Top 50 Harold MacMillan Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Too many people live too much in the past. The past must be a springboard, not a sofa.”

— Harold MacMillan

2. “A man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.”

— Harold MacMillan

3. “No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Wife or mother, if it is both, he is twice blessed indeed.”

— Harold MacMillan

4. “It has been said that there is no fool like an old fool, except a young fool. But the young fool has first to grow up to be an old fool to realize what a damn fool he was when he was a young fool.”

— Harold MacMillan

5. “The wind of change is blowing through the continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.”

— Harold MacMillan

6. “There are three bodies no sensible man directly challenges: the Roman Catholic Church, the Brigade of Guards and the National Union of Mineworkers.”

— Harold MacMillan

7. “To be alive at all involves some risk.”

— Harold MacMillan

8. “I was determined that no British government should be brought down by the action of two tarts.”

— Harold MacMillan

9. “I’d like that translated, if I may.”

— Harold MacMillan

10. “One nanny said, “Feed a cold”; she was a neo-Keynesian. Another nanny said, “Starve a cold”; she was a monetarist.”

— Harold MacMillan

11. “Britain’s most useful role is somewhere between bee and dinosaur.”

— Harold MacMillan

12. “If you don’t believe in God, all you have to believe in is decency. Decency is very good. Better decent than indecent. But I don’t think it’s enough.”

— Harold MacMillan

13. “I have learned that in all negotiations nothing matters except the will to reach agreement.”

— Harold MacMillan

14. “You will find the Americans much as the Greeks found the Romans: great, big, vulgar, bustling people more vigorous than we are and also more idle, with more unspoiled virtues but also more corrupt.”

— Harold MacMillan

15. “It was a storm in a tea cup, but in politics we sail in paper boats.”

— Harold MacMillan

16. “There might be 1 finger on the trigger, but there will be 15 fingers on the safety catch.”

— Harold MacMillan

17. “Most of our people have never had it so good.”

— Harold MacMillan

18. “Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, it means that the dead are living.”

— Harold MacMillan

19. “It has been said that there is no fool like an old fool.”

— Harold MacMillan

20. “When the curtain falls, the best thing an actor can do is to go away.”

— Harold MacMillan

21. “History is apt to judge harshly those who sacrifice tomorrow for today.”

— Harold MacMillan

22. “Once the bear’s hug has got you, it is apt to be for keeps.”

— Harold MacMillan

23. “After a long life I have come to the conclusion that when all the Establishment is united it is always wrong.”

— Harold MacMillan

24. “We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.”

— Harold MacMillan

25. “Jaw-jaw is better than war-war.”

— Harold MacMillan

26. “We believe that unless we give opportunity to the strong and able, we shall never have the means to provide real protection for the weak and the old.”

— Harold MacMillan

27. “It is, of course, a trite observation to say that we live “in a period of transition.” Many people have said this at many times. Adam may well have made the remark to Eve on leaving the Garden of Eden.”

— Harold MacMillan

28. “Power? It’s like a Dead Sea fruit. When you achieve it, there is nothing there.”

— Harold MacMillan

29. “Stop-Go seemed more sensiblr than using the brake and accelerator at the same time – a practice that later became fashionable.”

— Harold MacMillan

30. “I have never found criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.”

— Harold MacMillan

31. “No man should ever lose sleep over public affairs.”

— Harold MacMillan

32. “Marxism is like a classical building that followed the Renaissance; beautiful in its way, but incapable of growth.”

— Harold MacMillan

33. “It’s a good thing to be laughed at. It’s better than to be ignored.”

— Harold MacMillan

34. “If people want a sense of purpose they should get it from their archbishop. They should certainly not get it from their politicians.”

— Harold MacMillan

35. “I am MacWonder one moment and MacBlunder the next.”

— Harold MacMillan

36. “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

37. “As usual the Liberals offer a mixture of sound and original ideas. Unfortunately none of the sound ideas is original and none of the original ideas is sound.”

— Harold MacMillan

38. “We do not intend to part from the Americans and we do not intend to be satellites. I am sure they do not want us to be so. The stronger we are, the better partners we shall be; and I feel certain that as the months pass we shall draw continually closer together with mutual confidence and respect.”

— Harold MacMillan

39. “Memorial services are the cocktail parties of the geriatric set.”

— Harold MacMillan

40. “It is the duty of Her Majesty’s government neither to flap nor to falter.”

— Harold MacMillan

41. “The only quality needed for an MP is the ability to write a good letter.”

— Harold MacMillan

42. “At home, you always have to be a politician; when you’re abroad, you almost feel yourself a statesman.”

— Harold MacMillan

43. “I will not be able to carry the physical burden of leading the Party at the next general election. I hope it will soon be possible for the customary processes of consultation to be carried on within the Party about its future leadership.”

— Harold MacMillan

44. “Churchill was fundamentally what the English call unstable – by which they mean anybody who has that touch of genius which is inconvenient in normal times.”

— Harold MacMillan

45. “I was a sort of son to Ike, and it was the other way round with Kennedy.”

— Harold MacMillan

46. “If ever the call comes to them, the young will go straight from the ranks of the neutralists into the ranks of he Majesty’s Forces, as they have so often done in the past.”

— Harold MacMillan

47. “It’s no use crying over spilt summits.”

— Harold MacMillan

48. “Revolt by all means, but only on one issue at a time. To do more would be to confuse the whips.”

— Harold MacMillan

49. “A successful current affairs television show seems to be more and more a cross between a music hall turn and a scene in a torture chamber.”

— Harold MacMillan

50. “After long experience of politics, I have never found that there is any inhibition caused by ignorance as regards criticism.”

— Harold MacMillan