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

Aneurin Bevan

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Aneurin Bevan
Age: 62 †
Born: 1897
Born: November 15
Died: 1960
Died: July 6
Politician
Secretary Of State For Health
Trade Unionist
Nye Bevan
Getting
Purpose
Away
Political
Power
Give
Able
Giving
Politics

More quotes by Aneurin Bevan

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He brings to the fierce struggle of politics the tepid enthusiasm of a lazy summer afternoon at a cricket match.
Aneurin Bevan
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There can be no immaculate conception of socialism.
Aneurin Bevan
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[Winston Churchill] never spares himself in conversation. He gives himself so generously that hardly anyone else is permitted to give anything in his presence.
Aneurin Bevan
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I have never regarded politics as the arena of morals. It is the arena of interest.
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The Tories always hold the view that the state is an apparatus for the protection of the swag of the property owners ... Christ drove the money changers out of the temple, but you inscribe their title deed on the altar cloth.
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There is only one hope for mankind - and that is democratic Socialism.
Aneurin Bevan
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Poor fellow, he suffers from files.
Aneurin Bevan
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How can wealth persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power? Here lies the whole art of Conservative politics in the twentieth century.
Aneurin Bevan
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Reactionary: a man walking backwards with his face to the future.
Aneurin Bevan
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He seems determined to make a trumpet sound like a tin whistle.
Aneurin Bevan
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Virtue is its own punishment.
Aneurin Bevan
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The Prime Minister has an absolute genius for putting flamboyant labels on empty luggage.
Aneurin Bevan
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No society can legitimately call itself civilized if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.
Aneurin Bevan
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He has the lucidity which is the by-product of a fundamentally sterile mind.
Aneurin Bevan
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This island is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organizing genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same time.
Aneurin Bevan
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Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable.
Aneurin Bevan
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Not even the apparently enlightened principle of the 'greatest good for the greatest number' can excuse indifference to individual suffering. There is no test for progress other than its impact on the individual.
Aneurin Bevan
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You call that statesmanship. I call it an emotional spasm.
Aneurin Bevan
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What should be the glory of the profession is that a doctor should be able to meet his patients with no financial anxiety.
Aneurin Bevan
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I am not going to spend any time whatsoever in attacking the Foreign Secretary. If we complain about the tune, there is no reason to attack the monkey when the organ grinder is present.
Aneurin Bevan