John Howard Quotes
I have absolutely no difficulty myself with the playing of God Save the Queen in the presence of Her Majesty.
Howard, John. "Press Conference." Melbourne, 2006.
1st Duke of Wellington. The King was somewhat delusional, and there is no historical records of his ever having personally fought in the Napoleonic wars at all. This quotation has often been nominated for the most tactful in history.
In the British Constitutional Monarchy of the Victorian Era, the Queen still possessed enormous power and many in Parliament was constantly trying to have Parliament assume many of the Queen’s powers. The Prime Minister was in an awkward position. On the one hand, he was the Queen’s Prime Minister and leader of HER government. At the same time he was the leader of the political party that had won the last Parliamentary election. His party was trying to usurp some of the Queen’s powers and Peel explained to the Queen’s assistant that he would generally side with the Queen against his own party. It is doubtful that Anson and the Queen believed Peel on this point as his position as Prime Minister depended not on his being elected by the voters but by his party members of Parliament. In modern times, the British monarch has few real powers but is still very influential so there are no struggles over power with Parliament.
This passage was one of those used by Christian apologists for slavery. Critics of some Christian churches point to this passage as illustrating the lack of morality in traditional Christianity when it same to fundamentals such as human slavery. In this particular quotation, the slave master is likened to Christ. Ironically, it was Christian abolitionists in England and the United States who saw other passages of the New Testament and the Gospel of Christ as disapproving of slavery and those Christians where among the most effective of the abolitionists.
Adultery for a queen was considered treason. Adultery per se was not punished with death in 16th century England, but the concept was that a Queen who committed adultery was risking the royal bloodline and therefore the Crown and the Nation.
Marquis of Lansdowne. What makes this quotation so noteworthy is the illustration of a political rarity. The leader of the country calls in a leading politician and asks for advice on a current political problem. Politicians almost always have advice to give even when it is not wanted or asked for. But the total number of occasions where the Politician had no good advice could be measured on the fingers of one hand. This is the most classic. The problem was that the previous government had collapsed for want of a majority of Parliament, and the Queen was seeking advice on which of the leading politicians she should ask to try and put a government together. However, no one was sure that any of the politicians could muster enough support to form a government, but everyone had an opinion except Lord Lansdowne.
John Winston Howard OM AC SSI is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th Prime Minister of Australia (1996–2007) and Leader of the Liberal Party (1985–1989; 1995–2007). His nearly twelve-year tenure as Prime Minister is the second-longest in history, behind only Sir Robert Menzies, who served for eighteen non-consecutive years. He has also been the oldest living former Australian Prime Minister since the death of Bob Hawke in 2019.
