Quote

The essence of power is the knowledge that what you do is going to have an effect not just an immediate but perhaps a lifelong effect on the happiness and wellbeing of millions of people and so I think the essence of power is to be conscious of what it can mean for others.

Bob Hawke

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Bob Hawke
Age: 89 †
Born: 1929
Born: December 9
Died: 2019
Died: May 16
Former Prime Minister Of Australia
Politician
Trade Unionist
Union Organizer
Bordertown
South Australia
Australia
Robert James Lee Hawke
The Honourable Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee Bob Hawke
Mean
Leadership
Going
Effects
Think
Perhaps
Wellbeing
Thinking
Millions
Lifelong
People
Knowledge
Immediate
Happiness
Effect
Others
Essence
Power
Conscious

More quotes by Bob Hawke

Image
Don't talk to me about what's happened since [Nelson] Mandela! His successor was absolutely hopeless - no such thing as AIDS - and this present President... It's a tragedy, you know, what's happened there post-Mandela, because he was an iconic figure.
Bob Hawke
Image
Do you know why I have credibility? Because I don't exude morality.
Bob Hawke
Image
I respected [Margaret Thatcher] enormously. She had great integrity in that respect.
Bob Hawke
Image
You've got to remember the Cold War was a very real thing then, so the relationship with the United States was very, very important. As was the relationship that I was developing with China: that was something I did very much. And they weren't conflicting things.
Bob Hawke
Image
The things which are most important don’t always scream the loudest.
Bob Hawke
Image
I had a very close relationship with [Brian] Mulroney.
Bob Hawke
Image
The concept there was that the small number of developed countries within the Commonwealth should provide assistance. This was not just financial but personal, providing experts and so on, to assist less developed members of the Commonwealth to get on the growing path. And that was part of what we did with South Africa.
Bob Hawke
Image
I rang Brian [Mulroney] up. I said, What's this bloody nonsense. You've got a wheat trade with Iraq and you won't come aboard? I said, We've got a bloody big wheat trade too, so get your priorities right. And he said, Okay, Bob. I'll come. I rang George and he was very appreciative.
Bob Hawke
Image
[ Rajiv Gandhi] was such an infinitely more attractive leader than his mother.
Bob Hawke
Image
Brian Mulroney, myself, [and] Rajiv Gandhi I think that was the real core [of the Commonwealth ]. That was the engine room, I reckon.
Bob Hawke
Image
The personality of the Queen [ Elizabeth II]... For instance, once she goes - if she's ever going to die, it seems to be questionable - if Charles [of Wales] were there, whether there'd be the same sort of cement is very questionable, I think.
Bob Hawke
Image
I believe [ Rajiv Gandhi] had a real sense that he would be assassinated.
Bob Hawke
Image
I think there are a number of reasons, not least of which is the personality of the Queen [ Elizabeth II]. It's very easy to underrate her significance. I think she finds the Commonwealth and her position as Head of the Commonwealth infinitely more interesting than being the Queen of England, because she has no significant role in the latter.
Bob Hawke
Image
I assumed the leadership within the Commonwealth for the fight against apartheid. I was very much assisted by Brian Mulroney, the Prime Minister of Canada, [and] Rajiv Gandhi, when he became the Prime Minister of India. And there were trade sanctions.
Bob Hawke
Image
It had things that it could do and which I thought were worthwhile: one would be South Africa, of course. And, as I said, I assumed a leadership role within the Commonwealth on that.
Bob Hawke
Image
By 1990, no Australian child will be living in poverty.
Bob Hawke
Image
In fact, soon after that [South African sanctions], I was going on an official visit to the UK and Margaret Thatcher instructed every minister to clear the decks of any outstanding matters between us - Australia and the Brits. And she went out of her way to make sure that that was as successful a visit as it possibly could be.
Bob Hawke
Image
Peoples have come to experience that political structures and divisions of power are not immutable. Nor will they perceive the distribution of wealth and resources between nations to be unalterably ordained by heaven and incapable of drastic rearrangement by the less than gentle manipulation of man.
Bob Hawke
Image
I really had very little to do with Pierre Trudeau. He was off the scene very soon.
Bob Hawke
Image
As far as we're concerned, there was no sporting organisation [that] should have anything to do with the sport in South Africa.
Bob Hawke