Pierre Trudeau Quotations

Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.

I bear solemn witness to the fact that NATO heads of state and of government meet only to go through the tedious motions of reading speeches, drafted by others, with the principal objective of not rocking the boat.

Canada will be a strong country when Canadians of all provinces feel at home in all parts of the country, and when they feel that all Canada belongs to them.

My life is one long curve, full of turning points.

We wish nothing more, but we will accept nothing less. Masters in our own house we must be, but our house is the whole of Canada.

The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.

Canada regards herself as responsible to all mankind for the peculiar ecological balance that now exists so precariously in the water, ice and land areas of the Arctic archipelago. We do not doubt for a moment that the rest of the world would find us at fault, and hold us liable, should we fail to ensure adequate protection of that environment from pollution or artificial deterioration.

When they are 50 yards from Parliament Hill, they are no longer honourable members, they are just nobodies.

What shall we do about the Abortion Bill?" A: "Pay it!

Harvard was an extraordinary window on the world.

The state has an active role to play in ensuring that there is equilibrium between the constituent parts of the economy, the consumers and the producers.

I must say that "Give Peace a Chance" has always seemed to me to be sensible advice.

I walked until midnight in the storm, then I went home and took a sauna for an hour and a half. It was all clear. I listened to my heart and saw if there were any signs of my destiny in the sky, and there were none — there were just snowflakes.

I, for one, will be convinced that the Canada we know and love will be gone forever. But, then, Thucydides wrote that Themistocles' greatness lay in the fact that he realized Athens was not immortal. 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.

I believe a constitution can permit the co-existence of several cultures and ethnic groups with a single state.

Vive la France libre.

The Canadian community must invest, for the defence and better appreciation of the French language, as much time, energy, and money as are required to prevent the country from breaking up

Obviously, the state's responsibility should be to legislate rules for a well-ordered society. It has no right or duty to creep into the bedrooms of the nation.

Canada is not a country for the cold of heart or the cold of feet.

Perhaps the rediscovery of our humanity, and the potential of the human spirit which we have read about in legends of older civilizations, or in accounts of solitary mystics, or in tales of science fiction writers - perhaps this will constitute the true revolution of the future. The new frontier lies not beyond the planets but within each one of us.

The politicians, who once stated that war was too complex to be left to the generals, now act as though peace were too complex to be left to themselves.

If I found in my own ranks that a certain number of guys wanted to cut my throat, I'd make sure that I cut their throats first.

There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation. What's done in private between adults doesn't concern the Criminal Code.

If there is anything that puzzles me in this game, it is that the longer that you are in the job of prime minister, the harder you have to work to do your job. With anything else ....you get to know the ropes pretty well and it becomes easy. I feel the more you know, the more you have to know and the more problems come at you. It is certainly not because I do not delegate.

Well, I am trying to put Quebec in its place - and the place of Quebec is in Canada, nowhere else.

I saw the charter as an expression of my long-held view that the subject of law must be the individual human being; the law must permit the individual to fulfil himself or herself to the utmost.

The federal government is the balance wheel of the federal system, and the federal system means using counterweights.

The attainment of of a just society is the cherished hope of civilized men.

I remember thinking that walking on the beach as a free man is pretty desirable.

People are more interested in ideas than dress.

Liberalism is the philosophy for our time, because it does not try to conserve every tradition of the past, because it does not apply to new problems the old doctrinaire solutions, because it is prepared to experiment and innovate and because it knows that the past is less important than the future.

The next time you see Jesus Christ, ask Him what happened to the just society He promised 2,000 years ago.

What is considered sinful in one of the great religions to which citizens belong isn't necessarily sinful in the others. Criminal law therefore cannot be based on the notion of sin; it is crimes that it must define.

Power only tires those who don't exercise it.

It is wonderful to be despised, if, deep down, we know we are right.

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.

Canada is seen to some as a confederation of shopping centres.

For my part...I am a realist but, somehow, optimism always keeps breaking out.

The state has no place in the nation's bedrooms.

Society must take every means at its disposal to defend itself against the emergence of a parallel power which defies the elected power.

I was too busy doing my job and living my life to spend time keeping notes for some future volume of memoirs.

The best thing you can possibly do for a friend is to be his friend.

Paddling a canoe is a source of enrichment and inner renewal.

As against the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith, there has to be a visible hand of politicians whose objective is to have the kind of society that is caring and humane.

I will use all my strength to bring about a just society to a nation living in a tough world.

The die is cast in Canada: there are two ethnic and linguistic groups; each is too strong and too deeply rooted in the past, too firmly bound to a mother culture, to be able to swamp the other. But if the two will collaborate inside of a truly pluralist state, Canada could become a privileged place where the federalist form of government, which is the government of tomorrow's world, will be perfected.

Let us overthrow the totems, break the taboos. Or better, let us consider them cancelled. Coldly, let us be intelligent.

We peer so suspiciously at each other that we cannot see that we Canadians are standing on the mountaintop of human wealth, freedom and privilege.

What is wonderful about a university like LSE is that you not only receive teaching of very high quality, you also learn where to find the knowledge you are seeking. And you make unexpected discoveries;it was a Marxist professor who introduced me to the work of Cardinal Newman, a great master of English prose as well as theology.

Democracy demands that elected members be able to realize fully the role for which they have been chosen.

There are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just dont like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is go and bleed It is more important to keep law and order in society than to be worried about weak-kneed people Society must take every means at its disposal to defend itself against the emergence of a parallel power which defies the elected power.

The Jesuits were good educators, exceptional teachers. In an era and in a society where freedom of speech was not held in high regard, of course, that the discourse be focused on what they were teaching, but we were able to go beyond this framework without incurring too great a risk.

In academic life you seek to state absolute truths; in politics you seek to accommodate truth to the facts around you.

The essential ingredient of politics is timing.

Some things I never learned to like. I didn't like to kiss babies, though I didn't mind kissing their mothers.

I would have to point out in the strongest terms the autocracy of the Liberal structure and the cowardice of its members. I have never seen in all my examination of politics so degrading a spectacle as that of all these Liberals turning their coats in unison with their Chief, when they saw the chance to take power.

The community of man should be treated in the same way you would treat your community of brothers or fellow citizens.

In reality, though, the first thing to ask of history is that it should point out to us the paths of liberty. The great lesson to draw from revolutions is not that they devour humanity but rather that tyranny never fails to generate them.

We are in the extreme centre, the radical middle. That is our position.

Canadians should realise when they are well off under the Monarchy. For the vast majority of Canadians, being a Monarchy is probably the only form of government acceptable to them. I have always been for parliamentary democracy and I think the institution of Monarchy with the Queen heading it all has served Canada well.

I want to separate sin from crime. You may have to ask forgiveness for your sins from God, but not from the Minister of Justice. There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.

I've been called worse things by better people.

I never actually got around to taping conversations with my guests, but there are a lot of things you can learn from a man like Nixon.

Bilingualism is not an imposition on the citizens. The citizens can go on speaking one language or six languages, or no languages if they so choose. Bilingualism is an imposition on the state and not the citizens.

I just think you Westerners should take over this country if you are so smart.

We must now establish the basic principles, the basic values and beliefs which hold us together as Canadians so that beyond our regional loyalties there is a way of life and a system of values which make us proud of the country that has given us such freedom and such immeasurable joy.

You just cannot cut a country in two any more than you can cut a human being in two. If you do, you do not have two human beings; you have a corpse.

Le raison avant la passion - Reason over passion.

Canada is a country whose main exports are hockey players and cold fronts. Our main imports are baseball players and acid rain.

I believe that Canada cannot, indeed, that Canada must not survive by force. The country will only remain united - it should only remain united - if its citizens want to live together in one civil society.

Luck, that's when preparation and opportunity meet.

Our hopes are high. Our faith in the people is great. Our courage is strong. And our dreams for this beautiful country will never die.

Americans should never underestimate the constant pressure on Canada which the mere presence of the United States has produced. We're different people from you and we're different people because of you. Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is effected by every twitch and grunt. It should not therefore be expected that this kind of nation, this Canada, should project itself as a mirror image of the United States.

What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other travel. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred miles on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature.

If Canada is to survive, it can only survive in mutual respect and in love for one another.

The past is to be respected and acknowledged, but not worshipped; it is our future in which we will find our greatness.

The new frontier lies not beyond the planets but within each one of us.

A country, after all, is not something you build as the pharaohs built the pyramids, and then leave standing there to defy eternity. A country is something that is built every day out of certain basic shared values.

There is no such thing as a model or ideal Canadian. What could be more absurd than the concept of an "all Canadian" boy or girl? A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate.