DAVID LLOYD GEORGE

Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.

There is nothing so fatal to character as half finished tasks.

He has sat on the fence so long that the iron has entered his soul.

The most dangerous thing in the world is to try to leap a chasm in two jumps.

The finest eloquence is that which gets things done.

What is our task? To make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in.

Liberty has restraints but no frontiers.

What do you want to be a sailor for? There are greater storms in politics than you will ever find at sea. Piracy, broadsides, blood on the decks. You will find them all in politics.

Liberty is not merely a privilege to be conferred; it is a habit to be acquired.

We are muddled into war.

A young man who isn't a socialist hasn't got a heart; an old man who is a socialist hasn't got a head.

Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.

With me a change of trouble is as good as a vacation.

What would happen if we withdrew? Anarchy and confusion.

If people really knew, the war would be stopped tomorrow. But of course they don't know, and can't know. The correspondents don't write and the censorship wouldn't pass the truth. What they do send is not the war, but just a pretty picture of the war with everybody doing gallant deeds. The thing is horrible and beyond human nature to bear and I feel I can't go on with this bloody business.

If a situation were to be forced upon us in which peace could only be preserved by the surrender of the great and beneficent position Britain has won by centuries of heroism and achievement, by allowing Britain to be treated where her interests were vitally affected as if she were of no account in the Cabinet of nations, then I say emphatically that peace at that price would be a humiliation intolerable for a great country like ours to endure. National honor is no party question. The security of our great international trade is no party question; the peace of the world is much more likely to be secured if all nations realize fairly what the conditions of peace must be

It is essential in the highest interests, not merely of this country, but of the world, that Britain should at all hazards maintain her place and her prestige amongst the Great Powers of the world. Her potent influence has many a time been in the past, and may yet be in the future, invaluable to the cause of human liberty. It has more than once in the past redeemed Continental nations, who are sometimes too apt to forget that service, from overwhelming disaster and even from national extinction

“Never again” has become our battle cry.

Ninepence for fourpence

All down history, nine-tenths of mankind have been grinding corn for the remaining one-tenth, been paid with the husks, and bidden to thank God they had the husks.

No democracy has ever long survived the failure of its adherents to be ready to die for it.

Once blood is shed in a national quarrel, reason and right are swept aside by the rage of angry men.

A fully equipped duke costs as much to keep up as two dreadnoughts; and dukes are just as great a terror and they last longer.

A new deal for everyone.

A politician is a person with whose politics you don't agree; if you agree with him, he is a statesman.