Skip to content

Our main case is and must remain that in a modern complex society it is impossible to get rational order by leaving things to private economic adventure. Therefore I am a Socialist. I believe in public ownership.

— Aneurin Bevan

Another quote →

Topics

Socialism

More quotes by Aneurin Bevan

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)

All Aneurin Bevan quotes →

You may also like

Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God's children.

Martin Luther King Jr.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

Winston Churchill

In my opinion, nothing has contributed so much to the corruption of the original idea of socialism as the belief that Russia is a socialist country and that every act of its rulers must be excused, if not imitated.

George Orwell

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Aneurin Bevan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.