Ministers Quotes - Page 29

• Since dictating the Bible, and hiring a perfect race of ministers to explain it, God has never done much but creep around and try to catch us disobeying it.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Race, Perfect, Trying

  Sinclair Lewis (1995). “Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott”, p.141, Penguin

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• Families, when a child is born Want it to be intelligent. I, through intelligence, Having wrecked my whole life, Only hope the baby will prove Ignorant and stupid. Then he will crown a tranquil life By becoming a Cabinet Minister.

  Stephen King

  Baby, Children, Stupid

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• No British Prime Minister of the last seventy years has been more harshly stereotyped than Stanley Baldwin. No one has been so much ignored, after the initial judgements of contemporaries had been made.

  Stanley Baldwin

  Years, Judgement, Lasts

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• What acquaintance have the people at large with the arena of political rectitude, with the connections of kingdoms, the resources of national strength, the abilities of ministers, or even with their own dispositions?...I pay no regard whatever to the voice of the people: it is their duty to do what is proper, without considering what may be agreeable.

  Charles James Fox

  Voice, People, Political

  "The Speeches of the Rt. Hon. C. J. Fox in the House of Commons. Volume I" edited by J. Wright, (pp. 13-14), 1815.

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• The result of cutting [political power] up into little bits is simply that the man who can sweep the greatest number into one heap will govern the rest... In a pure democracy the ruling men will be the wirepullers and their friends; but they will no more be on an equality with the voters than soldiers of Ministers of State are on an equality with the subjects of monarchy.

  James Fitzjames Stephen

  Cutting, Men, Numbers

  James Fitzjames Stephen (1873). “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, p.240

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• A Tory minister can sleep in ten different women's beds in a week. A Labour minister gets it in the neck if he looks at his neighbour's wife over the garden fence.

  Clement Attlee

  Sleep, Garden, Wife

  "Memoirs 1916-1964: The Making of a Prime Minister" by Harold Wilson, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Michael Joseph, London, (p. 121), 1986.

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• One good Man may take another's Word, if they so agree, but a whole Nation ought never to trust to any Honesty, but what is built upon Necessity; for unhappy is the People, and their Constitution will be ever precarious, whose Welfare must depend upon the Virtues and Consciences of Ministers and Politicians.

  Bernard de Mandeville

  Honesty, Men, People

  "The Fable of the Bees". Book by Bernard Mandeville. Remark Q, pp. 207-208, 1732.

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• Today the Israeli government continues seizures of Palestinian land for settlements, military incursions into surrounding countries and denial of the right of Palestinians expelled by terror to return. Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, is a war criminal who should be in prison, not in office. Israel's own Kahan commission found that Sharon shared responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacres.

  Ken Livingstone

  Country, Military, War

  "This is about Israel, not anti-semitism" by Ken Livingstone, www.theguardian.com. March 4, 2005.

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• Faith is not about a building or a lifestyle. You can minister in many ways besides attending services or being a preacher. And I think that that's what I feel most thankful for--that I have the opportunity to minister now, in my own way.

  Clay Aiken

  Opportunity, Thinking, Way

  Clay Aiken (2004). “Learning to Sing”, W Publishing Group

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• My former health minister, Kamran Bagheri Lankarani, is like a peach. I love to eat him.

  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

  Peaches, Former

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• In the last five years I used to go to Zen practice once a month, but since I assumed the post of prime minister it's been much harder.

  Shinzo Abe

  Years, Practice, Lasts

  "Postcard From Japan: Talking Zen, Abenomics, Social Networking and the Constitution With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe". Interview with Arianna Huffington, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 9, 2013.

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• In Japan, usually, once you become prime minister, you do not have a second chance. Probably the reason why that was not the case this time is because Japan is facing an increasingly challenging situation.

  Shinzo Abe

  Second Chance, Japan, Challenges

  "Interview with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe". www.washingtonpost.com. February 20, 2013.

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• I can stand here today, leader of the Labour Party, Prime Minister, and say to the British people: you have never had it so ... prudent.

  Tony Blair

  Party, People, Leader

  Tony Blair's Speech to the Labour Party Conference, news.bbc.co.uk. September 28, 1999.

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• I do here in the most solemn and bitter manner curse the Prime Minister of England [sic] for having cumulated all his other betrayals of the national interest and honour, by his last terrible exhibition of dishonour, weakness and gullibility. The depths of infamy which our accurst "love of peace" can lower us are unfathomable.

  Enoch Powell

  Betrayal, Weakness, Depth

  "Like the Roman. The Life of Enoch Powell" by Simon Heffer, (p. 47), 1999.

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• I refer to the misunderstanding of Soviet Russia as an aggressive power, militaristically and ideologically bent upon world domination 'seeing', to quote a recent speech of the British Prime Minister, 'the rest of the world as its rightful fiefdom.' How any rational person, viewing objectively the history of the last thirty-five years, could entertain this 'international misunderstanding' challenges, if it does not defeat, comprehension. The notion has no basis in fact... If Russia is bent on world conquest, she has been remarkably slothful and remarkably unsuccessful.

  Enoch Powell

  Years, Russia, Challenges

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• The suggestion that the prime minister had been flirting with one of the senior women cabinet ministers made me laugh every time I saw it, and I thought, "if you only knew!" Perhaps they should have pushed it a bit harder.

  Edwina Currie

  Senior, Flirting, Should Have

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• We have fish and chips, which W. and I fetch from the shop in Settle market-place. Some local boys come in and there is a bit of chat between them and the fish-fryer about whether the kestrel under the counter is for sale. Only when I mention it to W. does he explain Kestrel is now a lager. I imagine the future is going to contain an increasing number of incidents like this, culminating with a man in a white coat saying to one kindly, "And now can you tell me the name of the Prime Minister?"

  Alan Bennett

  Boys, Men, Names

  "Writing Home". Book by Alan Bennett, 1994.

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• It is one thing being able to contest an election and to give the people hope that I can be the next prime minister. It is a totally different situation where the people of Pakistan are told that the results are already taken and the leader of your choice is banned.

  Benazir Bhutto

  Taken, Giving, People

  "'I never asked for power'". Interview with Rory McCarthy, www.theguardian.com. August 15, 2002.

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• A Minister can always give a reason; and, if he be clever, he can generally when doing so punish the man who asks for it. The punishing of an influential enemy is an indiscretion; but an obscure questioner may often be crushed with good effect.

  Anthony Trollope

  Clever, Men, Often Is

  Anthony Trollope (2015). “The Palliser Novels: Complete Parliamentary Chronicles (All Six Novels in One Volume): Can You Forgive Her? + Phineas Finn + The Eustace Diamonds + Phineas Redux + The Prime Minister + The Duke’s Children”, p.1776, e-artnow

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• To Him let us but cleave in all ouv strife; and the Tempte1 will flee; the wilderness will be desolate no more; angels will come and minister unto us; and when we pass from them to the ministry of life, be it to the glory of a transfiguration, the sorrows of a Gethsemane, or the sacrifice of the cross, the tran- quilizing peace of God will never be far from us.

  James Martineau

  Angel, Sacrifice, Sorrow

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• The Canadian kid who wants to grow up to be Prime Minister isn't thinking big, he is setting a limit to his ambitions rather early.

  Mordecai Richler

  Growing Up, Ambition, Kids

  Quoted in Time (Canadian ed.), 31 May 1971

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• This was a secret meeting on a secret tour which nobody is supposed to know about. It means that there are men, and perhaps women, in this country walking around with eggs in their pockets, just on the off-chance of seeing the Prime Minister.

  Edward Heath

  Country, Mean, Men

  Edward Heath's remarks to the press after Harold Wilson was hit by eggs thrown by demonstrators on two successive days (June 1, 1970), as quoted in Edward Heath "The Course of My Life" (p. 305), 1998.

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• If the world is ever conquered for our Lord, it is not by ministers, nor by office-bearers, nor by the great, and noble and mighty, but by every member of Christ's body being a working member; doing his work; filling his own sphere; holding his own post; and saying to Jesus, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"

  Thomas Guthrie

  Jesus, Office, Noble

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers". Book by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 128, 1895.

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• John Howard turned the prime ministership into something like a state police minister. He's at the scene of every crime, twice a day on radio, the guy did no thinking.

  Paul Keating

  Thinking, Guy, Police

  "Keating in the Hot Seat". Interview with Kerry O'Brien, www.abc.net.au. August 06, 2008.

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• I used to go to church. I even went through a rather intense religious period when I was sixteen. But the idea of an everlasting life -- a never-ending banquet, as a stupid visiting minister to our church once appallingly described it -- filled me with a greater terror than the concept of extinction.

  Louis Auchincloss

  Religious, Stupid, Ideas

  Louis Auchincloss (2004). “East Side Story: A Novel”, p.93, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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