Tony Benn Quotes

There is no final victory, as there is no final defeat. There is just the same battle. To be fought, over and over again. So toughen up, bloody toughen up.

The way a government treats refugees is very instructive.

If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people.

I think there are two ways in which people are controlled - first of all frighten people and secondly demoralize them.

Britain today is suffering from galloping obsolescence.

The Labour party has never been a socialist party, although there have always been socialists in it - a bit like Christians in the Church of England.

We are paying a heavy political price for 20 years in which, as a party, we have played down our criticism of capitalism and soft-peddled our advocacy of socialism

The Tory party is the enemy of democracy.

I think very often the boat-rockers turn out to be the people who are building the craft

The flag of racialism which has been hoisted in Wolverhampton is beginning to look like the one that fluttered 25 years ago over Dachau and Belsen.

I did not enter the Labour Party 47 years ago to have our manifesto written by Dr Mori, Dr Gallup and Mr Harris

No medieval monarch in the whole of British history ever had such power as every modern British Prime Minister has in his or her hands. Nor does any American President have power approaching this

The one thing that is absolutely essential is that there shouldn't be any governmental control [of the media] directly or indirectly.

Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure.

The Marxist analysis has got nothing to do with what happened in Stalin's Russia: it's like blaming Jesus Christ for the Inquisition in Spain.

I think democracy is the most revolutionary thing in the world, because if you have power you use it to meet the needs of you and your community.

Broadcasting is really too important to be left to the broadcasters.

Encouragement is the most important thing in the world for young people, rather than league tables, which demoralise everyone.

Through talk, we tamed kings, restrained tyrants, averted revolution

Hope is the fuel of progress and fear is the prison in which you put yourself.

It's the same each time with progress. First they ignore you, then they say you're mad, then dangerous, then there's a pause and then you can't find anyone who disagrees with you.

A faith is something you die for; a doctrine is something you kill for; there is all the difference in the world.

I try to operate on two unconnected levels. One on the practical level of action in which I am extremely cautious and conservative. The second is the realm of ideas where I try to be very free

There is no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons.

All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

An educated, healthy and confident nation is harder to govern.

The people who have sacrificed their view in order to get to the top have very often left no footprints in the sands of time.

I am on the right wing of the middle of the road and with a strong radical bias.

I'd rather die on my feet making a speech than die of Alzheimer's - and that's what I'm planning to do.

The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.

I believe the more difficult the circumstances, the more people will be inclined to trust those in charge at the moment.

I've made every mistake - but mistakes are how you learn.

The police are controlled by the whites, the media are controlled by the whites, the army's controlled by the whites, what hope is there for change? Administration changes from underneath.

The New York Times said, "There are two superpowers in the world: the United States and the world peace movement."

Choice depends on the freedom to choose and if you are shackled with debt you don't have the freedom to choose.

When you think of the number of men in the world who hate each other, why, when two men love each other, does the church split?

Thanks to the tabloid campaigns I have many death threats and I was very pleased to get another one the other day.

Some of the jam we thought was for tomorrow, we've already eaten

We are not just here to manage capitalism but to change society and to define its finer values.

Making mistakes is how you learn.

If you file your waste-paper basket for fifty years, you have a public library.

When I think of Cool Britannia I think of old people dying of hypothermia.

If I rescued a child from drowning, the press would no doubt headline the story: 'Benn grabs child

I see myself as an old man and an unqualified teacher to the nation. I think being a teacher is probably the most important thing you can be in politics.

I am not a reluctant peer but a persistent commoner

The peace movement here is the biggest thing in human history.

Middle class Labour leaders are recaptured by the establishment when they die.

I think if journalists were responsible for international policy we'd have a nuclear war every week.

I now want more time to devote to politics and more freedom to do so.

The crisis that we inherit when we come to power will be the occasion for fundamental change and not the excuse for postponing it