Harold MacMillan Quotes (37 Quotes)


    A strange, a perverted creed that has a queer attraction both for the most primitive and for the most sophisticated societies.

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

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

    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.



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

    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.

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


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


    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.

    The unique advantage of the Bar as a profession is that it offers in later years to those who have succeeded in the sanctuary of the Bench

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

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

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

    Sixty-three years ago the unemployment figure was 29 percent. Last November it was 28 percent. A rather sad end to one's life.

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

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

    The wind of change is blowing through this content, Africa.

    When the curtain falls, the best thing an actor can do is to go away.

    It was not at all like an experience in the modern world. More like meeting George III at Brighton.

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

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

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

    You will find the Americans much like 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

    Memorial services are the cocktail parties of the geriatric set.

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

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


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

    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 is, of course, a trite observation to say that we live 'in a period of transition.' Many people have said this at many times. Adam may well have made the remark to Eve on leaving the Garden of Eden.


    More Harold MacMillan Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Politics - Man - Fool - Duty - Movies - Youth - Communism & Marxism - Unemployment - Actions - Kings & Queens - Sense & Perception - Home - Power - Garden - Experience - Obstacles - Criticism - Mastery & Expertise - Work & Career - View All Harold MacMillan Quotations

    Related Authors


    Virginia Foxx - Sarah Palin - Rudy Giuliani - Michael McLaughlin - Michael Dukakis - Lamar Alexander - Joseph Chamberlain - Helmut Kohl - Gary Hart - Benito Mussolini


Authors (by First Name)

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M
N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Other Inspiring Sections