Quotes and anectdotes from the wise to the foolish, and the courageous to the drunk

Harold MacMillan Politician

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: United Kingdom
  • Born: Feb 10, 1894
  • Died: Dec 29, 1986

Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC, FRS was a British Conservative politician and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963.

Nicknamed "Supermac" and known for his pragmatism, wit and unflappability, Macmillan achieved note before the Second World War as a Tory radical and critic of appeasement. As a child, teenager and later young man, he was an admirer of the policies and leadership of a succession of Liberal Prime Ministers, starting with Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who came to power near the end of 1905 when Macmillan was only 11 years old, and then H. H. Asquith, whom he later described as having "intellectual sincerity and moral nobility", and particularly of Asquith's successor, David Lloyd George, whom he regarded as a "man of action", likely to accomplish his goals.

Macmillan served in the Grenadier Guards during the First World War. He was wounded three times, most severely in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. He spent the rest of the war in a military hospital and suffered pain and partial immobility for the rest of his life.

It is the duty of Her Majesty's government neither to flap nor to falter. government

A man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts. trust

I have never found, in a long experience of politics, that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance. experience & politics

In long experience I find that a man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts. experience

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

At home, you always have to be a politician when you're abroad, you almost feel yourself a statesman. home