Harold Wilson

Image of Harold Wilson
One man's wage increase is another man's price increase.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Work
Image of Harold Wilson
I believe the greatest asset a head of state can have is the ability to get a good night's sleep.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Health
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If I had the choice between smoked salmon and tinned salmon, I'd have it tinned. With vinegar.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Food
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Whichever party is in office, the Treasury is in power.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Power
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A week is a long time in politics.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Politics
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I'm an optimist, but an optimist who carries a raincoat.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Funny
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He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Change
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Everybody should have an equal chance - but they shouldn't have a flying start.
- Harold Wilson
Image of Harold Wilson
The main essentials of a successful prime minister are sleep and a sense of history.
- Harold Wilson
Image of Harold Wilson
I'm at my best in a messy, middle-of-the-road muddle.
- Harold Wilson
Image of Harold Wilson
This Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.
- Harold Wilson
Image of Harold Wilson
Given a fair wind, we will negotiate our way into the Common Market, head held high, not crawling in. Negotiations? Yes. Unconditional acceptance of whatever terms are offered us? No.
- Harold Wilson
Image of Harold Wilson
The monarchy is a labor intensive industry.
- Harold Wilson
Image of Harold Wilson
We are redefining and we are restating our socialism in terms of the scientific revolution.
- Harold Wilson
Image of Harold Wilson
I'm an optimist, but I'm an optimist who takes his raincoat.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Optimist
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The labour party is like a stage-coach. If you rattle along at great speed everybody inside is too exhilarated or too seasick to cause any trouble. But if you stop everybody gets out and argues about where to go next.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Party
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If the Tories get in, in five years no one will be able to afford to buy an egg.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Years
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He who rejects change is the architect of decay.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Change
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The Labour Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Party
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We are redefining and we are restating our Socialism in terms of the scientific revolution ... The Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or outdated methods on either side of industry.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Science
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From now on, the pound abroad is worth 14 per cent or so less in terms of other currencies. That doesn't mean, of course, that the Pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse or in your bank, has been devalued.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Mean
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I get a little nauseated, perhaps, when I hear the phrase 'freedom of the press' used as freely as it is, knowing that a large part of our proprietorial press is not free at all.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Knowing
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The only limits of power are the bounds of belief.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Power
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The ambition of the present Labour government is that every worker in the country will have a greater than average income.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Country
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Debating against him is no fun, say something insulting and he looks at you like a whipped dog.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Sarcastic
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Tories never actually talk about getting rid of their leader, then suddenly there us a flash of steel between he shoulder-blades and rigormortis sets in.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Leader
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It is quite clear to me that the Tory Party will get rid of Mrs Thatcher in about 3 years time.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Party
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At home and abroad I have repeatedly been asked what are the main essentials of a successful prime minister. Over and above communication and vigilance, there are two factors I have always mentioned. They are sleep, and a sense of history.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Sleep
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There is something utterly nauseating about a system of society which pays a harlot 25 times as much as it pays its prime minister, 250 times as much as it pays its members of Parliament and 500 times as much as it pays some of its ministers of religion.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Pay
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The cumulative effects of the economic and financial sanctions might well bring the rebellion to an end within a matter of weeks rather than months.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Zimbabwe
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On 5 September, when the TUC unanimously rejected wage restraint, it was the end of an era, and all the financiers, all the little gnomes in Zürich and other finance centres about whom we keep on hearing, had started to make their dispositions in regard to sterling.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Littles
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[Criticizing as "appalingly complacent" a Conservative Government report that by the '60s, Britain would be producing all the scientists needed] Of course we shall, if we don't give science its proper place in our national life. We shall no doubt be training all the bullfighters we need, because we don't use many.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Science
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All these financiers, all the little gnomes of Zürich and the other financial centres, about whom we keep on hearing.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Business
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This party is a bit like an old stagecoach. If you drive along at a rapid rate everyone aboard is either so exhilarated or so seasick that you don't have a lot of difficulty.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Party
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In politics a week is a very long time.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Time
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Selsdon Man is designing a system of society for the ruthlessness and the pushing, the uncaring. His message to the rest is: you're out on your own.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Men
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The office of president requires the constitution of an athlete, the patience of a mother, the endurance of an early Christian.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Christian
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Every dog is allowed one bite, but a different view is taken of a dog that goes on biting all the time. He may not get his licence returned when it falls due.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Dog
Image of Harold Wilson
We are redefining and we are restating our socialism in terms of the scientific revolution
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Eugenics
Image of Harold Wilson
With the ministry's motto 'Research on a Shoestring' emblazoned on his coat of arms, he has to struggle with a treasury more interested in surtax relief than national survival. [Responding to an earlier statement by British Science Minister, Lord Hailsham, that British scientists were being recruited by the U.S.]
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Struggle
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The government have only a small majority in the House of Commons. I want to make it quite clear that this will not affect our ability to govern. Having been charged with the duties of Government we intend to carry out those duties.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Government
Image of Harold Wilson
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. I'm going on, and the Labour government's going on.
- Harold Wilson
Collection: Government