Bernard Levin Quotes

• Countries like ours are full of people who have all of the material comforts they desire, yet lead lives of quiet (and at times noisy) desperation, understanding nothing but the fact that there is a hole inside them and that however much food and drink they pour into it, however many motorcars and television sets they stuff it with, however many well-balanced children and loyal friends they parade around the edges of it. . . it aches!

  Bernard Levin

  Country, Children, Food

  47 Copy quote

• In every age of transition men are never so firmly bound to one way of life as when they are about to abandon it.

  Bernard Levin

  Men, Age, Transition

  'The Pendulum Years' (1970) ch. 4

  50 Copy quote

• If we expected self-reliance of family groups, if we expected hardiness and resilience and initiative on the part of individuals, and if we rewarded initiative instead of dependence on government, we would not only ameliorate many of the family-related social problems we see at present, but we would also reduce our vulnerability to terrorism. People who are hardy, resilient, and self reliant are a lot harder to terrorize.

  Bernard Levin

  Government, Self, People

  55 Copy quote

• Once, when a British Prime Minister sneezed, men half a world away would blow their noses. Now when a British Prime Minister sneezes nobody else will even say 'Bless You'.

  Bernard Levin

  Blow, Men, Noses

  19 Copy quote

• Ask a man which way he is going to vote, and he will probably tell you. Ask him, however, why, and vagueness is all.

  Bernard Levin

  Men, Political, Vagueness

  21 Copy quote

• I suppose we all tend to remember only the happiness from our childhood, as a sundial refuses to tell the time except in fine weather.

  Bernard Levin

  Weather, Childhood, Remember

  Bernard Levin (1984). “Enthusiasms”, Random House Value Publishing

  9 Copy quote

• Let us never allow ourselves to think that poverty is an excuse for an invitation to totalitarianism, and if we should be tempted to think as much, let us remind ourselves that totalitarianism not only extinguishes liberty but institutionalises poverty as well

  Bernard Levin

  Thinking, Liberty, Poverty

  10 Copy quote

• What has happened to architecture since the second world war that the only passers-by who can contemplate it without pain are those equipped with a white stick and a dog?

  Bernard Levin

  Dog, Pain, War

  9 Copy quote

• Whom the mad would destroy, first they make gods.

  Bernard Levin

  Mad, Firsts

  4 Copy quote

• It is assumed that when anyone gets into debt, the fault is entirely and always the fault of the lender.

  Bernard Levin

  Debt, Faults, Lenders

  4 Copy quote

• The less the power, the greater the desire to exercise it.

  Bernard Levin

  Exercise, Power, Desire

  7 Copy quote

• No amount of manifest absurdity... could deter those who wanted to believe from believing.

  Bernard Levin

  Believe, Absurdity, Manifest

  Bernard Levin (1970). “Run it Down the Flagpole: Britain in the Sixties”

  10 Copy quote

• The cure for mixed metaphors, I have always found, is for the patient to be obliged to draw a picture of the result.

  Bernard Levin

  Patient, Metaphor, Results

  Bernard Levin (1986). “In these times”, Jonathan Cape

  7 Copy quote

• Because tobacco is responsible for an impressive one-third of cancers, prevention efforts naturally begin with it.

  Bernard Levin

  Cancer, Effort, Prevention

  12 Copy quote

• The Stag at Bay with the mentality of a fox at large.

  Bernard Levin

  Foxes, Stags, Mentality

  On Harold Macmillan; attributed

  8 Copy quote

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