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F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead Quotes

1872–1930 England

Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead, GCSI, PC (12 July 1872 – 30 September 1930) was a British Conservative statesman and lawyer of the early 20th century. He was a skilled orator, noted for his staunch opposition to Irish nationalism, his wit, pugnacious views, and hard living and drinking.

England
Academics

Also known as: F.E. Smith, FE Smith

Random F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead quote

12 quotes

Churchill has spent the best years of his life preparing impromptu remarks.

We stand for the State and for the unity which, whether in the form of kingdom or empire or class solidarity, the State alone can bring.

Unionist Policy and Other Essays (1913)

It would be possible to say without exaggeration that the miners' leaders were the stupidest men in England if we had not frequent occasion to meet the owners.

Nature has no cure for this sort of madness, though I have known a legacy from a rich relative work wonders.

We have the highest authority for believing that the meek shall inherit the earth; though I have never found any particular corroboration of this aphorism in the records of Somerset House.

Contemporary Personalities (1924)

I have always placed my highest and most permanent hopes upon the eternity of the Communal situation.

Instead of seeing that men got enough to eat the Government spent the whole Session in securing that they should have nothing to drink.

To me it is frankly inconceivable that India will ever be fit for Dominion self-government.

...votes are to swords exactly what bank notes are to gold—the one is effective only because the other is believed to be behind it.

Who are we that we should invite Germany to acquiesce in the principles of "Uti Possidetis" at a moment when we possess comparatively everything and they possess comparatively nothing? It is a law as old as the world's history that those who hold valuable possessions coveted by others will hold them so long as, and no longer than, they are able to protect them by the strong arm.

Unionist Policy and Other Essays (1913)

Either we must make up our minds that we will not take part in a European war under any circumstances, or we must have national service; but we cannot make up our minds on the first of these points unless we are prepared to do what our ancestors to their eternal glory refused to do in the days of Napoleon, acquiesce in the hegemony of Europe by one titanic Power.

Unionist Policy and Other Essays (1913)

Judge: You are extremely offensive, young man!
Smith: As a matter of fact we both are; and the only difference between us is that I am trying to be, and you can't help it.

F.E. : The Life of F. E. Smith First Earl of Birkenhead (1933)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.