Tony Benn Quotes

It is true that I entered parliament at the age of 23, and have now been representing the people of my constituency for over twenty years.

I've been in Parliament since 1983, and I've been involved in many issues over the time.

I don't think at my age... you can start ruling people out in politics.

I'm not sure I make old bones in parliament. It's an amazing experience to have had but I can't see myself being Mother of the House.

Every time I would give a talk, someone would say, 'You ought to go into politics.' I prefer to call it government leadership. My life has taken me to places where I have experiences that I think I can share. A lot of times, we see people who are career politicians. I'm not the conventional candidate, nor do I want to be.

I've been a speaker. I've been a majority leader. I've been a minority leader. Those are the sort of things I don't need any more.

I came to politics later in life so I bring a different life experience to it.

I've learned what Tip O'Neill meant when he said all politics is local. We need more people in Congress who have this experience, who have this boots-on-the-ground experience.

Well, why do you want a political career? Have you ever been in the House of Commons and taken a good square look at the inmates? As weird a gaggle of freaks and sub-humans as was ever collected in one spot.

Personally, having, you know, lived and worked in the White House, having been a senator, having been Secretary of State, there has traditionally been a great pool of very talented, hard-working people.

I have as much experience in the Congress as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency.

We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings.

Though I'm a congresswoman by title, a politician I've never been.

I think I could have worked for the Clinton administration.

A promising young man should go into politics so that he can go on promising for the rest of his life.

I'd worked at the White House for two years, and I'd read a bunch of White House memoirs because everybody who works at the White House, even for five minutes, writes a memoir usually not less than 600 pages long - and never without the word 'power' in the title.

You'll notice that Nancy Reagan never drinks water when Ronnie speaks.

There is hardly a single person in the House of Commons worth painting; though many of them would be better for a little whitewashing.

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.

Truth telling in politics is the mark of an inexperienced politician.

We’ve had members of the Senate who have been there 30 years and haven’t gotten good at it yet.

Politics is a profession as certainly as base ball.... The only difference is that base ball is on the square; no base ball hero claims he is working in the interest of the crowd in the bleachers.

Bill Clinton has never had a job.

After all of my years in politics, I've learned that sometimes things that are said are true, and other things that are said are less than true.

I served 14 years in the state legislature and served in both the minority and majority.