Harold Wilson Quotes

In politics a week is a very long time.

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.

This Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.

The only limits of power are the bounds of belief.

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.

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

[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.

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.

We are redefining and we are restating our socialism in terms of the scientific revolution.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.]

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

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.

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