David Lloyd George quotes

David Lloyd George was a British statesman who served as Prime Minister during the latter part of World War I. As a transformative leader, he played a crucial role in social reform and wartime governance. He helped shape modern Britain and left a lasting legacy in both domestic and foreign policy. Here are 251 of his quotes:

Liberty has restraints but no frontiers. (David Lloyd George)
Liberty is not merely a privilege to be conferred; it is a habit to be acquired. View quote
David Lloyd George
There is nothing more dangerous than to leap a chasm in two jumps. View quote
David Lloyd George
The finest eloquence is that which gets things done; the worst is that which delays them. View quote
David Lloyd George
A politician is a person with whose politics you don't agree; if you agree with him he's a statesman. View quote
David Lloyd George
Diplomats were invented simply to waste time. View quote
David Lloyd George
Sincerity is the surest road to confidence. View quote
David Lloyd George
Death is the most convenient time to tax rich people. View quote
David Lloyd George
What is our task? To make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in. View quote
David Lloyd George
Do not be afraid of taking a big step-you cannot cross a chasm in two steps. View quote
David Lloyd George
The League of Nations is the greatest humbug in history. They cannot even protect a little nation like Armenia. They do nothing but pass useless resolutions. (David Lloyd George)
Four specters haunt the Poor - Old Age, Accident, Sickness and Unemployment. We are going to exorcise them. We are going to drive hunger from the hearth. We mean to banish the workhouse from the horizon of every workman in the land. View quote
David Lloyd George
Who ordained that a few should have the land of Britain as a perquisite, who made 10,000 people owners of the soil and the rest of us trespassers in the land of our birth? View quote
David Lloyd George
He [Hitler] is a very great man. "Fuhrer" is the proper name for him, for he is a born leader, yes, and statesman. View quote
David Lloyd George
A fully equipped duke costs as much to keep up as two Dreadnoughts, and dukes are just as great a terror - and they last longer. View quote
David Lloyd George
Hitler is a prodigious genius. View quote
David Lloyd George
Great Britain would spend her last guinea to keep a navy superior to that of the United States or any other power. View quote
David Lloyd George
[Lloyd George] said that Harding's speech on American naval aspirations made him feel that he would pawn his shirt rather than allow America to dominate the seas. If this was to be the outcome of the League of Nations propaganda, he was sorry for the world and in particular for America. View quote
David Lloyd George
Winston [Churchill] is the only remaining specimen of a real Tory. View quote
David Lloyd George
[Proportional representation is a] device for defeating democracy, the principle of which was that the majority should rule, and for bringing faddists of all kinds into Parliament, and establishing groups and disintegrating parties. View quote
David Lloyd George
The stern hand of fate has scourged us to an elevation where we can see the great everlasting things which matter for a nation - the great peaks we had forgotten, of Honor, Duty, Patriotism, and clad in glittering white, the great pinnacle of Sacrifice pointing like a rugged finger to Heaven. (David Lloyd George)
Not badly, considering I was seated between Jesus Christ and Napoleon. View quote
David Lloyd George
[Lloyd George] had a not too satisfactory interview with [Eamon de Valera] yesterday. ... After DeV. had read the terms he told [Lloyd George] he could not advise his people to accept them. 'Very well, Mr. DeV.', was [Lloyd George]'s answer, 'then there is only one thing more left for us to discuss'. 'What is that?', asked DeV. 'The time for the truce to come to an end', said [Lloyd George]. [Lloyd George] says DeV. went perfectly white, and had difficulty controlling his agitation. ... [Lloyd George] says that if they refuse there is only one thing to be done-to reconquer Ireland. View quote
David Lloyd George
As we came away we ran into Lloyd George. Turning to me he said: "What are you going to do, my boy, when you grow up?" "I'm going into the Navy, sir," I replied. He frowned. "There are many greater storms in politics. If it's piracy you want, with broadsides, boarding parties, walking the plank and blood on the deck, this is the place." His words had gone home. That evening I confided to my father that what Lloyd George had said had decided my life. It would be politics for me. View quote
David Lloyd George
Never have I had such great minds around me-Smuts, Balfour, Bonar Law...and Curzon. Curzon was perhaps not a great man, but he was a supreme Civil Servant. Compared to these men, the front benches of today are pigmies. View quote
David Lloyd George