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David Lloyd George
383 quotes
“I am not going to bind myself to the cart-tail of a lot of capitalists. It may be unpleasant to take the money of one plutocrat in exchange for an honour, but when all is said, nothing very serious happens. Whereas if a political party is financed by great trade interests, who want something for their money, the result is certain to be very serious, as no public question would be considered on its merits.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to George Riddell (2 July 1922), quoted in J. M. McEwen (ed.), The Riddell Diaries 1908-1923 (1986), p. 370
“I shall make it quite plain that if there is to be an enquiry, it will have to begin with Lord Salisbury's administration, or at any rate with Arthur Balfour's. ... I don't defend the system, but I have done merely what other Prime Ministers have done, and I am going to make it clear that if I am going down, I am going to bring the temple down with me. I am not going to be sacrificed by people and the descendants of people who have been engaged in carrying on precisely the same system.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his sale of honours, said to George Riddell (8 July 1922), quoted in J. M. McEwen (ed.), The Riddell Diaries 1908-1923 (1986), p. 371
“The position is most serious... You say that the country will not stand for a fresh war. I disagree. The country will willingly support our action regarding the Straits by force of arms if need be.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Chanak Crisis, said to George Riddell (24 September 1922), quoted in J. M. McEwen (ed.), The Riddell Diaries 1908-1923 (1986), p. 376
“He is the best living embodiment of the Liberal doctrine that quality is not hereditary.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Viscount Gladstone, the son of W. E. Gladstone; speech to the Manchester Reform Club (14 October 1922), quoted in The Times (16 October 1922), p. 17
“It is always a mistake to threaten unless you mean it, and it is because not merely we threatened, but we meant it, and the Turks knew that we meant it, that you have peace now.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Chanak Crisis; speech to the Manchester Reform Club (14 October 1922), quoted in The Times (16 October 1922), p. 17
“I have had many friends—Conservatives, Liberals, yes, and multitudes of those who hold no attachment to any party. I cast myself on the people whose cause I have never betrayed during the thirty-two years of a strenuous public life. They are a just and generous people, and to those who have done their best to render them service, and I claim to have rendered them service, they will see fair play. I am not afraid of the future.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Manchester Reform Club (14 October 1922), quoted in The Times (16 October 1922), p. 17
“I have never concealed...that my sympathies were always democratic and progressive... [M]y upbringing, my sympathy, my whole bent of mind is democratic... I was concerned for the difficulties of this land, education for the people, housing difficulties, disarmament, peace with Ireland, liberty to Irishmen, and more liberty in India. These are not things that sound well in Mayfair, and they do not make especial appeal to Belgravia. And the revolt began. You have only got to follow out what I have said, and you will see the revolt began there.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the Majestic Cinema, Leeds (21 October 1922), quoted in The Times (23 October 1922), pp. 16-17
“This reactionary mutiny, which culminated at the Carlton Club this week, if it received a majority of the votes of this country...whatever they may say before the election, they will want to carry out their "Diehard" programme. That is what they went out for... I stand where I was—I stand for some sound progress.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the Majestic Cinema, Leeds (21 October 1922), quoted in The Times (23 October 1922), p. 17
“I stand as a Liberal pure and simple... I go for Free Trade pure and simple... If Bonar Law gets a majority we shall have five years of reaction.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to C. P. Scott during the general election campaign (23 October 1922), quoted in The Political Diaries of C. P. Scott, 1911–1928, ed. Trevor Wilson (1970), pp. 429-430
“I have been in favour of all men who believe in the principle upon which our prosperity has been built—free, private enterprise—of men who are opposed to revolutionary proposals, and who are equally opposed to reactionary proposals, because, believe me, they are only the reverse of the same medal, acting together for the purpose of bearing the country through the gigantic difficulties which have been left as an inheritance by the war.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the National Liberal Party in the Hotel Victoria (25 October 1922), quoted in The Times (26 October 1922), p. 8
“They have got rid of me for a time...but it will only be for a time. I am out to fight in exactly the same cause to which I have consecrated my strength during the whole of my life—the cause of the people, the downtrodden and the oppressed. I hope that the people will stand with me in fighting the great battle of liberty and progress.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Cardiff station (9 November 1922), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 35
“In the war we had got out of the danger of the military spirit in Europe trampling upon human liberty, and were now confronted with a menace from inside our own country—such a menace as had destroyed Russia. That menace was an attack upon the very life-blood of Britain, and unless it was arrested at the start, the whole fabric of the commerce, trade, and prosperity of this country would come down and Britain the mighty, whose name ringed round the earth, would become a poor thing.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Haverfordwest (10 November 1922), quoted in The Times (11 November 1922), p. 12
“I am against class government, whether it is high or low. You have one party today that puts class first; there is another that puts party first, and there is not a pin to choose between them. Let us put the country first. Reaction is as dangerous as revolution because it leads to revolution.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Swansea (10 November 1922), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 35
“When you are out on a voyage, the tranquillity does not depend upon the ship, but upon the sea... It is not a policy, it is a yawn.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Conservative leader Bonar Law's election slogan, "Tranquillity"; speech in the Stoll Picture Theatre, Kingsway (4 November 1922), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977…
“Avoid the extremists and Socialists, but do let us avoid the extreme of "standstillism." You want a strong group of independent men, freed from party ties, strong enough to insist on a steady middle course, free from all extremes. Pursue the steady middle course.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the Stoll Picture Theatre, Kingsway (4 November 1922), quoted in The Times (6 November 1922), p. 10
“[I appeal to Labour supporters] to vote against themselves; it will be the greatest service to their class in getting their minds away from false ideals. Russia is a wreck. For God's sake do not let us do the same thing in this country.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Pembroke (9 November 1922), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 35
“There is no British minister who has ever devoted so much energy, made more liberal provision for the misfortunes of the wage-earning class than I have done.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Llanelli (11 November 1922), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 35
“I prefer to call them [Labour] the Socialist Party, because I consider we are a better Labour Party than they are. I don't believe their programme is to the interests of Labour, but to its detriment.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Bolton (14 November 1922), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 35
“Asquith and his party have no positive policy, no fighting policy. That came out at the election. But for the Liberal party a fighting policy is essential... The real ground of attack is the Land. On that the Tories would be bound to make a stand and you would have a real battle with an unanswerable case.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to C. P. Scott (6 December 1922), quoted in The Political Diaries of C. P. Scott, 1911–1928, ed. Trevor Wilson (1970), p. 434
“The British interests in the straits are supreme and it seems to me they are being given away for a frog-pie. I prefer the good old British beef!”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Lord Hardinge during the Lausanne Conference (7 December 1922), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 66
“Of all the bigotries that savage the human temper there is none so stupid as the anti-Semitic. It has no basis in reason; it is not rooted in faith; it aspires to no ideal; it is just one of those dank and unwholesome weeds that grow in the morass of racial hatred.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Is it Peace? (1923), p. 246
“There is a growing feeling among the masses of the people that what they regard as the "comfortable" classes have not been in a great hurry to rescue the under dog... You have got this enormous electorate behind asking "What are you going to do?" If Liberalism won't do it they will find their instrument. They are finding it. While we are slinging poisoned arrows at each other Labour is walking off with the ark of the covenant.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Scottish Liberal Club in Edinburgh (2 March 1923), quoted in The Times (3 March 1923), p. 12
“The mission of Liberalism is to hurry up redress. "Sunshine for your grandchildren" is a bad electoral programme. People want to feel and see the light and warmth before their lives are past, and they mean to have what they want. If Liberalism cannot supply it they will get it from some other party.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Scottish Liberal Club in Edinburgh (2 March 1923), quoted in The Times (3 March 1923), p. 12
“They may criticise my Government as much as they like, but as long as we were in office we prevented the Turks from going to Constantinople, the French from going into the Ruhr, and the American hand from coming into our till. Now they have all got there.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to Lord D'Abernon (28 March 1923), quoted in Lord D'Abernon, An Ambassador of Peace, Vol. II (1929), p. 185
“I have come here just to give my view of the task of Liberalism... I put it in one simple sentence, "Fair play for the under dog".”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Lancashire and Cheshire Federation of the League of Young Liberals in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester (28 April 1923), quoted in The Times (30 April 1923), p. 17
“There must be a greater co-partnership between Capital and Labour if you are to get the best out of both.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Lancashire and Cheshire Federation of the League of Young Liberals in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester (28 April 1923), quoted in The Times (30 April 1923), p. 17
“Capital has been made for man, and not man for Capital.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Lancashire and Cheshire Federation of the League of Young Liberals in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester (28 April 1923), quoted in The Times (30 April 1923), p. 17
“We have the most fertile soil in Europe. In spite of that, there is not a civilised country in Europe that makes as little use of its land for enriching the people as Great Britain... [T]he first duty of Liberalism is to undertake the task of so reforming our land system that the inheritance of the people in the soil should be utilised for the benefit of the people to the fullest extent.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Lancashire and Cheshire Federation of the League of Young Liberals in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester (28 April 1923), quoted in The Times (30 April 1923), p. 17
“The brains of the people are the most productive of all soils, and cultivated very unequally... There is more class favouritism here than in almost anything... A highly educated community is a community that enriches the whole of the land... One of the things that Liberalism has to see to is that education, opportunities and facilities for the development of the brain and intellect of the best should be without regard to their origin.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Lancashire and Cheshire Federation of the League of Young Liberals in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester (28 April 1923), quoted in The Times (30 April 1923), p. 17
“We are wasting our Empire. It is the richest Empire in the world...but it is an undeveloped Empire... There is no party that has such interest in developing the Empire as the Liberal Party. The strength and unity of the Empire were due to Liberal ideals. But for Liberalism there would have been no Empire... The British Empire stands in the world for peace, for right, for freedom, for fair play. It is the great fair-play Empire of the world... It ought to be the special task of Liberalism to make this Empire stronger, and stronger, and stronger, because it is the hope of mankind today.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Lancashire and Cheshire Federation of the League of Young Liberals in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester (28 April 1923), quoted in The Times (30 April 1923), p. 17
“As far as I can see, it is the only Empire that takes risks for humanity. There are men who fight for the flag, and rightly should do it for their national interest, but this is the one Empire that goes out armed for right, for freedom. It is the interest of Liberalism to make it strong. That I put as one of the chief items of any Liberal policy I would have anything to do with.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Lancashire and Cheshire Federation of the League of Young Liberals in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester (28 April 1923), quoted in The Times (30 April 1923), p. 17
“If you want to know what Socialism is, I think you can get it for 1½d.—a copy of that legislation which is known as "Dora"—a most severe and repellent lady, and we are well rid of her.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nothing struck me so much in the war as the disappearance of the individual, of the human being... I saw what the State machine was, that it destroyed the individual, absorbed him to itself, and I said, "Give me Liberty." That is what a complete Socialistic State would mean, once you carried it out. That is why I am a Liberal and not a Socialist. Socialism would enslave labour. For its own benefit, its own advantage, Socialism would in the end enslave labour. Liberalism has made labour free, and it is its business to preserve the freedom of labour.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Lancashire and Cheshire Federation of the League of Young Liberals in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester (28 April 1923), quoted in The Times (30 April 1923), p. 17
“Luckily, you have Britain up to its armpits in salt water, and therefore alone remaining cool.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Llanfairfechan (22 May 1923), quoted in The Times (23 May 1923), p. 12
“The white sheet of repentance is a very poor substitute for a mainsail.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the reunion of the Liberal Party; speech to the Oxford University New Reform Club (22 June 1923), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 69
“You do not deal with these evils by saying, "Let us unite together and fight Socialism". This a poor, sorry, sterile and selfish policy.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Oxford University New Reform Club (22 June 1923), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 69
“Industrial countries are...engaged in improving their machinery, in order to save labour and increase production... The moment peace is restored in Europe, and the exchanges are stabilised...[y]ou will then be face to face with the real rivalry and the competition... I fear that the period of depression is going to be prolonged... we are in for a long period of depression such as we have not seen in our lifetime.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (16 July 1923)
“The French would never have dared to do what they have done had it not been for the fall of the Coalition.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to H. A. L. Fisher on the occupation of the Ruhr (27 September 1923), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 66
“He had always felt that they thought that in him they had a kindred spirit. That was true. Their great men were the men he admired; some of their greatest men were the men from whom he had drawn inspiration, notably Abraham Lincoln. The next day he was to start on a journey to see a country which he regarded as the great miracle of the West, where man had risen from the dead past to a new hope.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the American Society in London at the Savoy Hotel, London, before his tour of the United States (28 September 1923), quoted in The Times (29 September 1923), p. 6
“I think it is an insult to the intelligence of the nation to feed starving industries with the mildewed straw of last century, out of which, so far as I can see, every grain of statesmanship has been beaten.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response to the Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's policy of protectionism; statement in Southampton upon his return from the United States (9 November 1923), quoted in The Times (10 November 1923), p. 8
“Liberalism stands for the safe middle course.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Crewe station during the general election campaign (23 November 1923), quoted in The Times (24 November 1923), p. 8
“The hope of the future would be found in a party of sane progress. The present danger was to identify progress with the Socialist Party... It was important, therefore, that they had revived a party which represented sound, sensible, rational progress.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Leeds (27 November 1923), quoted in The Times (28 November 1923), p. 18
“It was a dire alternative for a country to have a choice between tariff reform, which destroyed its industries, and Socialism and Communism, which destroyed the whole fabric upon which prosperity was based... It amounted to a choice of which they were going to cut—the carotid artery of foreign trade or the jugular vein of capital.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Leeds (27 November 1923), quoted in The Times (28 November 1923), p. 18
“In this election we have killed Protection and destroyed reaction. It now remains to us to make sure that at the next election, which cannot be long delayed, we shall put before the people a programme of well-considered and soundly-constructed social reform which shall kill the crudities of Socialism.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Message to Weekly Westminster, quoted in The Manchester Guardian (14 December 1923), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 79
“The Western skies are already black with the flight of capital seeking safety beyond the Atlantic. The fright is real. There has been nothing like it since horror filled the streets of Rome at the approach of Attila.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Article in the Daily Chronicle shortly before the Labour Party formed its first government (5 January 1924), quoted in The Times (8 January 1924), p. 13
“He repeated the view...that the only possible course, under present conditions, for the Liberal party was to back the Labour party whole-heartedly to the full extent open to it, and in concert with it to reap a full harvest of Radical reform.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to C. P. Scott, as recorded in his diary (5 January 1924), quoted in The Political Diaries of C. P. Scott, 1911–1928, ed. Trevor Wilson (1970), p. 449
“The cant of it was nauseating. Even the petrol fumes of the quenched revolutionary torch will serve our nostrils well by cleansing the air of the sickening incense burnt by those departed worshippers of their own image.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On a speech by Stanley Baldwin; article in the Daily Chronicle (2 February 1924), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 84
“My right hon. Friend says she [Germany] is in such a condition that she cannot possibly pay [reparations]. No, she cannot pay us. She is to pay France in full. Everything goes to France, everything goes to Italy, everything goes to Belgium; but, forsooth, she has not the capacity to pay Great Britain. I object. We were equal in the sacrifices we had to make, and I think it is about time that someone should stand up for the rights of Great Britain.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (6 March 1924)
“It was a treaty which might have been signed by a vanquished Power as far as British interests were concerned.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons against the Treaty of Lausanne (9 April 1924), quoted in The Times (10 April 1924), p. 7
“A far-seeing manufacturer utilizes periods of slackness to repair his machinery, to re-equip his workshop, and generally to put his factory in order; so that when prosperity comes he will be in as good a position as his keenest competitor to take advantage of the boom. I suggest that the nation ought to follow that wise example, and that this is the time to do so. Let us overhaul our national equipment in all directions—men and material—so as to be ready...to meet any rival on equal or better terms in the markets of the world.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'The Statesman's Task', The Nation and Athenæum (12 April 1924), quoted in John Campbell, 'The Renewal of Liberalism: Liberalism without Liberals', in Gillian Peele and Chris Cook (eds.), The Politics of Reappraisal, 19…