Quote

In academic life you seek to state absolute truths in politics you seek to accommodate truth to the facts around you.

Pierre Trudeau

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Pierre Trudeau
Age: 80 †
Born: 1919
Born: October 18
Died: 2000
Died: September 28
Diarist
Former Prime Minister Of Canada
Journalist
Judge
Lawyer
Memoirist
Politician
Montreal
Quebec
Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau
Around
Academic
Truth
Truths
States
Absolutes
Life
Absolute
Seek
Politics
State
Facts
Accommodate

More quotes by Pierre Trudeau

Image
In reality, though, the first thing to ask of history is that it should point out to us the paths of liberty. The great lesson to draw from revolutions is not that they devour humanity but rather that tyranny never fails to generate them.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
The community of man should be treated in the same way you would treat your community of brothers or fellow citizens.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
I was inclined to judge the validity of a man's faith more by the depth of his roots in reality and brotherhood and love. So I felt more at home, shall we say with some Zoroastrians in the Far East, than I did with some Catholic missionaries.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
People are more interested in ideas than dress.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
Some things I never learned to like. I didn't like to kiss babies, though I didn't mind kissing their mothers.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
If Canada is to survive, it can only survive in mutual respect and in love for one another.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
Bilingualism is not an imposition on the citizens. The citizens can go on speaking one language or six languages, or no languages if they so choose. Bilingualism is an imposition on the state and not the citizens.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
It seems to me it would be pretty awful if Canadians came to choose political leaders not for their political ideas and actions, but because of their adherence or their devotedness to one faith or another.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
When they are 50 yards from Parliament Hill, they are no longer honourable members, they are just nobodies.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
I think that religions must seek peace and love and therefore be pacifist.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
For my part...I am a realist but, somehow, optimism always keeps breaking out.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
The federal government is the balance wheel of the federal system, and the federal system means using counterweights.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
I believe military force can be used to redress or change the balance of power in the world, but I think that that's always a losing operation if you're not trying to do it in a way which corresponds to the basic desires of the people on whom you are acting.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
We must now establish the basic principles, the basic values and beliefs which hold us together as Canadians so that beyond our regional loyalties there is a way of life and a system of values which make us proud of the country that has given us such freedom and such immeasurable joy.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
Canada will be a strong country when Canadians of all provinces feel at home in all parts of the country, and when they feel that all Canada belongs to them.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
This is the beauty of the democratic process: it permits that subjective view of justice - which everyone holds - permits that subjective way to express itself peacefully through discussion, through reason and through the voting process.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
I can see that in certain political situations you have to use force to overthrow police states.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
The most beautiful missionaries I saw were those who talked less about religion but who were very generous in their approach.
Pierre Trudeau
Image
I remember thinking that walking on the beach as a free man is pretty desirable.
Pierre Trudeau