Aneurin Bevan
AKA: Nye
Birthdate: November 15, 1897
Birthplace: Tredegar, Monmouthshire, Wales, United Kingdom
Date of Death: July 6, 1960
Occupation: British Labour Party Politician
Profile: Founder of the National Health Service.
Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurin_Bevan
Number of Quotes: 47
A Society in which the people's wants do not exceed their possessions is not a Socialist society.
All I am liable to forget is my good resolutions.
Reflecting on human nature.
Because they're threatened by the idea that doctors might throw off the slave-morality...
Damn it all, you can't have the crown of thorns and the thirty pieces of silver.
Discontent arises from a knowledge of the possible, as contrasted with the actual.
Discretion is not the better part of biography.
On writing his own life story.
Fascism is not in itself a new order of society. It is the future refusing to be born.
Freedom is the by-product of economic surplus.
In Place of Fear
He seems determined to make a trumpet sound like a tin whistle.
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.
I have never regarded politics as the arena of morals. It is the arena of interest.
I have never regarded the Tories as vermin. I have always thought they were lower than vermin.
Speech in Manchester, 4 July 1948 - his most infamous line, often shortened.
I know that the right kind of leader for the Labour Party is a desiccated calculating machine ... talk
about a dying child in the same way as he would about the pieces inside an internal combustion engine.
I read the newspapers avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction.
I would rather be kept alive in the efficient if cold altruism of a large hospital than expire in a gush of warm sympathy in a small one.
If you carry this resolution you will send Britain's Foreign Secretary naked into the conference chamber.
Speech at Labour Party Conference opposing unilateral nuclear disarmament (October 3, 1957).
Ignorance is not a defence, it is an opportunity.
Stressing the importance of education and overcoming disadvantage.
In one sense the House of Commons is the most unrepresentative of representative assemblies … The classic Parliamentary style of speech is understatement.
It is an axiom, enforced by all the experience of the ages, that they who rule industrially will rule politically.
It is not enough in this situation to have faith. It is not enough to have enthusiasm. It is not enough to have hope. You have to have knowledge.
Emphasizing the need for expertise in governance.
It is not possible to create peace in the Middle East by jeopardizing the peace of the world.
Language is the most powerful weapon at your command. Use it well.
Advice to fellow politicians.
Let us remember that we are the heirs of great traditions... Let us try to be worthy of them.
Reflecting on Labour's purpose.
No amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart
a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party... So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Speech in Manchester (July 4, 1948).
No society can legitimately call itself civilized if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.
Core principle behind the NHS.
Politics is a blood sport.
Poor fellow, he suffers from files.
Reactionary: a man walking backwards with his face to the future.
Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable.
Soon, if we are not prudent, millions of people will be watching each other starve to death through expensive television sets.
Stand not too near the rich man lest he destroy thee - and not too far away lest he forget thee.
The collective principle asserts that... no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.
In Place of Fear
The eyes of the world are turning to Great Britain. We now have the moral leadership of the world.
On the significance of Labour's post-war reforms, particularly the NHS).
The National Health Service and the Welfare State have come to be used as interchangeable terms, and in the mouths
of some people as terms of reproach. Why this is so I do not know, unless it be that no good deed goes unpunished.
Defending his achievements.
The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with faith to fight for it.
A famous and often-repeated prediction/plea.
The Prime Minister has an absolute genius for putting flamboyant labels on empty luggage.
The purpose of getting power is to be able to give it away.
The Tories, every election, must have a bogy man. If you haven't got a programme, a bogy man will do.
This is my truth, tell me yours.
This island is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organizing genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same time.
Scathing critique of Conservative economic management, c. 1945.
We could manage to survive without money changers and stockbrokers. We should find
it harder to do without miners, steel workers and those who cultivate the land.
We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down.
On the need for decisive action and principle.
We should never be ashamed to struggle for the good of the people.
Defining Labour's mission.
What is pitiful about humanity is that men and women are prepared to degrade themselves to such a degree for the sake of a little security.
On the dangers of conformity and lack of aspiration.
Will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it.
Referring to the National Health Service (NHS).
Why look in the crystal ball when you can read the book?
Criticizing over-reliance on speculation instead of learning from history and evidence.
You call that statesmanship? I call it an emotional spasm.
Critique of political opponents.
Last on Earth
