David Lloyd George Quotes (172 quotes, page 3)

“Success to your meetings. Future of this country depends on breaking up the land monopoly—it withers the land, depresses wages, destroys independence, and drives millions into dwellings which poison their strength. Godspeed to every effort to put an end to this oppression.”

David Lloyd George

Telegram to a national conference to promote the taxation and rating of land held in Cardiff (13 October 1913), quoted in The Times (14 October 1913), p. 10
Chancellor of the Exchequer

Effort , Success , Future , Dependency

“A ramshackle old empire.”

David Lloyd George

Speech of 1914; quoted in The Brunswick and Coburg Leader (16 October 1914). The "empire" mentioned is Austria-Hungary.
Chancellor of the Exchequer

“The outlook had become still more threatening since the Pact of Munich. So far from that notorious surrender purchasing appeasement, it had encouraged the dictators to a greater display of insolence. … Three years ago we discovered that our armaments in essentials for our defence had fallen far behind those of Germany, Italy, and Japan. It was a piece of criminal negligence. … During the past two years the dictators had, through our lack of foresight, through the gross stupidity of our national leaders, cleverly but relentlessly succeeded in placing the British Empire and France in the most dangerous strategical position which they had ever been situated.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in Llandudno (19 January 1939), quoted in The Times (20 January 1939), p. 14
Later life

Past , Stupidity

“I propose that where private enterprise has been proved to be palpably unable, under present conditions…to solve our national difficulties and fulfil our national needs unaided by the State, the administrative and financial resources of the nation as a whole should be made responsible for setting on foot and supporting those developments in town and country which would bring into fruitful activity our undeveloped resources and opportunities.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in Bangor (17 January 1935), quoted in The Times (18 January 1935), p. 7
Later life

Support , Country

“All the trouble that had arisen in Europe had come from a flagrant breach of the undertaking to disarm by all the victors except one. … He knew that there had been horrible atrocities in Germany, and they all deplored and condemned them, but a country passing through a revolution was always liable to ghastly episodes owing to the administration of justice being seized here and there by an infuriated rebel. He was neither a Nazi nor a Fascist nor a Communist. If the Powers succeeded in overthrowing Nazism in Germany, what would follow? Not a Conservative, Socialist or Liberal régime, but extreme Communism. Surely that could not be their objective.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in Barmouth (22 September 1933), quoted in The Times (23 September 1933), p. 7
Later life

Justice , Country , Communication

“Upon their casting vote depends the question whether Britain is to continue its honourable career as a pioneer in the path of human progress which, on the whole, it has pursued so nobly for generations, or whether it is in one leap to spring backward over 80 years and place itself on a level with the protectionist countries of the Continent of Europe, with their low wages, taxed food, fettered industries, and policy of international antagonisms, which interfere with prosperity and imperil the peace of the world. … Free trade is at issue. … I appeal fervently to Liberals not to walk straight into this booby trap set for them by the protectionists merely because it is decorated by the Union Jack.”

David Lloyd George

Election address (25 October 1931), quoted in The Times (26 October 1931), p. 14
Later life

Peace , Dependency , Country , Food

“We are met together this afternoon under the shadow of a grave industrial conflict of unknown magnitude. Apart altogether from the merits of the dispute, every citizen will feel it his duty to support the Government of to-day in the maintenance of order and in the organizing and facilitating of the essential services of the nation. (Cheers.) The country must come first always and all the time. It is very deplorable and all the more deplorable because in my honest judgment it was unnecessary.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in Cambridge (1 May 1926) on the General Strike, quoted in The Times (3 May 1926), p. 9
Later life

Support , Time , Feeling , Country

“This is a Vote to spend £58,000,000 in protection of our trade routes. Our trade routes are in danger, but they are not in danger from navies. … They are not naval, they are not military, they are not aerial; they are industrial, and the First Lord of the Admiralty has within the last few days been brought face to face with far and away the greatest danger to our trade routes. It is not in the Pacific; it is at home. It is no use sweeping the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean in order to see whether you can somehow or other find dangers to guard against. The danger is yawning in front of us, and the Government are marching into it, scanning the horizon with telescope glued to one eye, and the other closed.”

David Lloyd George

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1925/jul/29/navy-supplementary-estimate-1925-26#column_479 in the House of Commons (29 July 1925)
Later life

Home

“This is a Government of to-morrow. … It is all swagger and pose, and no action. Let it be done. No, he cannot do it, he is too busy doing other things. Russia must come first. No time to carry schemes for the unemployed, no time to deal with profiteering in food and in materials for building. … Yet there was time for a Russian loan. Moscow first, and Camberwell afterwards.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in Camberwell, London (27 October 1924) attacking Ramsay MacDonald's Labour Government, quoted in The Times (28 October 1924), p. 8
Later life

Business , Time , Food

“The time has come for Liberalism to resume the leadership of progress—to lead away the masses from the chimeras of Karl Marx and the nightmares of Lenin, and to carry on the great task to which Gladstone and Bright devoted their noble lives.”

David Lloyd George

Later life
Source: Speech in Queen's Hall, Langham Place (14 October 1924) opening the Liberal Party's election campaign, quoted in The Times (15 October 1924), p. 10

Time

“In the war we had got out of the danger of the military spirit in Europe trampling upon human liberty, and were now confronted with a menace from inside our own country—such a menace as had destroyed Russia. That menace was an attack upon the very life-blood of Britain, and unless it was arrested at the start, the whole fabric of the commerce, trade, and prosperity of this country would come down and Britain the mighty, whose name ringed round the earth, would become a poor thing.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in Haverfordwest (10 November 1922) during the general election campaign, quoted in The Times (11 November 1922), p. 12
Later life

War , Life , Country

“It is always a mistake to threaten unless you mean it, and it is because not merely we threatened, but we meant it, and the Turks knew that we meant it, that you have peace now.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in Manchester (14 October 1922) referring to the Chanak Crisis, quoted in The Times (16 October 1922), p. 17
Prime Minister

Peace

“Trial of the Kaiser; punishment of those responsible for atrocities; fullest indemnities from Germany; Britain for the British, socially and industrially; rehabilitation of those broken in the war; and a happier country for all.”

David Lloyd George

Election programme contained in a foreword to an official list of Coalition candidates, quoted in The Times (11 December 1918), p. 8
Prime Minister

War , Country

“There is one point I had overlooked as to the question of the responsibility for the invasion of Belgium and the conduct of the war. The Government asked the Attorney-General to refer the question to some of the greatest jurists in this country. They have investigated it, and have come finally to the conclusion quite unanimously that in their judgment the Kaiser was guilty of an indictable offence for which he ought to be held responsible.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (29 November 1918), quoted in The Times (30 November 1918), p. 6
Prime Minister

War , Question , Country

“I have already accepted the policy of Imperial preference…to the effect that a preference will be given on existing duties and on any duties which may subsequently be imposed. On this subject I think there is no difference of opinion between us. … I am prepared to say that the key industries on which the life of the nation depends must be preserved. I am prepared to say also that, in order to keep up the present standard of production and develop it to the utmost extent possible, it is necessary that security should be give against the unfair competition to which our industries have been in the past subjected by the dumping of goods below the actual cost of production. … I shall look at every problem simply from the point of view of what is the best method of securing the objects at which we are aiming without any regard to theoretical opinions about Free Trade or Tariff Reform.”

David Lloyd George

Letter to Andrew Bonar Law (2 November 1918), quoted in The Times (18 November 1918), p. 4
Prime Minister

Dependency , Past , Problem , Thinking

“The State must help to promote and encourage production. … There must be none of that shrinking from national organization, national production, and national assistance. Germany never made that mistake. Take the most important of national industries, agriculture. Agriculture in the past has been overlooked in this country. It has been neglected, with the result that we have been dependent very largely on lands across the seas for our food. We have realized during the war the perils of this position. … It is in the highest interests of the community that the land in this country should be cultivated to its fullest capacity, and I doubt whether there is a civilized country in the whole world where agriculture has received less attention at the hands of the State. … The cultivation of the land is the basis of national strength and prosperity.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in Manchester (12 September 1918), quoted in The Times (13 September 1918), p. 8
Prime Minister

Dependency , Food , Country , War

“What is the next great lesson of the war? It is that if Britain has to be thoroughly equipped to meet any emergencies of either war or peace it must take a more constant and a more intelligent interest in the health and fitness of the people. … I solemnly warn my fellow-countrymen that you cannot maintain an A1 Empire with a C3 population. (Cheers.) Unless this lesson is learned the war is in vain. Remember that the health of the people is the secret of national efficiency and national recuperation.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in Manchester (12 September 1918), quoted in The Times (13 September 1918), p. 8
Prime Minister

Peace , War , Intelligence , People

“Dumping is the exporting to this country of goods from a foreign land under the cost—beneath the price at which they are sold in their own country. There could be only one object in doing that, and that is to make war upon a particular industry in our country. That is unfair. … In the interests of fairness, as well as in the interests of British industry as a whole, the Government have decided to submit to Parliament proposals which will effectively deal with dumping in the sense in which I have defined it.”

David Lloyd George

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1919/aug/18/dumping in the House of Commons (18 August 1919)
Prime Minister

Sense , War , Making love , Country

“Practically the whole of the engineering establishments of this country were controlled by the State. He had seen resolutions passed by the Trades Congress about the nationalization of industry, but the Government had done it.”

David Lloyd George

Speech to the Trades Union Congress in Bristol (9 September 1915), quoted in The Times (10 September 1915), p. 10
Minister of Munitions

Country

“We won and saved our liberties in this land on more than one occasion by compulsory service. France saved the liberty she had won in the great Revolution from the fangs of tyrannical military empires purely by compulsory service; the great Republic of the West won its independence and saved its national existence by compulsory service, and two of the greatest countries of Europe to-day—France and Italy—are defending their national existence and liberties by means of compulsory service. It has been the greatest weapon in the hands of Democracy many a time for the winning and preservation of freedom.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in Manchester (3 June 1915), quoted in The Times (4 June 1915), p. 9
Minister of Munitions

Democracy , Time , Country , Freedom

“The Government were on the look-out for a good, strong business man, with some push and go in him, who will be able to put the thing through.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in the House of Commons (9 March 1915) on the Defence of the Realm (Amendment) Bill, quoted in The Times (10 March 1915), p. 14
Chancellor of the Exchequer

Business , Strong

“There is no greater mistake than to try to leap an abyss in two jumps.”

David Lloyd George

[Lloyd George, David, David Lloyd George, War Memoirs, New, 1, 1938, Odhams Press Limited, London, 445, XXIV: Disintegration of the Liberal Party]
War Memoirs

“The Government can lose the war without you; they cannot win it without you.”

David Lloyd George

Speech to the Trades Union Congress in Bristol (9 September 1915), quoted in The Times (10 September 1915), p. 9
Minister of Munitions

War

“I am fighting hard for peace.”

David Lloyd George

Remarks to George Riddell, as recorded in Riddell's diary (31 July 1914), quoted in J. M. McEwen (ed.), The Riddell Diaries 1908-1923 (1986), p. 85
Chancellor of the Exchequer

Fight , Peace

“No one can doubt that Lenin was one of the greatest leaders of men ever thrown up in any epoch.”

David Lloyd George

War Memoirs: Volume II (1938), p. 1887
War Memoirs

Men

“If it is not reserved for me to lead the people for whom I have fought all my life to the promised land, I shall feel a pang of disappointment.”

David Lloyd George

Letter to Frances Stevenson (22 January 1929), quoted in My Darling Pussy: The Letters of Lloyd George and Frances Stevenson, 1913–41, ed. A. J. P. Taylor (1975), p. 114
Leader of the Liberal Party

Feeling , People , Disappointment , Life

“There was something fundamentally wrong with our economic system. It was based upon injustice and could not last.”

David Lloyd George

Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons
Source: Speech to the Welsh National Liberal Federation in Rhyl (9 July 1926), quoted in The Times (10 July 1926), p. 16

“When trade is slack, you paint your factory and get it ready for new business. That is what we ought to be doing.”

David Lloyd George

Remarks to George Riddell as recorded in his diary (8 October 1921), quoted in Lord Riddell's Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and After, 1918–1923 (1933), p. 328
Prime Minister

Painting , Business

“Capital has been made for man, and not man for Capital.”

David Lloyd George

Speech to the Lancashire and Cheshire Federation of the League of Young Liberals in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester (28 April 1923), quoted in The Times (30 April 1923), p. 17
Leader of the National Liberal Party

“The white sheet of repentance is a very poor substitute for a mainsail.”

David Lloyd George

On the reunion of the Liberal Party; speech to the Oxford University New Reform Club (22 June 1923), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 69
Leader of the National Liberal Party

“Nothing struck me so much in the war as the disappearance of the individual, of the human being... I saw what the State machine was, that it destroyed the individual, absorbed him to itself, and I said, "Give me Liberty."”

David Lloyd George

That is what a complete Socialistic State would mean, once you carried it out. That is why I am a Liberal and not a Socialist. Socialism would enslave labour. For its own benefit, its own advantage, Socialism would in the end enslave labour. Liberalism has made labour free, and it is its business to preserve the freedom of labour.
Speech to the Lancashire and Cheshire Federation of the League of Young Liberals in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester (28 April 1923), quoted in The Times (30 April 1923), p. 17
Leader of the National Liberal Party

War

“When you are out on a voyage, the tranquillity does not depend upon the ship, but upon the sea... It is not a policy, it is a yawn.”

David Lloyd George

On the Conservative leader Bonar Law's election slogan, "Tranquillity"; speech in the Stoll Picture Theatre, Kingsway (4 November 1922), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 34
Leader of the National Liberal Party

Dependency , Sea

“As our fathers had freed our trade there was another work to accomplish. This was to free the land from the chains of feudalism, the schools from the dominion of the priest, and the people from the deadly grip of drink.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in the Plait Hall, Luton (12 October 1904), quoted in The Times (13 October 1904), p. 9
Early political career

School , Drink , People

“All taxation must be a tax upon industry.”

David Lloyd George

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1930/apr/16/ways-and-means#column_2939 in the House of Commons (16 April 1930)
Leader of the Liberal Party

“If it is right that the State should resume its authority over the land for the purposes of burying the dead, it is surely also right that it should exercise its ownership where it is necessary it should do so to feed the living.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in Killerton Park, near Exeter, opening the Liberal land campaign (17 September 1925), quoted in The Times (18 September 1925), p. 14
Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons

Dead , Exercises

“The question was whether the Liberal Party was going to be merely a political party which is "the Keeper of the Doctrines."”

David Lloyd George

Its sole business would be to see that no man should stray. It would become purely a political sect, strictly, sternly, severely, painfully orthodox, and painfully select. If that was to be its rôle it would dwindle from generation to generation and decade to decade, until it would only have representation amongst the more tenacious races, to one of which he belonged.
Speech in Oxford Town Hall (6 August 1924), quoted in The Times (7 August 1924), p. 14
Leader of the National Liberal Party

Question

“You do not declare war on rebels.”

David Lloyd George

On the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence; minute-sheet on Ireland (30 April 1920), quoted in D. G. Boyce, 'How to Settle the Irish Question: Lloyd George and Ireland 1916–21', in A. J. P. Taylor (ed.), Lloyd George: Twelve Essays (1971), p. 149
Prime Minister

War

“We are offering Ireland not subjection but equality, not servitude but partnership—an honourable partnership, a partnership in the greatest Empire in the world—a partnership in that Empire in the greatest day of its glory.”

David Lloyd George

Speech at the Guildhall, London (9 November 1920), quoted in The Times (10 November 1920), p. 8
Prime Minister

Partnership , World

“There is no wrath like the cold fury of the professional spirit proved wrong by outsiders, and no folly comparable to its reactions under such conditions.”

David Lloyd George

Volume I, p. 694
War Memoirs (1938)

“If I am to die, I would rather die fighting on the left.”

David Lloyd George

Remark to Herbert Samuel, explaining his opposition to Liberal politicians joining the National Government (5 October 1931), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 301
Leader of the Independent Liberals

Fight

“Politicians are liable to be attacked from every flank—simultaneously. They are suspicious, subtle, crafty and designing, and at the same time they are gullible, simple and foolish.”

David Lloyd George

Volume II, p. 1314
War Memoirs (1938)

Time

“We ought not to stint anything that is necessary in order to crush the rebellion.”

David Lloyd George

Letter to Bonar Law (10 May 1920), quoted in D. G. Boyce, 'How to Settle the Irish Question: Lloyd George and Ireland 1916–21', in A. J. P. Taylor (ed.), Lloyd George: Twelve Essays (1971), pp. 150-151
Prime Minister

“What we stint in materials we squander in lives... What you spare in money you spill in blood.”

David Lloyd George

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1915/dec/20/statement-by-mr-lloyd-george#column_97 in the House of Commons (20 December 1915)
Minister of Munitions

Money

“What was the use of talking about freedom if they had millions of people tethered to slums?”

David Lloyd George

Speech to the Oxford University Liberal Club at the Oxford Union (15 June 1926), quoted in The Times (16 June 1926), p. 18
Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons

Freedom , People

“No. A Liberal I was born and a Liberal I die. I will not join Labour.”

David Lloyd George

Remarks to Tom Clarke, the editor of the Daily News (14 October 1926), quoted in Tom Clarke, My Lloyd George Diary (1939), p. 23
Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons

“I was walking peacefully along my path when suddenly I was assailed by an angry bull of excommunication.”

David Lloyd George

Speech in the Manchester Reform Club on Asquith's rebuke to Lloyd George for not attending the Liberal Shadow Cabinet meeting on 10 May (5 June 1926), quoted in The Times (7 June 1926), p. 8
Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons

“If you scratch a Conservative, you find a Fascist.”

David Lloyd George

Speech to the London Young Liberal Federation in the National Liberal Club (5 January 1925), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 109
Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons

“Liberalism stands for the safe middle course.”

David Lloyd George

Speech at Crewe station during the general election campaign (23 November 1923), quoted in The Times (24 November 1923), p. 8
Leader of the National Liberal Party

“[T]he League of Nations will be of no value unless it has behind it the sanction of strong nations, prepared at a moment's notice to stop aggression. Otherwise the League of Nations will be a scrap of paper.”

David Lloyd George

Prime Minister
Source: Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1919/jul/03/unprovoked-attack-upon-france#S5CV0117P0_19190703_HOC_333 in the House of Commons on the Treaty of Versailles (3 July 1919)

Strong

“Having regard to the use which Germany made of her great army, is there anything unjust in scattering that army, disarming it, making it incapable of repeating the injury which it has inflicted upon the world?”

David Lloyd George

Prime Minister
Source: Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1919/jul/03/territorial-adjustments#S5CV0117P0_19190703_HOC_316 in the House of Commons on the Treaty of Versailles (3 July 1919)

World