Harold Wilson Quotations

This Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.

If I had the choice between smoked salmon and tinned salmon, I'd have it tinned. With vinegar.

A week is a long time in politics.

I believe the greatest asset a head of state can have is the ability to get a good night's sleep.

I'm at my best in a messy, middle-of-the-road muddle.

I'm an optimist, but an optimist who carries a raincoat.

He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.

Whichever party is in office, the Treasury is in power.

We are redefining and we are restating our Socialism in terms of the scientific revolution ... The Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or outdated methods on either side of industry.

Everybody should have an equal chance - but they shouldn't have a flying start.

The main essentials of a successful prime minister are sleep and a sense of history.

One man's wage increase is another man's price increase.

Given a fair wind, we will negotiate our way into the Common Market, head held high, not crawling in. Negotiations? Yes. Unconditional acceptance of whatever terms are offered us? No.

What he proposes is, in my view ... unacceptable.

We did not bring our A game on offense. I was happy with how we played on defense.

When they tore that (gas station) down about six years ago, it affected my breathing for weeks.

My friend, we don't support savages, we just allow them to come to our meetings,

Negotiations? Yes. Unconditional acceptance of whatever terms are offered us? No.

On one side was contaminated and on our side (it) is absolutely. Oil, gas, anything -- I watched them walk out the back door and pour it out. I asked SCI to go over there and drill and they said no, they could only drill three holes. I saw the report from the EPA and I called Phil Harris (sic) and said, 'You're not telling the truth!'

From now the pound abroad is worth 14 per cent or so less in terms of other currencies. It does not mean, of course, that the pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse or in your bank, has been devalued.

He's capable. We'll see a lot of good things from him. He's a good defender. He's a good shooter. He's just got to get a little physically stronger as he matures. But we'll see a lot of big things from him.

He wanted to play hard. He gives it all he's got. That's why I've got to sub him pretty frequently, because he plays hard.

Kids have a mindset - and a lot of people have a mindset - that you have to have a starting five, and they're supposed to play as much as they can. What we had to understand was if we wanted the starters to finish strong, we had to have that other group play. We had to keep up the pace and tempo to keep the defense continually strong. We had to wear down our opponents.

I thought we got off to a good start. You are always concerned how your team is going to play especially in a big game like this. But we got a lead and a working margin.

Our big guy (Julian McLain) got in foul trouble early, and it seemed like on the other end it didn't work out. I'll just say early we didn't hit our open jump shots and then probably missed more free throws than we usually do.

We got out of it early, and we just couldn't recover. I'm not really that concerned about how many points we gave up. We played hard on defense. Our offense wasn't clicking.

You don't send a balloon up and then put a pin in it. He's gotten to the age where he should think about retiring.

Everybody wants to be here. We made it and we wanted to represent as well as we could. Unfortunately, we didn't come up big enough offensively tonight.

I'm not really concerned with how many points we gave up. That's fine for us. What we did, we didn't score on offense our own selves. I know they're a good defensive team, but our offense just wasn't clicking.

I knew we had some good athletes, because I had had them in junior high, and I had won with them in junior high.

I knew this team could shoot the basketball and it wasn't over. We just had to be smart and tell them that just because we had a lead we couldn't cruise on in.

I moved in here 12 years ago to die. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I was told I had five years to live. I've been living on borrowed time for seven years.

I followed the EPA and tried to get them to go over where all the gas was poured from the radiator shop,

I have not always in my dealings with General de Gaulle found quotations from Trafalgar and Waterloo necessarily productive, and he has been very tactful about the Battle of Hastings.

I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat.

The only limits of power are the bounds of belief.

This party is a bit like an old stagecoach. If you drive along at a rapid rate everyone aboard is either so exhilarated or so seasick that you don't have a lot of difficulty.

Every dog is allowed one bite, but a different view is taken of a dog that goes on biting all the time. He may not get his licence returned when it falls due.

The office of president requires the constitution of an athlete, the patience of a mother, the endurance of an early Christian.

The monarchy is a labor intensive industry.

Tories never actually talk about getting rid of their leader, then suddenly there us a flash of steel betweent he shoulder-blades and rigormortis sets in.

May I say, for the benefit of those who have been carried away by the gossip of the last few days, that I know what's going on. [pause] I'm going on, and the Labour government's going on.

With the ministry's motto 'Research on a Shoestring' emblazoned on his coat of arms, he has to struggle with a treasury more interested in surtax relief than national survival. [Responding to an earlier statement by British Science Minister, Lord Hailsham, that British scientists were being recruited by the U.S.]

The government have only a small majority in the House of Commons. I want to make it quite clear that this will not affect our ability to govern. Having been charged with the duties of Government we intend to carry out those duties.

[Criticizing as "appalingly complacent" a Conservative Government report that by the '60s, Britain would be producing all the scientists needed] Of course we shall, if we don't give science its proper place in our national life. We shall no doubt be training all the bullfighters we need, because we don't use many.

In politics a week is a very long time.

On 5 September, when the TUC unanimously rejected wage restraint, it was the end of an era, and all the financiers, all the little gnomes in Zürich and other finance centres about whom we keep on hearing, had started to make their dispositions in regard to sterling.

The cumulative effects of the economic and financial sanctions might well bring the rebellion to an end within a matter of weeks rather than months.

All these financiers, all the little gnomes of Zürich and the other financial centres, about whom we keep on hearing.

Selsdon Man is designing a system of society for the ruthlessness and the pushing, the uncaring. His message to the rest is: you're out on your own.

There is something utterly nauseating about a system of society which pays a harlot 25 times as much as it pays its prime minister, 250 times as much as it pays its members of Parliament and 500 times as much as it pays some of its ministers of religion.

It is quite clear to me that the Tory Party will get rid of Mrs Thatcher in about 3 years time.

The ambition of the present Labour government is that every worker in the country will have a greater than average income.

Debating against him is no fun, say something insulting and he looks at you like a whipped dog.

If the Tories get in, in five years no one will be able to afford to buy an egg.

The Labour Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.

From now on, the pound abroad is worth 14 per cent or so less in terms of other currencies. That doesn't mean, of course, that the Pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse or in your bank, has been devalued.

I get a little nauseated, perhaps, when I hear the phrase 'freedom of the press' used as freely as it is, knowing that a large part of our proprietorial press is not free at all.

I'm an optimist, but I'm an optimist who takes his raincoat.

He who rejects change is the architect of decay.

The labour party is like a stage-coach. If you rattle along at great speed everybody inside is too exhilarated or too seasick to cause any trouble. But if you stop everybody gets out and argues about where to go next.

The judge then handed down three sentences of death -- one for each of the victims. After he said it, I was wondering, how are they going to kill me three times? I was transferred to the death row facility. When I arrived at the facility, I was housed in isolation from the general population. I was in shock. I was in a different world.

All these financiers, all the little gnomes in Zurich.