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Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

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“We have never yet had a Labour Government that knew what taking power really means; they always act like second-class citizens.”
Dora Russell (1894–1986) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Observer (30 January 1983)
“The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes.”
Adam Smith (1723–1790) said by 1790 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, cloath and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed, and lodged.”
Adam Smith (1723–1790) said by 1790 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the affect of increasing wealth, so it is the cause of increasing population. To complain of it, is to lament over the necessary effect and cause of the greatest public prosperity.”
Adam Smith (1723–1790) said by 1790 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The annual produce of the land and labour of any nation can be increased in its value by no other means, but by increasing either the number of its productive labourers, or the productive powers of those labourers who had before been employed.”
Adam Smith (1723–1790) said by 1790 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If any thing can be predicated as universally true of uncultivated man, it is that he will not labour beyond what is absolutely necessary to maintain his existence.”
Derrick Jensen (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The 1973 Labour Conference will have before it the most radical programme the Party has prepared since 1945.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'More equality and more democracy', The Times (1 October 1973), p. 16
“I think that having 24 people around the Cabinet table whose future depends upon maintaining the good will of one man is fundamentally undemocratic and it would be far better if Cabinet ministers were accountable to the Parliamentary Labour Party.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview for London Weekend Television's Weekend World, quoted in The Times (11 February 1980), p. 2
“[T]he 1983 Labour manifesto commanded the loyalty of millions of voters and a democratic socialist bridge-head in public understanding and support can be made.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Spirit of Labour Reborn", The Guardian (20 June 1983), p. 9.
“We are socialists because we believe that these rights cannot be fully realised in any society under capitalism, which, as in Britain now, has entrenched by law, the power of Capital over Labour, and subordinated human values to the demand for profit, at the expense of social justice and peace.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Excerpt from a draft socialist manifesto Benn submitted to the Labour National Executive Committee in 1987. The rights Benn was referring to were one he laid out in the draft manifesto he submitted, such as the “right t…
“The word 'socialism' on my poster has not lost me a single vote. People will support you if you're serious. My complaint about the Labour movement is that it hasn't done any teaching for 40 years; it has always been on the defensive. Thatcher was successful because she was a teacher. Her values, of course, were rotten.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks during the general election campaign, quoted in The Times (3 April 1992), p. 12
“[The Labour Party]'s never been a socialist party, but it's always had socialists in it, just as there are some Christians in the Church, it's an exact parallel.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Today programme (10 February 2006).
“Sultan Aladdin… had few illusions about his own people: amiable, well-favoured, courteous, they loved rest better than industry… their function was to remind the toiling Chinese, Indians and British of the ultimate vanity of labour.”
Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whoever hammers a lump of iron, first decides what he is going to make of it, a scythe, a sword, or an axe. Even so we ought to make up our minds what kind of virtue we want to forge or we labour in vain.”
Anthony the Great (251–357) said by 357 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Living Testament: The Essential Writings of Christianity Since the Bible (1985), p. 66.
“The Labour Party should oppose the Government arms plan root and branch.”
Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tribune, 19 February 1937.
“If the Labour Party is not going to be a Socialist Party, I don't want to lead it.”
Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the Albert Hall, Manchester (4 February 1956), quoted in Michael Foot, Aneurin Bevan, Volume Two: 1945–1960 [1973] (1975), p. 498
“Anyone who votes Labour ought to be locked up.”
Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (1887–1976) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Woodford, Essex, 1959. Quoted in "The Pan Dictionary of Famous Quotations" (1962, revised 1993), edited by Robin Hyman.
“He came back to England convinced that Rhodes and his fellow mining capitalists had engineered the war in order to removed the leaders of the Boer republics who stood in the way of the rationalisation of the black labour supply in the gold mines.”
Peter Cain (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Chinese economy would be brutally transformed into the mightiest manufacturing nation based on western capital and on an abundance of cheap, highly submissive labour.”
Peter Cain (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The increase of technical efficiency has been taking place faster than we can deal with the problem of labour absorption; the improvement in the standard of life has been a little too quick; the banking and monetary system of the world has been preventing the rate of interest from falling as fast as equilibrium requires.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren (1930)
“For each individual it is a great advantage to retain the rights over the fruits of his labour even though he must put off the enjoyment of them. His personal wealth is thus increased. For that is what wealth is,—command of the right to postponed consumption.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I shall not rest until, once again, the destinies of our people and our party are joined together again in victory at the next general election Labour in its rightful place in government again.”
Tony Blair (born 1953) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Philip Webster, "Blair sets sights on Downing Street", The Times (22 July 1994).
“I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.”
Tony Blair (born 1953) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Michael White, "Blair wants 'to make UK young again'", The Guardian (4 October 1995).
“The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth, and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few.”
Tony Blair (born 1953) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Socialism is So Hot Right Now" (17 September 2018), by Jonah Goldberg, Commentary
“Powers that are constitutionally there can be used but the Scottish Labour Party is not planning to raise income tax and once the power is given it is like any parish council: it's got the right to exercise it.”
Tony Blair (born 1953) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Scotsman (4 April 1997).
“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 (born 1953) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Labour Party conference (28 September 1999), paraphrasing Harold Macmillan's statement "most of our people have never had it so good" and comparing with Gordon Brown's frequent use of the word "prudent".
“They [voters] don't want a situation where women can't talk about being women. I have this conversation quite often with Labour people and I know their inclination is to walk round this issue, but I am telling you to go right into it and resolve it in a way that makes it absolutely clear where you stand.”
Tony Blair (born 1953) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tony Blair: 'Voters don't want a situation where women can't talk about being women'", The Times (11 February 2022).
“Sex class is so deep as to be invisible. Or it may appear as a superficial inequality, one that can be solved by merely a few reforms, or perhaps by the full integration of women into the labour force. But the reaction of the common man, woman, and child - That? Why you can't change that! You must be out of your mind!' - is the closest to the truth.”
Shulamith Firestone (1945–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've been dreaming of a time when The English are sick to death of Labour and Tories And spit upon the name Oliver Cromwell and denounce this royal line that still salutes him And will salute him forever.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from the 2004 song , co-written with
“If you have any concern for animal welfare, for example, you cannot possibly vote for either Conservatives or Labour, because both parties support halal slaughter, which, as we all know, is evil. Furthermore, halal slaughter requires certification that can only be given by supporters of ISIS, and yet in England we have halal meat served in hospitals and schools!”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 35 of Morrissey’s most controversial quotes, iNews (April 17, 2018)
“What I hope for and desire, what I labour for and have at heart, is to decentralise authority in Ireland. We have disestablished the Church, we have relieved the tenant class of many grievances, and we are now going to produce a state of things which will make the humblest Irishman realise that he is a governing agency and that the government is to be carried on by him and for him.”
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) first seen 1882 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Georges Clemenceau (winter 1882), quoted in Bernard Henry Holland, The Life of Spencer Compton, Eighth Duke of Devonshire, Volume I (1911), p. 383
“It is no accident that the Labour Party of 1964 should share this craving for autarchy, for economic self-sufficiency, with the pre-war Fascist régimes and the present-day Communist states. They are all at heart totalitarian.”
Enoch Powell (1912–1998) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Dulwich Conservative Association (29 February 1964), quoted in A Nation Not Afraid: The Thinking of Enoch Powell (1965), p. 75
“The effect of any combination to fix the price of labour in a particular employment by restraining those who would be prepared to pay more or accept less—that is what collective bargaining means if it means anything at all—is the same as the effect of any other restrictive practice: it makes everybody worse off in the end.”
Enoch Powell (1912–1998) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Beaconsfield (19 March 1965), quoted in A Nation Not Afraid: The Thinking of Enoch Powell (1965), p. 131
“Under the Labour Government in the last eighteen months Britain has behaved, perfectly clearly and perfectly recognizably, as an American satellite.”
Enoch Powell (1912–1998) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Falkirk (26 March 1966) during the general election campaign, quoted in Andrew Roth, Enoch Powell: Tory Tribune (1970), p. 337
“I could, of course, wait for the Conservative Party or the Labour Party to organise a sample poll. A poll on art. A sample poll! A sample poll can investigate only what the pollsters know, and it cannot do even that properly.”
C. L. R. James (1901–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those who suffer from this monopoly should form a libertarian anti-labour union movement of workers directed against what has long become a deceptive farce favouring an elite that has gained dominance in a party wrongly claiming to represent the interest of all workers. Once it is recognized that the unions prevent people from getting jobs, such a movement may readily spread.”
Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jobs: the basic truths we have cast aside", The Times (7 August 1984), p. 10
“Voltaire remarked that it is possible to kill a flock of sheep by witchcraft if you give them plenty of arsenic at the same time. The sheep, in this figure, may well stand for the complacent apologists of capitalism; Marx's penetrating insight and bitter hatred of oppression supply the arsenic, while the labour theory of value provides the incantations.”
Joan Robinson (1903–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I sometimes wish that I were in the Labour Party. I would tear down all these institutions!”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On landlords, said to Frances Stevenson (17 December 1919), quoted in A. J. P. Taylor (ed.), Lloyd George: A Diary (1971), p. 193
“[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 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
“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 world year by year is spinning rapidly away from that evil environment and the frenzy, carnage, and savagery. The firmament is clearing. The springtime of Liberalism is at hand, and with due labour we shall reap the harvest in season.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the Albert Hall (30 January 1925), quoted in The Times (31 January 1925), p. 8
“No. A Liberal I was born and a Liberal I die. I will not join Labour.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to Tom Clarke, the editor of the Daily News (14 October 1926), quoted in Tom Clarke, My Lloyd George Diary (1939), p. 23
“I have come all this distance and am prepared to face thousands of miners in the rain and to say I have done more for them than any of the Labour Party.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1928 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Bathgate during the Linlithgowshire by-election (2 April 1928), quoted in The Times (3 April 1928), p. 13
“I neither sought nor desired the Premiership... However, Mr. Bonar Law refused to listen to our combined entreaties, and I had to undertake the terrible responsibility of Premiership in a muddled war, with at least half my own party and more than half the Labour Party bitterly hostile, and a considerable section of the Tory Party—including most of their leaders—suspicious and distrustful.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They call you "Little Man", "Common Man"; they say a new era has begun, the "Era of the Common Man". It isn't you who says so, Little Man. It is they, the Vice Presidents of great nations, promoted labour leaders, repentant sons of bourgeois families, statesman and philosophers. They give you your future but don't ask about your past.”
Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[There are those in the Labour Party] whose language has become increasingly ideological and intolerant, base their politics solely on texts and creeds, and believe that the drafting of long resolutions will usher in the millennium.”
James Callaghan (1912–2005) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the all-Wales rally of the Labour Party (2 July 1977), quoted in The Times (4 July 1977), p. 2
“[Callaghan] said the Labour Party was not built on dogma and advised his comrades to look at some of the old trade union banners. They would not read ideological texts there, but words like "fraternity, humanity, unity and comradeship".”
James Callaghan (1912–2005) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the all-Wales rally of the Labour Party (2 July 1977), quoted in The Times (4 July 1977), p. 2
“I feel no doubt whatever that the parish laws of England have contributed to raise the price of provisions and to lower the real price of labour.”
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The proposition of Mr. Ricardo, which states that a rise in the price of labour lowers the price of a large class of commodities, has undoubtedly a very paradoxical air; but it is, nevertheless, true, and the appearance of paradox would vanish, if it were stated more naturally and correctly.”
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source