Pierre Trudeau Quotes

Ye poor posterity, think not that ye are the first. Other fools before ye have seen the sun rise and set, and the moon change her shape and her hour. As they were so ye are; and yet not so great; for the pyramids my people built stand to this day; whilst the dustheaps on which ye slave, and which ye call empires, scatter in the wind even as ye pile your dead sons' bodies on them to make yet more dust.

The idea of England in decline is very attractive.

I'm supportive of practical nationalism, like the kind we need in Canada to avoid being absorbed into a much larger country. The kind of nationalism I despise as destructive and infantile is really just tribalism writ large.

Our nation has a message. That is why it can never be an average nation. Throughout history our nation has either soared to the heights or fallen into the abyss through the envy, conspiracy and enmity of others.

There are neighborhoods in France that are not French… Why would immigrants want to change France is they left their country to live in France? .. You have two kinds of people living in France: The French and the others…. To offer something to the world, France has to remain France.|

Our position is extremely perilous; if we do not earnestly promote nationalism and weld together our four hundred millions into a strong nation, we face a tragedy - the loss of our country and the destruction of our race. To ward off this danger, we must espouse nationalism and employ the national spirit to save the country.

We will never be great again.

In the modern world, nationalism remains a very important force. We delude ourselves into thinking that globalization has made all of that redundant and that everyone just wants to be like America.

If I should die, think only this of me: that there's some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England.

I think we have to realize that Canada is not immortal; but, if it is going to go, let it go with a bang rather than a whimper.

Donald Trump loves America. He wants it to be the greatest place on earth. He thinks political people have made it the mess that it is. And he's been very open and up front about how he goes about accomplishing things, and that's totally ignored.

If I close my eyes forever will it all remain unchanged?

Under this flag may our youth find new inspiration for loyalty to Canada; for a patriotism based not on any mean or narrow nationalism, but on the deep and equal pride that all Canadians will feel for every part of this good land.

Don't think about what you've left behind... everything is written in the Soul of the World, and there it will stay forever.

We have no participation in Being, because all human nature is ever midway between being born and dying, giving off only a vague image and shadow of itself, and a weak and uncertain opinion. And if you chance to fix your thoughts on trying to grasp its essence, it would be neither more nor less than if your tried to clutch water.

I sit beside the fire and think of people long ago, and of people who will see a world that I shall never know.

We may not have a future, but you can't deny we have a past.

We do not need to import any foreign economic ideas or any foreign government. We had better stick to the American brand of government, the American brand of equality, and the American brand of wages. America had better stay American

We are fossils in the making.

Patriotism has nothing to do with Conservatism. It is actually the opposite of Conservatism, since it is a devotion to something that is always changing and yet is felt to be mystically the same.

I kept thinking how they were all names of dead people, and how names are basically the only thing dead people keep.

O Time! Time! how it brings forth and devours! And the roaring flood of existence rushes on forever similar, forever changing!

The basic rules of life would indicate that it can't last forever, and we'll fall off of the wave and have to climb onto another, but I don't think about it too much. We just keep moving.

A fire can't burn forever. Eventually, it consumes itself.

I have one love - Canada; one purpose - Canada's greatness; one aim - Canadian unity from the Atlantic to the Pacific.