Wilfrid Laurier quotes

Wilfrid Laurier was a Canadian statesman and the seventh Prime Minister of Canada. His leadership promoted national unity and conciliation between French and English Canadians. He is remembered for his vision of a united and progressive Canada. Here are 21 of his quotes:

Confederation is a compact, made originally by four provinces but adhered to by all the nine provinces who have entered it, and I submit to the judgment of this house and to the best consideration of its members, that this compact should not be lightly altered. (Wilfrid Laurier)
Fraternity without absorption, union without fusion. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
Two races share today the soil of Canada. These people had not always been friends. But I hasten to say it. There is no longer any family here but the human family. It matters not the language people speak, or the altars at which they kneel. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
Let them look to the past, but let them also look to the future; let them look to the land of their ancestors, but let them look also to the land of their children. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
This country must be governed, and can be governed, simply on questions of policy and administration and the French Canadians who have had any part in this movement have never had any other intention but to organise upon those party distinctions and upon no other. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
The Divinity could be invoked as well in the English language as in the French. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
If I were not French I would choose to be - Scotch. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
It would be simply suicidal to French Canadians to form a party by themselves. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
I am a subject of the British Crown, but whenever I have to choose between the interests of England and Canada it is manifest to me that the interests of my country are identical with those of the United States of America. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
Quebec does not have Opinions, but only sentiments. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
I am quite prepared, if we can do it without any disrespect to the Crown of England, to bring our titles to the marketplace and make a bonfire of them. (Wilfrid Laurier)
For us, sons of France, political sentiment is a passion; while, for the Englishmen, politics are a question of business. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
I claim for Canada this, that in future Canada shall be at liberty to act or not act, to interfere or not interfere, to do just as she pleases, and that she shall reserve to herself the right to judge whether or not there is cause for her to act. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
It is a sound principle of finance, and a still sounder principle of government, that those who have the duty of expending the revenue of a country should also be saddled with the responsibility of levying and providing it. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
I am not here to parade my religious sentiments, but I declare I have too much respect for the faith in which I was born to ever use it as the basis of a political organization. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
I have been represented as a Protestant minister; there was not one of the canvassers of the honourable gentlemen opposite that did not represent to the people that I was not a Minister of the Crown, but that I was a Protestant minister. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
Why, so soon as French Canadians, who are in a minority in this House and in the country, were to organise as a political party, they would compel the majority to organise as a political party, and the result must be disastrous to themselves. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
First of all we must insist that the immigrant that comes here is willing to become a Canadian and is willing to assimilate our ways, he should be treated on equal grounds and it would be shameful to discriminate against such a person for reasons of their beliefs or the place of birth or origin. But it is the responsibility of that person to become a Canadian in all aspects of life, nothing else but a Canadian. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says that he is a Canadian, but tries to impose his customs and habits upon us, is not a Canadian. We have room for only one flag, the Canadian flag. There is room for only two languages here, English and French. And we have room for loyalty, but only one, loyalty to the Canadian people. We won't accept anyone, I'm saying anyone, who will try to impose his religion or his customs on us. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
This was a leader who listened to all sides, perhaps too much. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
He is ready, if the occasion presents itself, to throw the whole English population in the St. Lawrence. View quote
Wilfrid Laurier
I would advise you to write, my dear friend, because with your active nature, solitude is simply intolerable to you, and after some time your solitude would become perhaps attractive if you were to people it with creatures of your own fancy. (Wilfrid Laurier)