HAROLD MACMILLAN

Once the bear's hug has got you, it is apt to be for keeps.

I was a sort of son to Ike, and it was the other way round with Kennedy.

(A Foreign Secretary) is forever poised between the cliche and the indiscretion.

In long experience I find that a man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.

There might be 1 finger on the trigger, but there will be 15 fingers on the safety catch.

To be alive at all involves some risk.

Britain's most useful role is somewhere between bee and dinosaur.

It has been said that there is no fool like an old fool, except a young fool. But the young fool has first to grow up to be an old fool to realize what a damn fool he was when he was a young fool.

It's no use crying over spilt summits.

A man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.

Marxism is like a classical building that followed the Renaissance; beautiful in its way, but incapable of growth.

I was determined that no British government should be brought down by the action of two tarts.

No man should ever lose sleep over public affairs.

When the curtain falls, the best thing an actor can do is to go away.

He is forever poised between a cliche and an indiscretion.

If you don't believe in God, all you have to believe in is decency. Decency is very good. Better decent than indecent. But I don't think it's enough.

Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, it means that the dead are living.

If people want a sense of purpose they should get it from their archbishop. They should certainly not get it from their politicians.

Memorial services are the cocktail parties of the geriatric set.

We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.

... a brilliant tyrant surrounded by mediocrities.

[President John F.] Kennedy must be a strange character—obstinate, sensitive, ruthless and highly sexed.

Americans, who are naive and inexperienced, are up against centuries of diplomatic skill and finesse.

Exporting is fun

Fearing the weakness of democracy, men have always sought safety in technocrats. But ... [we] have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down before the divine right of experts.