Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton

Prime Minister of Great Britian

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

"To be alive at all involves some risk."

"No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Wife or mother, if it is both, he is twice blessed indeed."

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

"Bravery is not really vanity, but a kind of concealed pride, because everybody is watching you."

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

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

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

"Memorial services are the cocktail parties of the geriatric set."

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

"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."

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

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

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

"In long experience I find that a man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts."

"It's no use crying over spilt summits."

"A Foreign Secretary ? and this applies also to a prospective Foreign Secretary ? is 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 clich‚ and the indiscretion."

"A good wife makes a good husband"

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

"Although I am still in favor 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."

"As usual the Liberals offer a mixture of sound and original ideas. Unfortunately none of the sound ideas is original and none of the original ideas is sound."

"Forever poised between a clich‚ and an indiscretion."

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

"He is forever poised between a clich‚ and an indiscretion."

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

"I am MacWonder one moment and MacBlunder the next."

"Indeed, let us be frank about it. Most of our people have never had it so good."

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

"I'd like that translated, if I may."

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

"It breaks my heart to see (I can't interfere or do anything at my age) what is happening in our country today - this terrible strike of the best men in the world, who beat the Kaiser's army and beat Hitler's army, and never gave in. Pointless, endless. We can't afford that kind of thing. And then this growing division which the noble Lord who has just spoken mentioned, of a comparatively prosperous south, and an ailing north and midlands. That can't go on."

"It has been said that there is no fool like an old fool, except a young fool. But the young fool has first to grow up to be an old fool to realize what a damn fool he was when he was a young fool."

"It is always a matter of regret from the personal point of view when divergences arise between colleagues, but it is the team that matters and not the individual, and I am quite happy about the strength and the power of the team, and so I thought the best thing to do was to settle up these little local difficulties, and then turn to the wider vision of the Commonwealth."

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

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

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

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

"Jaw-jaw is better than war-war."

"No man should ever lose sleep over public affairs."

"Let?s be frank about it; most of our people have never had it so good."

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

"So what did they do? They solemnly asked Parliament, not to approve or disapprove, but to 'take note' of our decision. Perhaps some of the older ones among you will remember that popular song: 'She didn't say "Yes", she didn't say "No". She didn't say "stay", she didn't say "go". She wanted to climb, but dreaded to fall, she bided her time and clung to the wall.'"

"So there you are ? you can see what it is like. The camera's hot, probing eye, these monstrous machines and their attendants ? a kind of twentieth century torture chamber, that's what it is. But I must try to forget about that, and imagine that you are sitting here in the room with me."

"The most striking of all the impressions I have formed since I left London a month ago is of the strength of this African national consciousness. In different places it may take different forms but it is happening everywhere. The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact."

"The wind of change is blowing through the continent [Africa]."

"The sale of assets is common with individuals and states when they run into financial difficulties. First, all the Georgian silver goes, and then all that nice furniture that used to be in the saloon. Then the Canalettos go."

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

"Up to 1931 there was no reason to suppose that social changes would not, or could not, follow the same evolutionary pattern which had resulted from the increased creation and distribution of wealth during the nineteenth century. Now, after 1931, many of us felt that the disease was more deep-rooted. It had become evident that the structure of capitalist society in its old form had broken down, not only in Britain but all over Europe and even in the United States. The whole system had to be reassessed. Perhaps it could not survive at all; it certainly could not survive without radical change. Something like a revolutionary situation had developed, not only at home but overseas."

"When I ventured to criticize, the other day, this system I was, I am afraid, misunderstood. As a Conservative, I am naturally in favor of returning into private ownership and private management all those means of production and distribution which are now controlled by state capitalism. I am sure they will be more efficient. What I ventured to question was the using of these huge sums as if they were income. I know now, I have learnt now from the letters that I have received, that I am quite out of date. Modern economists have decided there is no difference between capital and income. I am not so sure. In my younger days, I and perhaps others of your Lordships had friends, good friends, very good fellows indeed too, who failed to make this distinction. For a few years everything went on very well, and then at last the crash came, and they were forced to retire out to some dingy lodging-house in Boulogne, or if the estate were larger and the trustees more generous, to a decent accommodation at Baden-Baden."

"We do not intend to part from the Americans and we do not intend to be satellites. I am sure they do not want us to be so. The stronger we are, the better partners we shall be; and I feel certain that as the months pass we shall draw continually closer together with mutual confidence and respect."