House Of Commons Quotes

• There is no more striking illustration of the immobility of British institutions than the House of Commons.

  H. H. Asquith

  Illustration, House, Parliament

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• Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm.

  Oscar Wilde

  Sarcastic, House, Political

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.1159, GENERAL PRESS

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• Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

  Winston Churchill

  Memorial Day, Military, War

  Speech in House of Commons, 20 Aug. 1940

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• We must learn to do economic work from all who know how, no matter who they are. We must esteem them as teachers, learning from them respectfully and conscientiously. We must not pretend to know when we do not know.

  Mao Zedong

  Teacher, Autumn, Matter

  Zedong Mao (1972). “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung”, p.310, China Books

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• The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

  Winston Churchill

  Gratitude, War, Home

  Speech in House of Commons, 20 Aug. 1940

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• The House of Commons starts its proceedings with a prayer. The chaplain looks at the assembled members with their varied intelligence and then prays for the country.

  Alfred Denning, Baron Denning

  Country, Prayer, House

  Daily Telegraph, October 12, 1989.

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• No prime minister in Britain will ever be able to go to war without the endorsement of a majority of the House of Commons.

  Neil Kinnock

  War, House, Majority

  "Neil Kinnock: 'This election is about now and the future'". Interview with David Hare, www.theguardian.com. April 12, 2010.

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• A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely in the House of Lords. There are two distinct styles requisite: I intend, in the course of my career, if I have time, to give a specimen of both.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Men, Careers, Two

  Benjamin Disraeli (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Benjamin Disraeli (Illustrated)”, p.836, Delphi Classics

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• [I]n Great-Britain it is said that their constitution relies on the house of commons for honesty, and the lords for wisdom; whichwould be a rational reliance if honesty were to be bought with money, and if wisdom were hereditary.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Honesty, Government, House

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

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• I never aspired to be Speaker simply so I could say, 'I am the Speaker of the House of Commons,' and tell my children that.

  John Bercow

  Children, House, Speakers

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• Well, why do you want a political career? Have you ever been in the House of Commons and taken a good square look at the inmates? As weird a gaggle of freaks and sub-humans as was ever collected in one spot.

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Taken, Squares, Careers

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• I'm not going to play politics on the floor of the House of Commons.

  John Turner

  Play, House, Canada

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• This is the third time that, in the course of six years, during which I have had the lead of the Opposition in the House of Commons, I have stormed the Treasury Benches: twice, fruitlessly, the third time with a tin kettle to my tail which rendered the race hopeless. You cannot, therefore, be surprised, that I am a little wearied of these barren victories, which like Alma, Inkerman, and Balaclava, may be glorious but are certainly nothing more.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Race, Years, House

  Benjamin Disraeli's letter to Lady Londonderry, February 22, 1854.

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• The House of Commons is called the Lower House, in twenty Acts of Parliament; but what are twenty Acts of Parliament amongst Friends?

  John Selden

  House, Twenties, Parliament

  John Selden (1716). “Table-talk: the discourses of J. Selden [ed. by R. Milward.].”, p.26

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• You can hardly say boo to a goose in the House of Commons now without cries of "Ungentlemanly," "Not fair" and all the rest.

  Harold MacMillan

  House, Politics, Cry

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• There's no secret about my ambition, I do not want to go into the House of Commons. My only real political interest is in London and if one day I'm in a position to run for mayor, then terrific.

  Trevor Phillips

  Running, Real, Ambition

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• Women have worked hard; starved in prison; given of their time and lives that we might sit in the House of Commons and take part in the legislating of this country.

  Ellen Wilkinson

  Country, House, Might

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• It is recorded how towards the end of the eighteenth century a Muslim visitor to England was taken to see the House of Commons at work. He later wrote of his astonishment at finding the that the British Parliament actually made laws and fixed punishments for their infraction - because unlike Muslims the English had not accepted a divine law revealed from heaven and therefore had to resort to such unsatisfactory expedients. Muslims still understand the expression 'the rule of law' very differently than do most Westerners.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Taken, Expression, Law

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• But there's certainly only one thing I could never agree with George Galloway on. He's a teetotaller and wants to close all the bars in the House of Commons. That is just not on.

  Nigel Farage

  House, Bars, Want

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• The essence and foundation of House of Commons debating is formal conversation. The set speech, the harangue addressed to constituents, or to the wider public out of doors, has never succeeded much in our small wisely-built chamber. To do any good you have got to get down to grips with the subject and in human touch with the audience.

  Winston Churchill

  Doors, Essence, House

  Winston Churchill (1959). “Great Contemporaries”

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• Really, this horrid House of Commons quite ruins our husbands for us. I think the Lower House by far the greatest blow to a happy married life that there has been since that terrible thing called the Higher Education of Women was invented.

  Oscar Wilde

  Husband, Thinking, Blow

  Oscar Wilde (2008). “The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays: Lady Windermere's Fan; Salome; A Woman of No Importance; An Ideal Husband; The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.205, OUP Oxford

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• When I was 14 I told my mother I intended to be in the House of Commons in the morning, in court in the afternoon and on stage in the evening. She realised then a fantasist had been born.

  Helen McCrory

  Mother, Morning, House

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Give them a corrupt House of Lords, give them a venal House of Commons, give they a tyrannical Prince, give them a truckling court, and let me have but an unfettered press. I will defy them to encroach a hair's breadth upon the liberties of England.

  Richard Brinsley Sheridan

  Hair, Giving, House

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• I appeal to the contemptible speech made lately by Sir Robert Peel to an applauding House of Commons. 'Orders of merit,' said he, 'were the proper rewards of the military' (the desolators of the world in all ages). 'Men of science are better left to the applause of their own hearts.' Most learned Legislator! Most liberal cotton-spinner! Was your title the proper reward of military prowess? Pity you hold not the dungeon-keys of an English Inquisition! Perhaps Science, like creeds, would flourish best under a little persecution.

  John Joseph Griffin

  Military, Heart, Science

  John Joseph Griffin (1834). “Chemical Recreations: A Series of Amusing and Instructive Experiments, which May be Performed with Ease, Safety, Success, and Economy ; to which is Added, The Romance of Chemistry : an Inquiry Into the Fallacies of the Prevailing Theory of Chemistry : with a New Theory and a New Nomenclature”, p.232

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• What the government has to do, if it wants to govern for any length of time, is it must appeal primarily to the third parties in the House of Commons to get them to support it.

  Stephen Harper

  Party, Government, House

  "Harper appears open to working with Bloc in 2004 CBC interview". Interview with Evan Solomon, www.theglobeandmail.com. December 05, 2008.

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