Tony Benn Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• The one thing that is absolutely essential is that there shouldn't be any governmental control [of the media] directly or indirectly.

  Tony Benn

  Media, Essentials, One Thing

  21 Copy quote

• There's people on the left who say, the ballot box is a waste of time. Forget them. When Mandela voted for the first time at the age of 76 there was a lot of grown men, including me, wept buckets. That was what it was about. It doesn't solve things, but it gives you the mechanism to hold to account the people with power.

  Tony Benn

  Men, People, Giving

  Source: think-left.org

  27 Copy quote

• I think democracy is not a destination. I don't think socialism is a railway station and if we catch the right train with the right driver, we'll get there. I think it's a way of thinking about things and every generation has to do it again.

  Tony Benn

  Thinking, Democracy, Socialism

  Source: mattkennard.tumblr.com

  4 Copy quote

• Encouragement is the most important thing in the world for young people, rather than league tables, which demoralise everyone.

  Tony Benn

  Encouragement, People, League

  Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

  16 Copy quote

• When Blair was elected leader of the Labour Party, he said, "New Labour is a new political party" - that was the phrase he used, and I'm so glad he said it because he set up his own party and I'm not a member of it.

  Tony Benn

  Party, Leader, Political

  Source: mattkennard.tumblr.com

  24 Copy quote

• We are paying a heavy political price for 20 years in which, as a party, we have played down our criticism of capitalism and soft-peddled our advocacy of socialism

  Tony Benn

  Party, Years, Political

  46 Copy quote

• The nature of the economic system should be a matter for public choice, and free market capitalism should not be accepted without any discussion of the rich variety of alternatives ... Unlike civil laws, economic laws are imposed on people with all the authority of immutable laws of nature. But the economy is created by people, supported by government intervention, regulation, statute and subsidy, and implemented in such a way that it gives substantial wealth and power to a privileged few, while the majority face a life of relentless work, stress and periodic financial insecurity.

  Tony Benn

  Stress, Acceptance, Government Intervention

  20 Copy quote

• Hope is the fuel of progress and fear is the prison in which you put yourself.

  Tony Benn

  Progress, Fuel, Politics

  18 Copy quote

• I don't believe in the hereditary principle in the House of Lords. Imagine going to the dentist, sitting in the chair and he says, 'I'm not a dentist myself, but my father was a dentist and his father before him. Now, open wide!

  Tony Benn

  Father, Believe, House

  18 Copy quote

• People would do well to ask themselves how many of their ambitions and aspirations derive from the type of economic system they inhabit and the insecurity and exhaustion it creates, and question the sense and purpose of a society where control of a large portion of life is abdicated under contract in the labour market, and where immense creativity and potential is stifled by the need to do difficult and repetitive tasks in order to earn a wage.

  Tony Benn

  Creativity, Ambition, Order

  11 Copy quote

• It's the same each time with progress. First they ignore you, then they say you're mad, then dangerous, then there's a pause and then you can't find anyone who disagrees with you.

  Tony Benn

  Creativity, Mad, Innovation

  1991 Speech at the Labour Party Conference, Oct.

  16 Copy quote

• Remember, imperialism is always presented as humanitarian: the white man's burden, the cross going round the world, the poor benighted natives, the sun never sets. . . So you have to be very careful about humanitarianism.

  Tony Benn

  World, Remember, Imperialism

  Source: think-left.org

  7 Copy quote

• I'm interested in language. We used to call it the War Office. Then it became the Ministry of Defence. We used to talk about the hydrogen bomb, now we talk about a deterrent. And the language is very cleverly constructed to give the impression that it's not what it is.

  Tony Benn

  War, Giving, Office

  Source: think-left.org

  10 Copy quote

• A faith is something you die for; a doctrine is something you kill for; there is all the difference in the world.

  Tony Benn

  Differences, Doctrine, World

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  13 Copy quote

• I think democracy is the most revolutionary thing in the world, because if you have power you use it to meet the needs of you and your community.

  Tony Benn

  Thinking, Community, Democracy

  "Sicko". Documentary, Drama, 2007.

  17 Copy quote

• Well, it all began with Democracy. Before we had the vote all the power was in the hands of rich people. If you had money you could get health care, education, look after yourself when you were old, and what democracy did was to give the poor the vote and it moved power from the marketplace to the polling station, from the wallet...to the ballot.

  Tony Benn

  Hands, Giving, People

  20 Copy quote

• It is wholly wrong to blame Marx for what was done in his name, as it is to blame Jesus for what was done in his

  Tony Benn

  Jesus, Names, Done

  In Alan Freeman The Benn Heresy (1982) p. 172

  5 Copy quote

• The people who have sacrificed their view in order to get to the top have very often left no footprints in the sands of time.

  Tony Benn

  Views, Order, People

  11 Copy quote

• The First World War created the Second World War because that was a war between three grandsons of Queen Victoria: The King of England, the Kaiser and the Tsar married Queen Victoria's granddaughter. And that triggered Communism in Russia and Fascism in Germany and led to the Second World War.

  Tony Benn

  War, Granddaughter, World

  Source: mattkennard.tumblr.com

  13 Copy quote

• I met somebody once who said, "I'm a lapsed-atheist" by what he meant was, "I don't believe in God but the older I get the more I realise there is a spirituality in everybody that has to be cherished and nourished." That made a lot of sense to me.

  Tony Benn

  Believe, Spirituality, Believe In God

  Source: mattkennard.tumblr.com

  14 Copy quote

• I think if journalists were responsible for international policy we'd have a nuclear war every week.

  Tony Benn

  War, Thinking, Week

  Source: designermagazine.tripod.com

  8 Copy quote

• We used to have a War Office, but now we have a Ministry of Defence, nuclear bombs are now described as deterrents, innocent civilians killed in war are now described as collateral damage and military incompetence leading to US bombers killing British soldiers is cosily described as friendly fire. Those who are in favour of peace are described as mavericks and troublemakers, whereas the real militants are those who want the war.

  Tony Benn

  Peace, Military, Real

  60 Copy quote

• All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

  Tony Benn

  War, Failure, Diplomats

  Tony Benn's Speech in House of Commons, hansard.millbanksystems.com. February 28, 1991.

  19 Copy quote

• I try to operate on two unconnected levels. One on the practical level of action in which I am extremely cautious and conservative. The second is the realm of ideas where I try to be very free

  Tony Benn

  Ideas, Two, Trying

  12 Copy quote

• Democracy is not just voting every 5 years and watching 'Big Brother' in between and wondering why nothing happens. Democracy is what we do and say where we live and work

  Tony Benn

  Brother, Years, Voting

  6 Copy quote

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