Politics Quotes

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over, I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.

The world today is ruled by harassed politicians absorbed in getting into office or turning out the other man so that not much room is left for debating the great issues on their merits.

I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.

We have no lasting friends, no lasting enemies, only lasting interests.

There is no greater mistake than to suppose that platitudes, smooth words, timid policies, offer today a path to safety.

The Russians will try all the rooms in a house, enter those that are not locked, and when they come to one that cannot be broken into, they will withdraw and invite you to dine genially that same evening.

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

Soviet Union foreign policy is a puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma, and the key is Russian nationalism.

If I had been an Italian I am sure that I should have been whole-heartedly with you from the start to finish in your triumphant struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

Everybody has always underrated the Russians. They keep their own secrets alike from foe and friends.

Neville Chamberlain looked at foreign affairs through the wrong end of a municipal drainpipe.

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.

By noon it was clear that the Socialists would have a majority. At luncheon my wife said to me, 'It may well be a blessing in disguise.' I replied, 'At the moment it seems quite effectively disguised.'

I have lived my life in the House of Commons, having served there for 52 out of the last 54 years of this tumultuous and convulsive century. I have indeed seen all the ups and downs of fate and fortune there, but I have never ceased to love and honour the Mother of Parliaments, the model of the legislative assemblies of so many lands.

If I had been properly supported in 1919, I think we might have strangled Bolshevism in its cradle, but everybody turned up their hands and said, 'How shocking!'

Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught, but I shall not attempt to foreshadow the proposals which will be brought before the House tomorrow. Today it will be sufficient and appropriate to deal with the obvious difficulties and confusion of the situation as we found it on taking office.

The Family Allowance Act was passed by the Conservative Caretaker Government. School milk was started in 1934 by a Conservative Parliament. The idea of welfare foods was largely developed by Lord Woolton. The Education Act was the work of Mr Butler... These facts should be repeated on every occasion by those who wish the truths to be known.

In the twinkling of an eye I found myself without an office, without a seat, without a party, and without an appendix.