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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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• “I believe that the progress of experimental science, the free intercourse of nation with nation, the unrestricted influx of commodities from countries where they are cheap, and the unrestricted efflux of labour towards countries where it is dear, will soon produce, nay, I believe that they are beginning to produce, a great and most blessed social revolution.”

  Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in Edinburgh (2 November 1852), quoted in Speeches of the Right Honourable T. B. Macaulay, M.P. (1854), p. 517

• “Two hands upon the breast, And labour’s done; Two pale feet crossed in rest, The race is won.”

  Dinah Craik (1826–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Also quoted by: Dinah M. Mulock

• “Labour will try to convince you that it is sympathetic to business. Don’t believe such stories. The truth is that the party has a classic left-wing suspicion of business and the profit motive".”

  Laisenia Qarase (1941–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Those threats they (Apisai Tora and Tomasi Vakatora) came up with should be condemned. He (Tora) has come up with the same threats that politicians like him throw up before elections. That if any other party especially Labour wins, there will be instability … These people are forcing the population to vote out of fear. These types of talks have to be condemned now.”

  Frank Bainimarama (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It is this which explains nationalism: the principle — so strange and eccentric in the age of agrarian cultural diversity and the 'ethnic' division of labour — that homogeneity of culture is the political bond, that mastery of (and, one should add, acceptability in) a given high culture ... is the precondition of political, economic and social citizenship.”

  Ernest Gellner (1925–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Nationalism (1997)

• “Civil Society is a cluster of institutions and associations strong enough to prevent tyranny, but which are, none the less, entered and left freely, rather than imposed by birth or sustained by awesome ritual. You can join the Labour Party without slaughtering a sheep ...”

  Ernest Gellner (1925–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “[On David Blunkett] By a mile, it is the most illiberal, vindictive, biliously foaming Home Secretary of modern times. He has done more to destroy the concept of Labour being a party of equality and fairness than any other person... I hope his guide dog savages his ankles.”

  George Galloway (born 1954) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted in "Those we have loved and loathed", The Independent (30 December 2003).

• “I don’t begrudge the Labour members here their moment of celebration of course [...] But there will be others who are already celebrating: the venal, the vile, the racists and the Zionists will all be celebrating. The hyena can bounce on the lion’s grave but it can never be a lion and in any case, I’m not in my grave. As a matter of fact I’m going off now to plan the next campaign.”

  George Galloway (born 1954) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted by Jenn Selby in "George Galloway blames 'racists and Zionists' for defeat to Naz Shah in Bradford West" The Independent (8 May 2015).

• “It was left by Aristoxenus, who with great ability and labour classified and arranged in it the different modes. In accordance with it, and by giving heed to these theories, one can easily bring a theatre to perfection, from the point of view of the nature of the voice, so as to give pleasure to the audience.”

  Vitruvius (80–15 BC) said by 15 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “That was a disaster. Sue should never have put me with that woman... Everything, she was just a sort of bigoted woman who said she used to be Labour.”

  Gordon Brown (born 1951) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Comment caught on microphone following a confrontation with Gillian Duffy, a Rochdale pensioner who asked a question about Brown's stance on immigration. The incident was later dubbed Bigotgate by the media. 28 April 20…

• “Hard labour is a wonderful cure for neurosis!”

  Michael Moorcock (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The H-block protest is part of the struggle to bring about a free, united Ireland. They have my support, and they have the support of the majority of the Labour Party rank and file. I have been consistently in favour of withdrawal from Ireland and to get away from the idea that it is some sort of campaign against terrorism. It is in fact the last colonial war.”

  Ken Livingstone (born 1945) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Evening Standard (21 July 1981).

• “In works of labour or of skill I would be busy too: For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do.”

  Isaac Watts (1674–1748) said by 1748 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Love counts not its labour nor can it weigh its tenderness in the scale of purchase. That which it has it gives, and craves for more to give and give, till the soul's infinity be drained.”

  H. Rider Haggard (1856–1925) said by 1925 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The reward of labour is life.”

  William Morris (1834–1896) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: News from Nowhere (1891) ch. 15

• “To give people pleasure in the things they must perforce use, that is one great office of decoration; to give people pleasure in the things they must perforce make, that is the other use of it. Does not our subject look important enough now? I say that without these arts, our rest would be vacant and uninteresting, our labour mere endurance, mere wearing away of body and mind.”

  William Morris (1834–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “One lonely voice still shouting labour!”

  Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: During the 1970 election campaign.

• “The opponents of EEC membership inside the Labour Party know how much more difficult it would be to foist their brand of left-wing socialism on the British people if we remain part of a Community based on the principles of free enterprise and the mixed economy. We in the Conservative Party must vigorously oppose this ominous development.”

  Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Group for Europe after the Labour Party conference voted for Britain to leave the European Economic Community, quoted in The Times (9 October 1980), p. 6.

• “Ideas came swarming through her, and like many people who labour in the obsession of solitude, she lacked the detachment to challenge them.”

  Helen Garner (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Love quickly is pall'd, Tho' with labour 'tis gain'd; Wine never does cloy Tho' with ease 'tis obtain'd. We sing while you sigh, We laugh while you weep; Love robs you of rest, Wine lulls us asleep.”

  Thomas Shadwell (1642–1692) said by 1692 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If you can tell me there are no adulterers on the front bench of the Labour Party you can talk to me about Profumo.”

  Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone (1907–2001) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Stephen Dorril and Robin Ramsay Smear (Fourth Estate, 1991) p. 48

• “[The Labour Party's leadership is] dominated by rather rootless intellectuals or obviously bourgeois eccentrics like Mr Michael Foot and Mr Wedgwood Benn.”

  Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone (1907–2001) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in Preston (8 October 1974), quoted in The Times (9 October 1974), p. 4

• “Let us not cease to do the utmost, that we may incessantly go forward in the way of the Lord; and let us not despair of the smallness of our accomplishments. Though we fall short, our labour is not lost if this day surpasses the preceding one.”

  John Calvin (1509–1564) said by 1564 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “From these causes united, the mere separation of the occupation of the cultivator, from that of the Artificer, has the effect of augmenting the productive powers of labour, and with them, the total mass of the produce or revenue of a Country. In this single view of the subject, therefore, the utility of Artificers or Manufacturers, towards promoting an increase of productive industry, is apparent.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The most useless creature that ever yawned at a club, or counted the vermin on his rags under the suns of Calabria, has no excuse for want of intellect. What men want is not talent, it is purpose,—in other words, not the power to achieve, but the will to labour.”

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “[Ambitious men] may not cease, but as a dog in a wheel, a bird in a cage, or a squirrel in a chain, so Budaeus compares them; they climb and climb still, with much labour, but never make an end, never at the top.”

  Robert Burton (1577–1640) said by 1640 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The world may be utterly crazy And life may be labour in vain; But I'd rather be silly than lazy, And would not quit life for its pain.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1858 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Part III Poems, Tune, Il Segreto per esser felice (March 24, 1858)

• “Labour itself is but a sorrowful song, The protest of the weak against the strong.”

  Frederick William Faber (1814–1863) said by 1863 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Also quoted by: F. W. Faber

• “The insupportable labour of doing nothing.”

  Richard Steele (1671–1729) first seen 1711 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 54 (2 May 1711)

• “A mountain was in labour, sending forth dreadful groans, and there was in the region the highest expectation. After all, it brought forth a mouse.”

  Phaedrus (fabulist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Also quoted by: Seneca

• “May I say, for the benefit of those who have been carried away by the gossip of the last few days, that I know what's going on. [pause] I'm going on, and the Labour government's going on.”

  Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech at a May Day rally in London (4 May 1969), quoted in The Times (5 May 1969), p. 1. There had been a series of reports that Wilson's leadership might be challenged.

• “Our long-term objective is clear: to replace the Labour Party as the progressive wing of politics in this country.”

  Jo Grimond (1913–1993) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: November 1953, quoted in Alan Watkins The Liberal Dilemma (Macgibbon and Kee, 1966) p. 91.

• “You can be assured of this. There will be no increase in the standard or other rates of income tax under the Labour Government so long as normal peacetime conditions continue.”

  Hugh Gaitskell (1906–1963) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in Newcastle during the general election campaign (28 September 1959), quoted in The Times (29 September 1959), p. 10

• “An elegant sufficiency, content, Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books, Ease and alternate labour, useful life, Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!”

  James Thomson (poet, born 1700) first seen 1158 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: l. 1158

  Also quoted by: James Thomson

• “What has begun in this evening will not stay for a long time, and because you represent the forces of the world of labour, you, forces of the youth, your victory is inevitable.”

  François Mitterrand (1916–1996) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Château-Chinon (1974)

• “The experimental researches of Faraday are so voluminous, their descriptions are so detailed, and their wealth of illustration is so great, as to render it a heavy labour to master them. The multiplication of proofs, necessary and interesting when the new truths had to be established, are however less needful now when these truths have become household words in science.”

  John Tyndall (1820–1893) first seen 1869 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Preface to the Second Edition (December 1869).

• “Eight hours daily labour is enough for any human being, and under proper arrangements sufficient to afford an ample supply of food, raiment and shelter, or the necessaries and comforts of life, and for the remainder of his time, every person is entitled to education, recreation and sleep.”

  Robert Owen (1771–1858) first seen 1833 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Foundation Axioms" of Society for Promoting National Regeneration (1833)

• “The lowest stage of humanity is experienced when the individual must labour for a small pittance of wages from others.”

  Robert Owen (1771–1858) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Paper Dedicated to the Governments of Great Britain, Austria, Russia, France, Prussia and the United States of America (1841)

• “With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow, And with my own hand labour'd it to grow: And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd— "I came like Water, and like Wind I go.”

  Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) said by 1131 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: XXVIII (1859)

• “As a matter of hard, dry fact, from which there can be no getting away, there is more Labour legislation standing to the credit account of the Conservative Party on the Statute Books than there is to that of their opponents. It is a grotesque assumption that one side exists for the purpose of passing such legislation while the other does so grudgingly and under the force of compulsion.”

  Keir Hardie (1856–1915) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Labour Politics, Tracts for the Times, No. 2 (July 1903), quoted in Robert McKenzie and Allan Silver, Angels in Marble: Working Class Conservatives in Urban England (1968), p. 44, n. 60

• “They of the Labour party were free-traders to a man.”

  Keir Hardie (1856–1915) first seen 1907 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in the Guildhall in Cambridge (16 February 1907), quoted in The Times (18 February 1907), p. 12

• “Socialism stood for the divinity of the human race and as such detested war and all preparations leading to war. The one party in the world that could be trusted to be a peace party at all times was the Socialist and Labour party.”

  Keir Hardie (1856–1915) first seen 1907 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in the Guildhall in Cambridge (16 February 1907), quoted in The Times (18 February 1907), p. 12

• “Finance was the power that the people had most to fear. It made States and Kings and Cabinets, and even Liberal Cabinets, mere puppets to dance when the Rothschilds pulled the strings. The Labour party had made its protest, and they were proud of it.”

  Keir Hardie (1856–1915) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in Newport, Monmouthshire (10 June 1908), quoted in The Times (11 June 1908), p. 10

• “I hope you have read the election programme of the Labour Party...this is not socialism. It is Bolshevism run mad.”

  Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden (1864–1937) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: BBC radio broadcast (17 October 1931)

• “It is a stupid observation, but the Labour Party are not an smart lot, are they? I mean, if all those people were born in the same town, you would blame bad parenting, wouldn't you all?”

  Jeremy Hardy (1961–2019) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The News Quiz, BBC Radio 4, July 1997 (rebroadcast on BBC 7, 23 July 1999)

• “Between 1920 and 1924 the Conservative party made three longterm decisions. The first was to remove Lloyd George from office. The second was to take up the rôle of 'defender of the social order'. The third was to make Labour the chief party of opposition.”

  Maurice Cowling (1926–2005) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Impact of Labour 1920–1924. The Beginning of Modern British Politics (1971), p. 1

• “To history, until yesterday, Halifax was the arch-appeaser. This, it is now recognised, was a mistake. His rôle, however, was complicated. In these pages he is not the man who stopped the rot, but the embodiment of Conservative wisdom who decided that Hitler must be obstructed because Labour could not otherwise be resisted.”

  Maurice Cowling (1926–2005) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Impact of Hitler. British Politics and British Policy, 1933–1940 (1975), p. 9

• “Our people are not going to throw over Parliament to set up divine right either of the capitalist or of the trade unionist, and we are not going to bow down to a dictatorship of either...I want to see our British Labour movement free from alien and foreign heresy. I want to see it pursued and developed on English lines, led by English men.”

  Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in Chippenham (12 June 1926), quoted in Our Inheritance (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938), pp. 169-170.

• “I should like to make an observation to right honourable and honourable Gentlemen opposite. It is that I do not think they will help to produce the atmosphere in Europe which is so desirable by issuing papers that have been issued by the National Council of Labour, headed 'Hit Hitler'.”

  Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (11 March 1935); published in Hansard, House of Commons, 5th series, vol. 299 cols. 50-1.

• “The goal towards which the advance will probably be made at an accelerated pace, is that in the direction of which the legislation of the last quarter of a century has been tending—the intervention, in other words, of the State on behalf of the weak against the strong, in the interests of labour against capital, of want and suffering against luxury and wealth.”

  Joseph Chamberlain (1836–1914) first seen 1884 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: ‘The Revolution of 1884’, The Fortnightly Review, No. CCXVII, New Series (1 January 1885), quoted in T. H. S. Escott (ed.), The Fortnightly Review, Vol. XXXVII, New Series (1 January – 1 June 1885), p. 9

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