My 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.

I did but see her passing by and yet I love her till I die.

One speaks with great respect of economists, if only because they represent such a variety of opinions.

The 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.

The 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.

I am one of the few men honest enough to say they do not understand women.

One thing about bureaucrats is that they never swallow their young. Leave them alone and you'll find them increasing every year.