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We do not intend to part from the Americans and we do not intend to be satellites. I am sure they do not want us to be so. The stronger we are, the better partners we shall be; and I feel certain that as the months pass we shall draw continually closer together with mutual confidence and respect.
-Harold MacMillan
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A Foreign Secretaryand this applies also to a prospective Foreign Secretaryis always faced with this cruel dilemma. Nothing he can say can do very much good, and almost anything he may say may do a great deal of harm. Anything he says that is not obvious is dangerous; whatever is not trite is risky. He is forever poised between the cliche and the indiscretion.
-Harold MacMillan
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Atheism
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If you don't believe in God, all you have to believe in is decency. Decency is very good. Better decent than indecent. But I don't think it's enough.
-Harold MacMillan
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Business
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Jaw-jaw is better than war-war.
-Harold MacMillan
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Change
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The wind of change is blowing through the continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.
-Harold MacMillan
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Communism
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Marxism is like a classical building that followed the Renaissance; beautiful in its way, but incapable of growth.
-Harold MacMillan
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Fools, Foolishness
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It has been said that there is no fool like an old fool, except a young fool. But the young fool has first to grow up to be an old fool to realize what a damn fool he was when he was a young fool.
-Harold MacMillan
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Funerals
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Memorial services are the cocktail parties of the geriatric set.
-Harold MacMillan
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Politics
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As usual the Liberals offer a mixture of sound and original ideas. Unfortunately none of the sound ideas is original and none of the original ideas is sound.
-Harold MacMillan
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At home you always have to be a politician. When you're abroad you almost feel yourself a statesman.
-Harold MacMillan
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Power
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Power? It's like a Dead Sea fruit. When you achieve it, there is nothing there.
-Harold MacMillan
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Professionalism
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We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.
-Harold MacMillan
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Success & Failure
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No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Wife or mother, if it is both, he is twice blessed indeed.
-Harold MacMillan, 1963
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Books by and about Harold MacMillan