Harold Macmillan Quotes

• You’ve reached the stage where you must decide whether you’re going to be a good writer or a good public servant. You can’t be both.

  Harold Macmillan

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• A man who was alleged to have the rigidity of a poker without its occasional warmth.

  Harold Macmillan

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• Margaret Thatcher is a brilliant tyrant surrounded by mediocrities.

  Harold Macmillan

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• First of all the Georgian Silver goes, and then all that nice furniture that used to be in the salon. Then the Canalettos go.

  Harold Macmillan

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• There are three bodies no sensible man directly challenges: the Roman Catholic Church, the Brigade of Guards, and the National Union of Mineworkers.

  Harold Macmillan

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• Are we so sure that with 15 representatives…in NATO, acting under the unanimity rule, the deterrent would continue to deter? There may be one finger on the trigger, but there will be 15 fingers on the safety catch.

  Harold Macmillan

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• The most striking of all the impressions that I have formed since I left London a month ago is of the strength of African national consciousness. In different places it may take different forms, but it is happening everywhere. The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, the growth of national consciousness is a political fact.

  Harold Macmillan

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• Let us be frank about it. Most of our people have never had it so good. Go around the country, go to the industrial towns, go to the farms, and you will see a state of prosperity such as we have never had in my lifetime—nor indeed ever in the history of this country.

  Harold Macmillan

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• I thought that the best thing to do was to settle up these little local difficulties, and then turn to the wider vision of the Commonwealth.

  Harold Macmillan

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• When the curtain falls, the best thing an actor can do is to go away.

  Harold Macmillan

• We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.

  Harold Macmillan

• Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, it means that the dead are living.

  Harold Macmillan

• To be alive at all involves some risk.

  Harold Macmillan

• There might be 1 finger on the trigger, but there will be 15 fingers on the safety catch.

  Harold Macmillan

• Power? It’s like a Dead Sea fruit. When you achieve it, there is nothing there.

  Harold Macmillan

• Once the bear’s hug has got you, it is apt to be for keeps.

  Harold Macmillan

• No man should ever lose sleep over public affairs.

  Harold Macmillan

• Memorial services are the cocktail parties of the geriatric set.

  Harold Macmillan

• Marxism is like a classical building that followed the Renaissance; beautiful in its way, but incapable of growth.

  Harold Macmillan

• It’s no use crying over spilt summits.

  Harold Macmillan

Harold Macmillan (35)

Birth:	10th February, 1894
Death:	29th December, 1986
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Politician

About

Harold Macmillan was born in Belgravia, London, England. He was a British Conservative politician and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. He was known for his pragmatism, wit and unflappability. He served in the Grenadier Guards during the First World War. After the war he joined his family business, then entered Parliament in the 1924 General Election, for the northern industrial constituency of Stockton-on-Tees. He served as Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Churchill's successor Sir Anthony Eden. When Eden resigned in 1957 after the Suez Crisis, Macmillan succeeded him as Prime Minister. He studied at Balliol College, Summer Fields School, and Eton College.

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