good influences of their churches that they are a tolerant people, an understanding and patient people, so that there has been little backlash against the excesses which have happened over the decades in French and in English Canada which might turn either group off.
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You just cannot cut a country in two any more than you can cut a human being in two. If you do, you do not have two human beings; you have a corpse.
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The essential ingredient of politics is timing.
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In my religion I really cannot think of cases where violence is justified.
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I think it's good that you test the reality that surrounds you in your neighbourhood with the reality as it is in other parts of the world; you come up with a better judgment. I'm not meaning that literally you can only do that and not go to school at all but in terms of enrichment of a personality I think it's a fabulous thing.
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Society must take every means at its disposal to defend itself against the emergence of a parallel power which defies the elected power.
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The churches must realize that when they take a position on a political event that they must accept the rules of the game.
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In my political philosophy I think that there sometimes is room for violence.
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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.
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The die is cast in Canada: there are two ethnic and linguistic groups; each is too strong and too deeply rooted in the past, too firmly bound to a mother culture, to be able to swamp the other. But if the two will collaborate inside of a truly pluralist state, Canada could become a privileged place where the federalist form of government, which is the government of tomorrow's world, will be perfected.
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The Canadian community must invest, for the defence and better appreciation of the French language, as much time, energy, and money as are required to prevent the country from breaking up
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My life is one long curve, full of turning points.
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For my part...I am a realist but, somehow, optimism always keeps breaking out.
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If I found in my own ranks that a certain number of guys wanted to cut my throat, I'd make sure that I cut their throats first.
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The federal government is the balance wheel of the federal system, and the federal system means using counterweights.
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Pierre Trudeau
- Born: October 18, 1919
- Died: September 28, 2000
- Occupation: Former Prime Minister of Canada