Ernest Bevin Quotes

• Unintelligent people always look for a scapegoat.

  Ernest Bevin

  Ignorance, People, Intelligence

  66 Copy quote

• A newspaper has three things to do. One is to amuse, another is to entertain and the rest is to mislead.

  Ernest Bevin

  Historical, Three, Propaganda

  26 Copy quote

• The first thing to decide before you walk into any negotiation is what to do if the other fellow says 'no'.

  Ernest Bevin

  Business, Firsts, Negotiation

  28 Copy quote

• Foreign policy isn't something that is great and big, it's common sense and humanity as it applies to my affairs and yours.

  Ernest Bevin

  Common Sense, Humanity, Affair

  17 Copy quote

• Civilisation cannot survive if it rests on a propertyless proletariat.

  Ernest Bevin

  Proletariat, Civilisation, Property

  22 Copy quote

• My policy is to be able to take a ticket at Victoria station and go anywhere I damn well please!

  Ernest Bevin

  Able, Tickets, Damn

  In 'Spectator' 20 April 1951, p. 514

  26 Copy quote

• If you open that Pandora's Box you never know what Trojan 'orses will jump out.

  Ernest Bevin

  Funny, Humor, Pandora's Box

  On the Council of Europe, in Sir Roderick Barclay 'Ernest Bevin and Foreign Office' (1975) ch. 3

  22 Copy quote

• There never has been a war yet which, if the facts had been put calmly before the ordinary folk, could not have been prevented ... The common man, I think, is the great protection against war.

  Ernest Bevin

  Peace, War, Thinking

  Hansard 23 Nov. 1945, col. 786

  16 Copy quote

• Ernest Bevin had many of the strongest characteristics of the English race. His manliness, his common sense, his rough simplicity, sturdiness and kind heart, easy geniality and generosity, all are qualities which we who live in the southern part of this famous island regard with admiration.

  Ernest Bevin

  Heart, Islands, Race

  24 Copy quote

• It was like a life-line to a sinking man. It seemed to bring hope where there was none. The generosity of it was beyond our belief.

  Ernest Bevin

  War, Men, Generosity

  19 Copy quote

• The most conservative man in this world is the British trade unionist when you want to change him.

  Ernest Bevin

  Change, Men, Political

  Speech, 8 Sept. 1927, in Report of Proceedings of the Trades Union Congress (1927) p. 298

  20 Copy quote

• If you let that sort of thing go on, your bread and butter will be cut right out from under your feet.

  Ernest Bevin

  Cutting, Feet, Stupidity

  15 Copy quote

• There should be a study of a house directly elected by the people of the world to whom the nations are accountable.

  Ernest Bevin

  People, House, World

  House of Commons speech, November 23, 1945.

  15 Copy quote

• What astounds me about the history of the British Navy is how cheaply we have policed the world for 300 years.

  Ernest Bevin

  Years, British Navy, World

  19 Copy quote

• If the workers see themselves faced with defeat through starvation, they will prefer to go down fighting rather than fainting - and whether or not we leaders agree.

  Ernest Bevin

  Fighting, Leader, Defeat

  "New York World" Newspaper, May 10, 1926.

  18 Copy quote

• It is placing the Executive and the Movement in an absolutely wrong position to be taking your conscience round from body to body asking to be told what you ought to do with it.

  Ernest Bevin

  Asking, Movement, Body

  Labour Party Annual Conference Report, (p. 178), 1935.

  9 Copy quote

• There has been great excitement at the prospect that this atomic bomb or atomic energy is likely to produce great industrial energy very quickly, I do not believe it at all.

  Ernest Bevin

  Believe, Energy, Bombs

  10 Copy quote

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