Aneurin Bevan

I know that the right kind of leader for the Labour Party is a desiccated calculating machine who must not in any way permit himself to be swayed by indignation. If he sees suffering, privation or injustice he must not allow it to move him, for that would be evidence of the lack of proper education or of absence of self-control. He must speak in calm and objective accents and talk about a dying child in the same way as he would about the pieces inside an internal combustion engine.

It is an axiom, enforced by all the experience of the ages, that they who rule industrially will rule politically.

How can wealth persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power? Here lies the whole art of Conservative politics in the twentieth century.

He brings to the fierce struggle of politics the tepid enthusiasm of a lazy summer afternoon at a cricket match.

I have never regarded politics as the arena of morals. It is the arena of interest.

Stand not too near the rich man lest he destroy thee - and not too far away lest he forget thee.

There can be no immaculate conception of socialism.

The purpose of getting power is to be able to give it away.

The Prime Minister has an absolute genius for putting flamboyant labels on empty luggage.

Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable.

Reactionary: a man walking backwards with his face to the future.

It is not possible to create peace in the Middle East by jeopardizing the peace of the world.

I welcome this opportunity of pricking the bloated bladder of lies with the poniard of truth

Soon, if we are not prudent, millions of people will be watching each other starve to death through expensive television sets

You call that statesmanship. I call it an emotional spasm.

We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down.