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Aneurin Bevan Quotes

1897–1960 Wales

Aneurin Bevan (15 November 1897 – 6 July 1960) was a Welsh Labour Party politician who is best known for overseeing the creation of the National Health Service in the Labour government after World War II. Bevan, a left-winger, was intermittently in trouble with the Labour leadership; in the 1950s he astonished his supporters by opposing unilateral nuclear disarmament.

Wales
Politicians

Also known as: Bevan, Aneurin, Nye Bevan

Random Aneurin Bevan quote

60 quotes

A free health service is pure Socialism and as such it is opposed to the hedonism of capitalist society.

In Place of Fear (1952)

There is only one hope for mankind — and that is democratic Socialism.

No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied aid because of lack of means.

Soon, if we are not more prudent, millions of people will be watching each other starve to death through expensive television sets.

In Place of Fear (1952)

Not even the apparently enlightened principle of the ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ can excuse indifference to individual suffering. There is no test for progress other than its impact on the individual.

In Place of Fear (1952)

Man must first live before he can live abundantly.

In Place of Fear (1952)

Freedom is the by-product of economic surplus.

In Place of Fear (1952)

A free people will always refuse to put up with preventable poverty.

In Place of Fear (1952)

Why read the crystal when he can read the book?

I welcome this opportunity of pricking the bloated bladder of lies with the poniard of truth.

The spectacle therefore afforded us by the United States is one of technical brilliance and social blindness.

In Place of Fear (1952)

We should try to avoid new causes of tension, such as the rearming of Western Germany.

In Place of Fear (1952)

Without free expression of opinion and the means to ensure it a democracy dies.

In Place of Fear (1952)

There is no evidence to show that the Soviet Union wants a trial of strength.

In Place of Fear (1952)

Lloyd George was a bigger man than Churchill, and one of the biggest things about Churchill was that he knew it.

Listening to a speech by Chamberlain is like paying a visit to Woolworth's: everything in its place and nothing above sixpence.

There can be no immaculate conception of socialism.

A free Health Service is a triumphant example of the superiority of collective action and public initiative applied to a segment of society where commercial principles are seen at their worst.

In Place of Fear (1952)

If freedom is to be saved and enlarged, poverty must be ended. There is no other solution.

In Place of Fear (1952)

And you call that statesmanship? I call it an emotional spasm.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Aneurin Bevan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.