More good things in life are lost by indifference than ever were lost by active hostility.
Robert MenziesThe great vice of democracy is that for a generation we have been busy getting ourselves on to the list of beneficiaries and removing ourselves from the list of contributors, as if somewhere there was somebody else's effort on which we could thrive.
Robert MenziesNever take any notice of Anonymous letters, unless you get a few thousand on the same subject.
Robert MenziesMen of genius are not to be analysed by commonplace rules. The rest of us who have been or are leaders, more commonplace in our quality, will do well to remember two things. One is never to forget posterity when devising a policy. The other is never to think of posterity when making a speech.
Robert MenziesModern history is, as you all know, full of examples of great movements that disappeared because they had ceased to have any genuine reason for existence. The important thing is to have a faith to live by, and that goes for us in this party.
Robert MenziesThinking ahead, what really happens to us will depend on how many people we have who are of the great and sober and dynamic middle-class - the strivers, the planners, the ambitious ones.
Robert MenziesThe kind of people I myself represent in parliament; salary earners, shopkeepers, skilled artisans, professional men and women, farmers and so on, these are, in a political and economic sense, the middle class. They are for the most part unorganised and unselfconscious.
Robert MenziesOne speaks with great respect of economists, if only because they represent such a variety of opinions.
Robert MenziesNever forget posterity when devising a policy. Never think of posterity when making a speech.
Robert MenziesWe took the name 'Liberal' because we were determined to be a progressive party, willing to make experiments, in no sense reactionary but believing in the individual, his rights, and his enterprise, and rejecting the socialist panacea.
Robert MenziesMy headmaster chastised me with a diabolical instrument a leather strap tacked to a piece of wood but he taught me with such villainous success that I am now Prime Minister.
Robert Menzies"I pay my taxes," says somebody, as if that were an act of virtue instead of one of compulsion.
Robert MenziesExperiment is necessary in establishing an academy, but certain principles must apply to this business of art as to any other business which affects the artistic tic sense of the community. Great art speaks a language which every intelligent person can understand. The people who call themselves modernists today speak a different language.
Robert MenziesOne thing about bureaucrats is that they never swallow their young. Leave them alone and you'll find them increasing every year.
Robert MenziesA manager may be tough and practical, squeezing out, while the going is good, the last ounce of profit and dividend . . .
Robert MenziesA man may be a tough, concentrated, successful moneymaker and never contribute to his country anything more than a horrible example. A manager may be tough and practical, squeezing out, while the going is good, the last ounce of profit and dividend, and may leave behind him an exhausted industry and a legacy of industrial hatred. A tough manager may never look outside his own factory walls or be conscious of his partnership in a wider world. I often wonder what strange cud such men sit chewing when their working days are over, and the accumulating riches of the mind have eluded them.
Robert Menzies