Harold MacMillan

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

(A Foreign Secretary) is forever poised between the cliche and the indiscretion.

No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Wife or mother, if it is both, he is twice blessed indeed.

It is the duty of Her Majesty's government neither to flap nor to falter.

As usual the Liberals offer a mixture of sound and original ideas. Unfortunately none of the sound ideas is original and none of the original ideas is sound.

At home, you always have to be a politician; when you're abroad, you almost feel yourself a statesman.

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

I read a great number of press reports and find comfort in the fact that they are nearly always conflicting.

He is forever poised between a cliche and an indiscretion.

It's no use crying over spilt summits.

No man should ever lose sleep over public affairs.

It has been said that there is no fool like an old fool, except a young fool. But the young fool has first to grow up to be an old fool to realize what a damn fool he was when he was a young fool.

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

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

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

To be alive at all involves some risk.

Memorial services are the cocktail parties of the geriatric set.

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

I was a sort of son to Ike, and it was the other way round with Kennedy.

In long experience I find that a man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.

I have never found, in a long experience of politics, that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.

If people want a sense of purpose they should get it from their archbishop. They should certainly not get it from their politicians.

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

A man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.

If you don't believe in God, all you have to believe in is decency. Decency is very good. Better decent than indecent. But I don't think it's enough.

I was determined that no British government should be brought down by the action of two tarts.

Once the bears hug has got you it is apt to be for keeps.

Britain's most useful role is somewhere between bee and dinosaur.

No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Wife or mother if it is both he is twice blessed indeed.

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