What astounds me about the history of the British Navy is how cheaply we have policed the world for 300 years.

Civilisation cannot survive if it rests on a propertyless proletariat.

Unintelligent people always look for a scapegoat.

It was like a life-line to a sinking man. It seemed to bring hope where there was none. The generosity of it was beyond our belief.

There has been great excitement at the prospect that this atomic bomb or atomic energy is likely to produce great industrial energy very quickly, I do not believe it at all.

My policy is to be able to take a ticket at Victoria station and go anywhere I damn well please!

If you let that sort of thing go on, your bread and butter will be cut right out from under your feet.

The most conservative man in this world is the British trade unionist when you want to change him.

Foreign policy isn't something that is great and big, it's common sense and humanity as it applies to my affairs and yours.

It is placing the Executive and the Movement in an absolutely wrong position to be taking your conscience round from body to body asking to be told what you ought to do with it.

There never has been a war yet which, if the facts had been put calmly before the ordinary folk, could not have been prevented ... The common man, I think, is the great protection against war.

The first thing to decide before you walk into any negotiation is what to do if the other fellow says 'no'.

Ernest Bevin had many of the strongest characteristics of the English race. His manliness, his common sense, his rough simplicity, sturdiness and kind heart, easy geniality and generosity, all are qualities which we who live in the southern part of this famous island regard with admiration.