David L. Phillips Quotes

The test of a good colonial policy is that it shall prepare colonies for independent self—government.

No nation is ever ready for independence. How many Western states, including the United States of America, were ready for independence.

The colonial powers especially the more heedless ones ... dumped their former possessions on the threshold of independence with little if any preparation for statehood.

Belize is not ready for self-government.

Colonies do not cease to be colonies because they are independent.

I sent American troops to Iraq to make its people free, not to make them American. Iraqis will write their own history and find their own way.

After centuries the time has come when India has gained independence from foreign rule and it's the time when we all [the Independent Princely States) should unite for our motherland""

Sovereignty is not the birthright of a ruler. Every man, woman and child will shout 'Quit Kashmir'. The Kashmiri nation has expressed its will. I ask for a plebiscite on this question.

We wanted to make it quite clear and beyond any possibility of doubt or question that the British Government and the British people desire the Indian peoples to have full self-government

I see a free and independent kingdom delivering up that which all the world hath been fighting for, since the days of Nimrod, to wit, a power to manage their own affairs by themselves without the assistance and counsel of any other.

The West shall be free from the British Isles.

The Labour party believes in the right of peoples to govern themselves, and to enjoy a way of life which they themselves decide upon. We concede that right to Russia. We concede that right to Germany, and it is because we are claiming it for ourselves, and Germany denies it to us, that we are at war with Germany

The skills you need to fight the colonial power and the skills you need to gain independence are not necessarily the same you need to run a country.

If Hong Kong could exercise democratic self-governance under the sovereignty of China, it would not be necessary for us to take this step on the path toward independence.

The right of self-government does not comprehend the government of others.

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

The advent of self-government for the Iraqi people is a watershed moment in their history.

Your former Fathers the Spaniards have now no further Authority over you.

We need to give the Iraqis a chance to build their own future. It should be in their hands. It must be in their hands. That is what democracy is all about. We can teach it, we can explain it, but they must want it enough to make it work for them.

I believe that Greenland will achieve independence during the time I am still active in politics.

So, Blair keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe.

I think there really is no shortcut to sovereignty.

The liquidation of colonialism is a trend of the times which no force can hold back.

In historical and constitutional terms, the recent political status vote in Puerto Rico was a necessary but obviously not decisive step on the road of self-determination leading to full self-government.

National independence, and the preceding political struggles, helped create the space for literary creation in many post-colonial countries. Much of modern Indian or Chinese literature is inconceivable without the political movement for freedom from foreign rule.