Aneurin Bevan Quotes - Page 2

Fascism is not in itself a new order of society. It is the future refusing to be born.

It is an axiom, enforced by all the experience of the ages, that they who rule industrially will rule politically.

There are two ways of getting into the Cabinet - you can crawl in or kick your way in.

Freedom is the by-product of economic surplus.

Trade unions are islands of anarchy in a sea of chaos.

Virtue is its own punishment.

You don't have to gaze into a crystal ball when you can read an open book.

Stand not too near the rich man lest he destroy thee - and not too far away lest he forget thee.

Listening to a speech by [Neville] Chamberlain is like paying a visit to Woolworth's, everything in its place and nothing above sixpence.

Reactionary: a man walking backwards with his face to the future.

I have never regarded politics as the arena of morals. It is the arena of interest.

The hero's need of the people outlasts their need of him.

A Society in which the people's wants do not exceed their possessions is not a Socialist society.

The language of priorities is the religion of socialism.

Advertising is 'an evil service'.

In Germany democracy died by the headman's axe. In Britain it can be by pernicious anaemia.

You call that statesmanship. I call it an emotional spasm.

The Prime Minister wins debate after debate and loses battle after battle. The country is beginning to say that he fights debates like a war and the war like a debate.

Why should I question the monkey when I can question the organ grinder.

I know that the right kind of political leader for the Labour Party is a desiccated calculating machine.

He brings to the fierce struggle of politics the tepid enthusiasm of a lazy summer afternoon at a cricket match.

The worst thing I can say about democracy is that it has tolerated the right hon. Gentleman for four and a half years.

There can be no immaculate conception of socialism.

He has the lucidity which is the by-product of a fundamentally sterile mind.

Now, the vicissitudes that afflict the individual have their source in society. It is this situation that has given currency to the phrase social forces. Personal relations have given way to impersonal ones. The Great Society has arrived and the task of our generation is to bring it under control. The study of how it is to be done is the function of politics.