James Callaghan Quotations

You can never reach the promised land. You can march towards it.

The sky turned black with the flapping wings of chickens coming home to roost.

A lie can be halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on.

Your strike will not win. You cannot be allowed to succeed.

The best word to describe her was gracious. She was a wonderful lady and will be very sadly missed. I just hope he survives until the 27th of this month, when he will be 93 years old.

Society today is so organized that every individual group has the power to disrupt it. How is their power to be channelled into constructive channels?

I sum up the prospects for 1967 in three short sentences. We are back on course. The ship is picking up speed. The economy is moving. Every seaman knows the command at such a moment: 'steady as she goes'.

If the law is a bad law, there is always the contingent right to take action that you would not otherwise take.

I've never been one to say that Britain was joining a happy band of brothers.

There is not a single injustice in Northern Ireland that is worth the loss of a single British soldier or a single Irish citizen either.

I am rather in favour of dealing with teenage hooliganism.

You never reach the promised land. You can march towards it

The surtax payers, having been soaked, have found a way to get out of the rain.

Some people, however long their experience or strong their intellect, are temperamentally incapable of reaching firm decisions.

A leader has to appear consistent. That doesn't mean he has to be consistent.

Those who advocate devaluation are calling for a reduction in the wage levels and the real wage standards of every member of the working class.

I am not proposing to seek your votes because there is a blue sky ahead today.

If we have to prove our Europeanism by accepting that French is the dominant language in the Community, then my answer is quite clear, and I will say it in French in order to prevent any misunderstanding: Non, merci beaucoup .

It is quite clear from what has been said and written that, time after time after time, there has been a conspiracy between the Conservative Front Bench in this House and the inbuilt Conservative majority in the House of Lords to defeat legislation that has passed through the House of Commons...I warn the House of Lords of the consequences...it is our strong view that the House of Lords should recall that its role is not that of a wrecking chamber, but of a revising chamber. In recent weeks, it has been wrecking legislation passed by this House.

There are no instant solutions.

Unilateral disarmament by Britain is opposed to our country's best interests, could begin the unravelling of NATO and therefore jeopardise the stability of Europe.

When we reject unemployment as an economic instrument as we do and when we reject also superficial remedies, as socialists must, then we must ask ourselves unflinchingly what is the cause of high unemployment. Quite simply and unequivocally, it is caused by paying ourselves more than the value of what we produce. There are no scapegoats.

I have not the slightest doubt that the economic measures and the Socialist measures which one will find in the countries of Eastern Europe, will become increasingly powerful against the unco-ordinated, planless society in which the West is living at present.

I hate putting up taxes.

We used to think that you could spend your way out of a recession and increase employment by cutting taxes and boosting government spending. I tell you in all candour that that option no longer exists, and in so far as it ever did exist, it only worked on each occasion since the war by injecting a bigger dose of inflation into the economy, followed by a higher level of unemployment as the next step.

Society today is so organised that every individual group has the power to disrupt it. How is their power to be channelled into constructive channels?

The Soviet Union's propaganda clearly wishes to use public opinion in this country to get the West to reduce its own arms while doing nothing themselves. In this way they would gain nuclear superiority. This is simply not on.

If Britain becomes a member of the Community, it will be healthier for Britain, advantageous for Europe, and a gain for the whole world. I do not know of many economic or political problems in the world which will be easier to solve if Britain is outside rather than inside the Community.

A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice.

The rule of law should be upheld by all political parties. They should neither advise others to break the law, nor encourage others to do so even when they strongly disagree with the legislation put forward by the government of the day.