Top 40 Charles Kennedy Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I believe that access to a university education should be based on the ability to learn, not what people can afford. I think there is no more nauseating a sight than politicians pulling up the ladder of opportunity behind them.”

— Charles Kennedy

2. “Immigrants provide skills that we simply cannot afford to do without. They have contributed hugely to Britain’s success.”

— Charles Kennedy

3. “Music and politics are in essence about communication. Without over-stretching the analogy I do feel a sense of rhythm is important in getting your message across.”

— Charles Kennedy

4. “We should have high expectations of our children, but politicians should not tell teachers how to meet them.”

— Charles Kennedy

5. “Further Education should be about the ability to learn, not the ability to pay – everyone who is able should have the opportunity, regardless of their family background. I don’t want to see students struggling with huge debts or frightened off even going to university in the first place.”

— Charles Kennedy

6. “Politicians are good at saying how Government must do more, but we must also think carefully about where Government should do less.”

— Charles Kennedy

7. “My health is good and it’s up to me to keep it that way.”

— Charles Kennedy

8. “I do think there is a great deal of caricature around the House of Commons. It is just that kind of place.”

— Charles Kennedy

9. “I’m a lifelong believer in trade unionism.”

— Charles Kennedy

10. “Paddy Ashdown is the only party leader who’s a trained killer. Although, to be fair, Mrs Thatcher was self taught.”

— Charles Kennedy

11. “I’m a fully paid-up member of the human race.”

— Charles Kennedy

12. “Courage is a peculiar kind of fear.”

— Charles Kennedy

13. “Actually, I think it’s quite sensible not to take yourself too seriously.”

— Charles Kennedy

14. “I couldn’t imagine a day without music. It relaxes and stimulates me in equal measure and I hate the sound of silence – the concept, I mean, not the track by Simon and Garfunkel.”

— Charles Kennedy

15. “To run an effective political party you need a degree of tribalism, it’s the glue that holds everyone together.”

— Charles Kennedy

16. “The one thing we can all be sure about in politics is you are as well to expect the unexpected.”

— Charles Kennedy

17. “I will go out of this world feet first with my Lib Dem membership card in my pocket.”

— Charles Kennedy

18. “I’m not someone who dwells upon past events, taking the view that life is too short.”

— Charles Kennedy

19. “If you were to describe me as teetotal, on behalf of my constituency I’d have to sue; that would lose me every vote in the Highlands.”

— Charles Kennedy

20. “I am genuinely not an over-the-top kind of person about politics or anything else.”

— Charles Kennedy

21. “You mustn’t confuse the need for effective chairmanship, which is part of the job of the boss, along with the ability to take tough decisions and to lead people.”

— Charles Kennedy

22. “My idealism has not abated, but I have witnessed it withering away nationwide, to the point where at least among the young, to have ideals is akin to being blinkered and oldfashioned.”

— Charles Kennedy

23. “I want to see far more decisions taken far closer to the patients, the passengers and the pupils. Far more power for locally and regionally elected politicians who understand best the needs of their areas. And far more say too for the dedicated staff at all levels in health and education.”

— Charles Kennedy

24. “There are hard choices to be made in balancing the country’s security and an individual’s liberties. But it is a choice that has to be faced.”

— Charles Kennedy

25. “I can hardly think of an occasion when I’ve got into a stand-up fight with any political opponent. I’ve got my views, people know what they are, they can agree or they can choose to disagree. I’m not going to waste time just rubbishing everybody else.”

— Charles Kennedy

26. “I think that former leaders are best seen occasionally and not too often heard – particularly on the subject of their successors!”

— Charles Kennedy

27. “It is true that I entered parliament at the age of 23, and have now been representing the people of my constituency for over twenty years.”

— Charles Kennedy

28. “The events of the Holocaust viewed through the eyes of Anne Frank are a unique and damming testament to the dreadful atrocities of that period of our history.”

— Charles Kennedy

29. “Three simple words – freedom, justice and honesty. These sum up what the Liberal Democrats stand for.”

— Charles Kennedy

30. “There stands no contradiction between giving voice to legitimate anxiety and at the same time, as and when exchange of fire commences, looking to the rest of the country, as well as all of us in the House, to give full moral support to our forces.”

— Charles Kennedy

31. “The quicker we get rid of the lobby system the better for all of us. I don’t think in this day and age it is tenable to have these nods and winks, and on-the-record and off-the-record briefings.”

— Charles Kennedy

32. “I don’t want a headline saying ‘Kennedy suggests this or implies that.’”

— Charles Kennedy

33. “For any new leader of any party at any given time it takes time if you are not in government to establish yourself.”

— Charles Kennedy

34. “We Liberal Democrats believe in dialogue. We believe in cooperation with both sides of industry and between both sides of industry. And we believe in the language of cooperation. We reject the language of confrontation.”

— Charles Kennedy

35. “Politics is much too serious to be taken too seriously; equally, there are many aspects of it so laughable as to be lamentable.”

— Charles Kennedy

36. “I have never once been persuaded as to the causal link between the Iraqi regime, al-Qaeda and September 11. I do believe the impact of war under these circumstances is bound to weaken the international coalition against terrorism itself...”

— Charles Kennedy

37. “You won’t catch Liberal Democrats describing trade unionists as wreckers.”

— Charles Kennedy

38. “I should do something about the cigarettes; I quite accept that it’s bad for your health, but you know a moderate tipple is positively beneficial and, at certain times, absolutely essential.”

— Charles Kennedy

39. “My approach is always to try to be straight with people, especially about what my party can achieve.”

— Charles Kennedy

40. “Yes, you need substance in politics – but I think your style also says something about how you arrive at some of your conclusions.”

— Charles Kennedy

41. “There is no satisfaction to be derived from having had many of our arguments borne out by events.”

— Charles Kennedy