Tony Benn Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Change from below, the formulation of demands from the populace to end unacceptable injustice, supported by direct action, has played a far larger part in shaping British democracy than most constitutional lawyers, political commentators, historians or statesmen have ever cared to admit. Direct action in a democratic society is fundamentally an educational exercise.

  Tony Benn

  Educational, Exercise, Direct Action

  "New Politics" Magazine, 1970.

  26 Copy quote

• I'm interested in language. We used to call it the War Office. Then it became the Ministry of Defence. We used to talk about the hydrogen bomb, now we talk about a deterrent. And the language is very cleverly constructed to give the impression that it's not what it is.

  Tony Benn

  War, Giving, Office

  Source: think-left.org

  10 Copy quote

• I don't believe in the hereditary principle in the House of Lords. Imagine going to the dentist, sitting in the chair and he says, 'I'm not a dentist myself, but my father was a dentist and his father before him. Now, open wide!

  Tony Benn

  Father, Believe, House

  18 Copy quote

• If one meets a powerful person - Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates - ask them five questions: 'What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?' If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.

  Tony Benn

  Powerful, Exercise, People

  Members in the Commons Hansard Debates, publications.parliament.uk. March 22, 2001.

  37 Copy quote

• When Blair was elected leader of the Labour Party, he said, "New Labour is a new political party" - that was the phrase he used, and I'm so glad he said it because he set up his own party and I'm not a member of it.

  Tony Benn

  Party, Leader, Political

  Source: mattkennard.tumblr.com

  23 Copy quote

• There's people on the left who say, the ballot box is a waste of time. Forget them. When Mandela voted for the first time at the age of 76 there was a lot of grown men, including me, wept buckets. That was what it was about. It doesn't solve things, but it gives you the mechanism to hold to account the people with power.

  Tony Benn

  Men, People, Giving

  Source: think-left.org

  26 Copy quote

• It's the same each time with progress. First they ignore you, then they say you're mad, then dangerous, then there's a pause and then you can't find anyone who disagrees with you.

  Tony Benn

  Creativity, Mad, Innovation

  1991 Speech at the Labour Party Conference, Oct.

  16 Copy quote

• The nature of the economic system should be a matter for public choice, and free market capitalism should not be accepted without any discussion of the rich variety of alternatives ... Unlike civil laws, economic laws are imposed on people with all the authority of immutable laws of nature. But the economy is created by people, supported by government intervention, regulation, statute and subsidy, and implemented in such a way that it gives substantial wealth and power to a privileged few, while the majority face a life of relentless work, stress and periodic financial insecurity.

  Tony Benn

  Stress, Acceptance, Government Intervention

  18 Copy quote

• Remember, imperialism is always presented as humanitarian: the white man's burden, the cross going round the world, the poor benighted natives, the sun never sets. . . So you have to be very careful about humanitarianism.

  Tony Benn

  World, Remember, Imperialism

  Source: think-left.org

  7 Copy quote

• The people who have sacrificed their view in order to get to the top have very often left no footprints in the sands of time.

  Tony Benn

  Views, Order, People

  11 Copy quote

• I did publish a Bill once called "Common Sense" with a new constitution for Europe called the "Commonwealth of Europe," setting it all out - what it's rights were, how it would work. And I think that that will be where is has to go. But I'm not anti-European, I'm just a democrat, a very committed democrat. I don't see why the hell I should obey a law made by someone I didn't elect and can't remove.

  Tony Benn

  Thinking, Common Sense, Constitution

  Source: mattkennard.tumblr.com

  4 Copy quote

• There is no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons.

  Tony Benn

  Suicide, War, Differences

  "Question Time" (BBC), March 22, 2007.

  11 Copy quote

• A faith is something you die for; a doctrine is something you kill for; there is all the difference in the world.

  Tony Benn

  Differences, Doctrine, World

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  13 Copy quote

• Well, it all began with Democracy. Before we had the vote all the power was in the hands of rich people. If you had money you could get health care, education, look after yourself when you were old, and what democracy did was to give the poor the vote and it moved power from the marketplace to the polling station, from the wallet...to the ballot.

  Tony Benn

  Hands, Giving, People

  20 Copy quote

• Encouragement is the most important thing in the world for young people, rather than league tables, which demoralise everyone.

  Tony Benn

  Encouragement, People, League

  Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

  16 Copy quote

• Britain's continuing membership of the Community would mean the end of Britain as a completely self-governing nation...

  Tony Benn

  Mean, Self, Community

  "The Common Market: Loss of Self-Government". Book by Tony Benn, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

• The First World War created the Second World War because that was a war between three grandsons of Queen Victoria: The King of England, the Kaiser and the Tsar married Queen Victoria's granddaughter. And that triggered Communism in Russia and Fascism in Germany and led to the Second World War.

  Tony Benn

  War, Granddaughter, World

  Source: mattkennard.tumblr.com

  13 Copy quote

• I met somebody once who said, "I'm a lapsed-atheist" by what he meant was, "I don't believe in God but the older I get the more I realise there is a spirituality in everybody that has to be cherished and nourished." That made a lot of sense to me.

  Tony Benn

  Believe, Spirituality, Believe In God

  Source: mattkennard.tumblr.com

  14 Copy quote

• It is wholly wrong to blame Marx for what was done in his name, as it is to blame Jesus for what was done in his

  Tony Benn

  Jesus, Names, Done

  In Alan Freeman The Benn Heresy (1982) p. 172

  4 Copy quote

• I think democracy is the most revolutionary thing in the world, because if you have power you use it to meet the needs of you and your community.

  Tony Benn

  Thinking, Community, Democracy

  "Sicko". Documentary, Drama, 2007.

  17 Copy quote

• I try to operate on two unconnected levels. One on the practical level of action in which I am extremely cautious and conservative. The second is the realm of ideas where I try to be very free

  Tony Benn

  Ideas, Two, Trying

  12 Copy quote

• I think if journalists were responsible for international policy we'd have a nuclear war every week.

  Tony Benn

  War, Thinking, Week

  Source: designermagazine.tripod.com

  7 Copy quote

• Democracy is not just voting every 5 years and watching 'Big Brother' in between and wondering why nothing happens. Democracy is what we do and say where we live and work

  Tony Benn

  Brother, Years, Voting

  6 Copy quote

• I try not to make political arguments personal. It doesn't help and it switches a lot of people off. The real questions: Will we have peace? Will we have justice? Will we have pensions? Will we have free education? Will we have public services? .... those are the sort of things which interest me. I don't think that having a go at individuals really helps get your point across apart from anything else.

  Tony Benn

  Real, Thinking, People

  Source: designermagazine.tripod.com

  5 Copy quote

• We are not just here to manage capitalism but to change society and to define its finer values.

  Tony Benn

  Change, Politics, Politician

  " 10 of the best Tony Benn quotes - as picked by our readers" by James Walsh, www.theguardian.com. March 15, 2014.

  8 Copy quote

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