Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Aneurin Bevan Politician

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: Wales
  • Born: Nov 15, 1897
  • Died: Jul 6, 1960

Aneurin "Nye" Bevan was a Welsh Labour Party politician who was the Minister for Health in the post-war Attlee government from 1945 to 1951. The son of a coal miner, Bevan was a lifelong champion of social justice and the rights of working people. He was a long-time Member of Parliament, representing Ebbw Vale in southern Wales for 31 years. He was one of the chief spokesmen for the Labour party's left wing, and of left-wing British thought generally. His most famous accomplishment came when, as Minister of Health, he spearheaded the establishment of the National Health Service, which was to provide medical care free at point-of-need to all Britons. He resigned when the Attlee government decided to transfer funds from the National Insurance fund to pay for rearmament.

Fascism is not in itself a new order of society. It is the future refusing to be born.

It is not possible to create peace in the Middle East by jeopardizing the peace of the world.

Reactionary: a man walking backwards with his face to the future.

I have never regarded politics as the arena of morals. It is the arena of interest.

It is an axiom, enforced by all the experience of the ages, that they who rule industrially will rule politically.

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.

Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable.

The purpose of getting power is to be able to give it away.

Freedom is the by-product of economic surplus.

This is my truth, tell me yours.

Politics is a blood sport.