Quotes and Sayings about Parliament
"It is with deep regret that the determination to assemble Parliament has been so long delayed."
- Henry Addington
(Related: Determination, Deep, Parliament, Regret)
"It is not the Government, the members of Parliament to whom the ultimate decision belongs, it is up to you to go forward sure of your sacred right of free opinion, sure of your patriotism."
- John Amery
(Related: Patriotism, Government, Decision, Opinion, Parliament, Right)
"Pakistan has not recognized Israel... any such decision would be taken in supreme national interests after due consultation of the parliament."
- Shaukat Aziz
(Related: Decision, Israel, Parliament)
"A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people."
- Walter Bagehot
(Related: People, Meeting, Nothing, Parliament)
"An influential member of parliament has not only to pay much money to become such, and to give time and labour, he has also to sacrifice his mind too - at least all the characteristics part of it that which is original and most his own."
- Walter Bagehot
(Related: Money, Time, Sacrifice, Mind, Parliament)
"Dullness in matters of government is a good sign, and not a bad one - in particular, dullness in parliamentary government is a test of its excellence, an indication of its success."
- Walter Bagehot
(Related: Government, Success, Excellence)
"There is one criticism which cannot be leveled at interparliamentary conferences but which is applicable to a great extent to peace congresses: the meetings waste time."
- Fredrik Bajer
(Related: Peace, Time, Criticism, Meetings, Waste)
"There are many members of parliament present here who know as well as I do that, if a man has not already been converted, it will require a great deal more than a letter of appeal to achieve conversion."
- Fredrik Bajer
(Related: Man, Parliament, Present, Will)
"The interparliamentary conference should, in my opinion, direct its particular attention to the preparation of the next Hague Conference, the diplomatic conference, the conference of governments."
- Fredrik Bajer
(Related: Attention, Opinion, Preparation)
"In 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act, which, as any American high school student can tell you, was an act that apparently had something to do with stamps."
- Dave Barry
(Related: Act, American, Parliament, School)
"Only that Swiss in the heart want still a king or at least a strong Upper House of Parliament. Swiss long themselves for less democracy and more dictatorship."
- Peter Bichsel
(Related: Heart, Democracy, Dictatorship, Parliament, Want)
"We can't afford to go down the dead end roads of Parliamentary Socialism or Fascistic Bolshevism."
- John Blair
(Related: End, Socialism)
"I cannot think of any circumstances in which a government can go to war without the support of parliament."
- Tony Blair
(Related: Government, War, Circumstances, Parliament, Support)
"We have to make it clear that one, two or even three BNP MEPs elected to Brussels will have very little effect on the workings of the Parliament and the Commission."
- Steve Blake
(Related: Effect, Parliament, Will)
"I'm much more attracted personally to governments going their full term. It's very hard to have a fixed term election I know with ah... a parliamentary democracy, but I've always had an instinct to say there should be a fixed term."
- Jim Bolger
(Related: Democracy, Instinct)
"I was thrown into the Parliament right away. From 1976 to 1978 I was concerned with the abortion issue, later on with that of divorce."
- Emma Bonino
(Related: Abortion, Divorce, Parliament, Right)
"But let's be clear. We're talking about a country where there's no opposition. As leader he can ignore Parliament and - sorry that's Tony Blair isn't it? Um, so he doesn't even have to ask the country before he goes to war - sorry that's still Tony Blair."
- Rory Bremner
(Related: War, Leader, Country, Opposition, Parliament, Talking)
"The Government and the Parliament, even the House of Lords, will consent to a large increase of electors; and men who have not considered the subject fully will imagine they have gained much by the concession."
- John Bright
(Related: Government, Men, Parliament, Will)
"A year ago I was in the city of Genoa, and I found that it returned seven representatives to the Sardinian Parliament at Turin, seven being its fair share, calculated according to the population of the various cities and districts of the Sardinian kingdom."
- John Bright
(Related: Being, Cities, Parliament, Population)
"Demand the ballot as the undeniable right of every man who is called to the poll, and take special care that the old constitutional rule and principle, by which majorities alone shall decide in Parliamentary elections, shall not be violated."
- John Bright
(Related: Care, Elections, Man, Old, Right)
"I think politics can no longer be assigned to parliamentary activity and it probably never could be. But politics with a small p and the history of trade union movement really interests me."
- Saffron Burrows
(Related: History, Politics, Trade)
"Indeed I did not stand as a beggar at the Parliament door, for I never was at the Parliament-House, nor stood I ever at the door as I do know or can remember; not as a petitioner I am sure."
- Margaret Cavendish
(Related: Parliament)
"No matter how many troops we have in place or how long they stay, we cannot impose a parliamentary democracy there any more than the insurgents can impose a theocracy."
- Nick Clooney
(Related: Democracy, Troops)
"When we fled from the oppressions of kings and parliaments in Europe, to found this great Republic in America, we brought with us the laws and the liberties, which formed a part of our heritage as Britons."
- Caleb Cushing
(Related: America, Europe, Kings, Laws)
"Well it's not a matter for me to say what Llew Smith can or cannot do, he's an elected Member of Parliament."
- Ron Davies
(Related: Parliament)
"The standing orders of the Parliamentary Party, however, apply to me, apply to every other Member of the Parliamentary Labour Party and they put into a context the way in which those rights to freedom of speech should be exercised."
- Ron Davies
(Related: Freedom, Rights, Party, Speech)
"First of all it has never been the case that I have threatened people with expulsion or that I've threatened to throw people out of the Parliamentary Labour Party."
- Ron Davies
(Related: People, First, Party)
"Now, I think that in acknowledging that every individual Member of Parliament and indeed every individual member of the Labour Party, has rights to express their view in a spirit of tolerance."
- Ron Davies
(Related: Rights, Now, Parliament, Party, Spirit, Tolerance)
"Our Parliamentary system has simply failed to meet the challenge of judicial activism."
- Stockwell Day
(Related: Activism, Challenge)
"Individuals have little opportunity to get elected to Parliament under the label of the government party... unless they are in good standing with the Prime Minister and pledged to be cooperative."
- Stockwell Day
(Related: Government, Opportunity, Parliament, Party)
"Canada evolved within the British Empire: it inherited the Parliamentary system, the Cabinet system and all the other features of the British constitutional system which had been in place, for the most part, for several centuries before Canada was even thought of."
- Stockwell Day
(Related: Thought, Canada)
"The unions still have a job to do, representing their members' interests to governments and parliaments. And I think collective agreements still have a role, alongside markets and laws."
- Jacques Delors
(Related: Job, Laws)
"My function in life is not to be a politician in Parliament: it is to get something done."
- Bernadette Devlin
(Related: Life)
"It wasn't long before people discovered the final horrors of letting an urchin into Parliament."
- Bernadette Devlin
(Related: People, Parliament)
"Basically, I have no place in organized politics. By coming to the British Parliament, I've allowed the people to sacrifice me at the top and let go the more effective job I should be doing at the bottom."
- Bernadette Devlin
(Related: Politics, Sacrifice, People, Job, Parliament)
"As states subsist in part by keeping their weaknesses from being known, so is it the quiet of families to have their chancery and their parliament within doors, and to compose and determine all emergent differences there."
- John Donne
(Related: Being, Parliament, Quiet, states)
"I don't mind being a symbol but I don't want to become a monument. There are monuments all over the Parliament Buildings and I've seen what the pigeons do to them."
- Tommy Douglas
(Related: Being, Mind, Monument, Monuments, Parliament, Pigeons, Symbol, Want)
"We have in the last two years, we have passed 350 legislation in the parliament, most of which deal with democratization, human rights, and of course, economy."
- Bulent Ecevit
(Related: Economy, Rights, Human rights, Legislation, Parliament, Years)
"However, democracy cannot be defined as the existence of parliaments and elections alone."
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan
(Related: Democracy, Elections, Existence)
"The U.S. views Morocco as an important friend, and we applaud your political and economic reforms that culminated with the recent parliamentary elections that were widely reported to have been conducted in a fair and open manner."
- Donald Evans
(Related: Friend, Elections, Open)
"The first organised opposition by women to women's suffrage in England dates from 1889, when a number of ladies led by Mrs Ward appealed against the proposed extension of the Parliamentary suffrage to women."
- Millicent Fawcett
(Related: Women, EnglFirst, Ladies, Opposition)
"Just as radical heirs apparent are said to lay aside all inconvenient revolutionary opinions when they come to the throne, it was believed that Mr. Mill in Parliament would be an entirely different person from Mr. Mill in his study."
- Millicent Fawcett
(Related: Opinions, Parliament, Radical, Study)
"I've had more than 12,000 emails from the United States. It's not easy in the United States to find out the email address of a British parliamentarian."
- George Galloway
(Related: states, United)
"While not widely reported, our victories in Iraq are plentiful. National elections, a democratic parliament and the drafting of a constitution are just some of the victories throughout this embattled country."
- Paul Gillmor
(Related: Constitution, Country, Elections, Iraq, Parliament)
"I knew it to be very doubtful whether the Cabinet, Parliament, and the country would take this view on the outbreak of war, and through the whole of this week I had in view the probable contingency that we should not decide at the critical moment to support France."
- Edward Grey
(Related: War, Country, France, Parliament, Support)
"If politicians continue to promote separatism in Australia, they should not continue to hold their seats in this parliament. They are not truly representing all Australians, and I call on the people to throw them out."
- Pauline Hanson
(Related: People, Parliament, Politicians)
"The Leader of the Opposition's constitutional obligation - the obligation to Parliament - it's the reason we did the merger! - is to make sure Canadians have an alternative for government."
- Stephen Harper
(Related: Government, Leader, Obligation, Opposition, Parliament, Reason)
"We'll support the government on issues if it's essential to the country but our primary responsibility is not to prop up the government, our responsibility is to provide an opposition and an alternative government for Parliament and for Canadians."
- Stephen Harper
(Related: Government, Country, Opposition, Parliament, Responsibility, Support)
"If you want to be a government in a minority Parliament, you have to work with other people."
- Stephen Harper
(Related: Government, Work, People, Minority, Parliament, Want)
"The Stuart sovereigns of England steadily attempted to strengthen their power, and the resistance to that effort caused an immense growth of Parliamentary influence."
- Albert Bushnell Hart
(Related: Power, Growth, Effort, England, Influence)
"People must not do things for fun. We are not here for fun. There is no reference to fun in any Act of Parliament."
- A. P. Herbert
(Related: People, Act, Fun, Parliament)
"Would it be possible to stand still on one spot more majestically - while simulating a triumphant march forward - than it is done by the two English Houses of Parliament?"
- Alexander Herzen
(Related: English, Houses, March, Parliament)
"The government can access these funds but only following approval by the parliament to support our budget requirements and investments in infrastructure development, education, public health, and so on."
- Jose Ramos Horta
(Related: Government, Education, Health, Development, Approval, Parliament, Public, Support)
"It is, and long has been my opinion, and I have heard honourable members in this House declare it to be theirs - that it is the duty of Parliament equally to protect all the different interests in the country."
- Joseph Hume
(Related: Country, Duty, Opinion, Parliament)
"Tony Blair - good thing there are not parliamentary elections in this country."
- Gwen Ifill
(Related: Country, Elections)
"Russian Parliament today is a bunch of puppets that just fall in with the instructions from Kremlin."
- Garry Kasparov
(Related: Parliament, Today)
"More and more people in my country recognise the dangers of having their governors appointed by Putin and having no influence in parliament because Parliament today is also following instructions from Kremlin and no longer represents its people."
- Garry Kasparov
(Related: People, Country, Influence, Parliament, Today)
"The real political life in Russia unfortunately is not in the parliament but on the streets and in the media."
- Garry Kasparov
(Related: Life, Media, Parliament, Russia)
"Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talks of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile."
- William Lyon Mackenzie King
(Related: Government, Control, Credit, Democracy, Parliament, Responsibility)
"The responsibility of a minister is to step aside when there is a criminal investigation of the department. That protects the propriety of Parliament and of responsible government."
- Jack Layton
(Related: Government, Investigation, Parliament, Responsibility)
"Canadians can get Parliament working again. Here's how to do that: elect more New Democrats."
- Jack Layton
(Related: Democrats, Parliament)
"After that his Majesty was beheaded, the Parliament for some years effected nothing either for the publick peace or tranquillity of the nation, or settling religion as they had formerly promised."
- William Lilly
(Related: Peace, Religion, Nation, Nothing, Parliament, Years)
"Improved turnout will give parliament and government the appearance of being more legitimate."
- Peter Lynch
(Related: Government, Appearance, Being, Parliament, Will)
"When I am in the Scottish Parliament chamber, I often feel the need to sit for the entire debate. It's only courteous to listen to what everyone has to say, although I often find myself desperate to say something but too scared to stand up in case I regret it."
- Margo MacDonald
(Related: Debate, Parliament, Regret)
"I owed it to my father that I was elected to Parliament in the first place, but I owed it to my mother that I stuck it out once I got there."
- Agnes Macphail
(Related: Mother, Father, First, Parliament)
"I have moved on from being a British parliamentarian, I have moved on from being a New Labour politician, I have moved on from being the supporter in the active day-to-day sense of Tony Blair."
- Peter Mandelson
(Related: Being, Day, Sense)
"I was the deputy Chairman of the Democratic Union of the Pacific, and we started at 8 I think and I was called to the telephone and to be told there's a coup, the government has been overthrown - it was round about 9, 10 when the Parliament sat they had done then."
- Kamisese Mara
(Related: Government, Parliament)
"It is simply the view, and a view I think shared by most members of the party, that it is very difficult to have a leader that does not command the support of the parliamentary party."
- Francis Maude
(Related: Leader, Party, Support)
"I tend to discourage people from calling me 'Sir Ian,' because I don't like being separated out from the rest of the population. Of course, it can be useful if you're writing an official letter, like trying to get a visa or something passed through Parliament. They're impressed by these things."
- Ian McKellen
(Related: People, Being, Parliament, Population, Rest, Trying, Writing)
"Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Arabs can be elected to the parliament in a democratic election."
- Adam Michnik
(Related: Country, Israel, Parliament)
"And think of how we challenged the idea of a male dominated Parliament with All-Women shortlists and made the cause of gender equality central to our government. We were right to do so."
- Ed Miliband
(Related: Equality, Government, Idea, Cause, Gender, Gender equality, Parliament, Right)
"I suppose not everyone has a dad who wrote a book saying he didn't believe in the Parliamentary road to socialism."
- Ed Miliband
(Related: Dad, Road, Saying, Socialism)
"We are demonstrating for services for all the people and not just services for money. It's very important that this message goes to the European Parliament today."
- John Monks
(Related: Money, People, Parliament, Today)
"As to the question of elected or not elected, each member of the European Commission has been appointed jointly by the governments of the 15 member states, and undergone individual scrutiny and a vote of confidence from the European Parliament."
- Mario Monti
(Related: Confidence, Parliament, Question, states, Vote)
"I had almost forgotten to tell you that I have already been to the Parliament House; and yet this is of most importance. For, had I seen nothing else in England but this, I should have thought my journey thither amply rewarded."
- Karl Philipp Moritz
(Related: Thought, England, Importance, Journey, Nothing, Parliament)
"Defenders of the status quo will argue that this system has served us well over the centuries, that our parliamentary traditions have combined stability and flexibility and that we should not cast away in a minute what has taken generations to build."
- Ferdinand Mount
(Related: Flexibility, Generations, Stability, Traditions, Will)
"May the soul of the late President Milton Obote... a long-time member of this parliament, rest in peace."
- Yoweri Museveni
(Related: Peace, Soul, May, Parliament, President, Rest)
"That is why if Lebanon concludes a peace agreement with Israel and brings that accord to the Parliament our deputies will reject it; Hezbollah refuses any conciliation with Israel in principle."
- Hassan Nasrallah
(Related: Peace, Agreement, Israel, Parliament, Will)
"The majority of the members of the Irish parliament are professional politicians, in the sense that otherwise they would not be given jobs minding mice at crossroads."
- Flann O'Brien
(Related: Irish, Jobs, Majority, Parliament, Politicians, Sense)
"Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us."
- P. J. O'Rourke
(Related: Government, Democracy, Parliament, Trouble)
"It is conceivable that a party might gain the majority in parliament and claims the government for itself."
- Franz von Papen
(Related: Government, Gain, Majority, Parliament, Party)
"After the war, prompted by the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, I entered Parliament so that a priest could speak out for the poor, as canon law at that time still permitted."
- Abbe Pierre
(Related: Time, War, Law, Paris, Parliament, Poor)
"A Parliament is that to the Commonwealth which the soul is to the body. It behoves us therefore to keep the facility of that soul from distemper."
- John Pym
(Related: Soul, Body, Parliament)
"The following year, after I had prepared my draft, the Conference of the Interparliamentary Union at The Hague decided to set up a special commission to study the problem seriously."
- Ludwig Quidde
(Related: Draft, Study)
"Pacifist propaganda and the resolutions of the parliamentarians encouraged such treaties, and toward the end of the nineteenth century their number had increased considerably."
- Ludwig Quidde
(Related: End, Propaganda)
"I was a Member of the European Parliament for a period of time and I saw a lot of European laws and treaties."
- Jean-Pierre Raffarin
(Related: Time, Laws, Parliament)
"Well, we know that eighteen years after that solemn declaration it was disregarded, and the Irish Parliament, which lasted for five hundred years, was destroyed by the Act of Union. Gentlemen, the Act of Union was carried by force and fraud, by treachery and falsehood."
- John Edward Redmond
(Related: Act, Falsehood, Force, Fraud, Gentlemen, Irish, Parliament, Treachery, Years)
"I think people forget that to be on the A list you first had to go through the original graded Parliamentary Selection Board. I did that and then like everyone else had the further interviews to get onto the A list."
- Adam Rickitt
(Related: People, First, Forget)
"The Massachusetts Land Bank, during Colonial times, prospered, and brought prosperity to the community, until it was forcibly suppressed by special act of Parliament."
- John Buchanan Robinson
(Related: Act, Community, Land, Parliament, Prosperity)
"The attractive idea that we can now have a parliament of man with authority to control the conduct of nations by legislation or an international police force with power to enforce national conformity to rules of right conduct is a counsel of perfection."
- Elihu Root
(Related: Power, Idea, Control, Authority, Conformity, Force, Legislation, Man, Nations, Now, Parliament, Perfection, Police, Right, Rules)
"The English think they are free. They are free only during the election of members of parliament."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: English, Parliament)
"We have used the presence of UNMIK, as well as other European and American agencies to establish a legal framework compatible with the European Union and that is already an advantage. We have seen the positive effects of this and our parliament will continue to go this way."
- Ibrahim Rugova
(Related: Legal, Positive, American, Parliament, Will)
"I was elected to the Diet in the same way as at every parliamentary election."
- Fritz Sauckel
(Related: Diet)
"You may see the emergence of a new political party from the body of the trade union movement which represents a very clear-cut socialist alternative policy and which gives expression to the views of the trade union movement in parliament."
- Arthur Scargill
(Related: Policy, Body, Expression, May, Parliament, Party, Trade)
"The Western media tends to place a lot of emphasis on official institutions in Ukraine such as its supreme court, the central election commission, and the parliament. In reality, the people of Ukraine now control their destiny."
- Bob Schaffer
(Related: People, Control, Court, Destiny, Media, Now, Parliament, Reality)
"And we've also had now the speaker of the Parliament in Iraq using blatantly anti-Semitic remarks, saying the Jews and sons of Jews are the problem of all the violence that's in Iraq."
- Jan Schakowsky
(Related: Iraq, Now, Parliament, Saying, Sons, Violence)
"By the reduction of the Arabs on the one hand and Jewish immigration in the transition period on the other, we will ensure an absolute Hebrew majority in a parliamentary regime."
- Moshe Sharett
(Related: Majority, Will)
"I am glad to learn that the Parliament Bill has been passed for the Darlington Railway."
- George Stephenson
(Related: Parliament)
"We all know what Parliament is, and we are all ashamed of it."
- Robert Louis Stevenson
(Related: Parliament)
"Parliament must not be told a direct untruth, but it's quite possible to allow them to mislead themselves."
- Norman Tebbit
(Related: Parliament)
"I felt that if we, as the Met, were not intervening once one person starts digging up Parliament Square, then someone else is going to join in and you have a spiral."
- Michael Todd
(Related: Parliament)
"I happened to be one of those who thought all these expenses necessary, and I had the good fortune to have the majority of both houses of Parliament on my side."
- Robert Walpole
(Related: Thought, Fortune, Houses, Majority, Parliament)
"The public treasure has been duly applied to the uses to which it was appropriated by Parliament, and regular accounts have been annually laid before Parliament, of every article of expense."
- Robert Walpole
(Related: Parliament, Public, Treasure)
"No expense has been incurred but what has been approved of and provided for by Parliament."
- Robert Walpole
(Related: Parliament)
"Some members of both Houses have, it is true, been removed from their employments under the Crown; but were they ever told, either by me or by any other of his majesty's servants, that it was for opposing the measures of the administration in Parliament?"
- Robert Walpole
(Related: Houses, Parliament)
"We believed that growth through Local Government, and perhaps through some special machinery for bringing the wishes and influence of women of all classes to bear on Parliament, other than the Parliamentary vote, was the real line of progress."
- Mary A. Ward
(Related: Women, Government, Progress, Growth, Influence, Parliament, Vote, Wishes)
"The extraordinary exertions of the colonies, in cooperation with British measures, against the French, in the late war, were acknowledged by the British parliament to be more than adequate to their ability."
- Mercy Otis Warren
(Related: War, Ability, Cooperation, Parliament)
"Well, one thing that has happened is they have had a presidential election in Egypt which has represented progress. Now, we were not happy with everything that happened with the parliamentary elections, and it was not exactly a perfect presidential election in Egypt."
- Roger Wicker
(Related: Progress, Elections, Now)
"Some people suggest that the problem is the separation of powers. If you had a parliamentary system, the struggle for power would not result in such complex peace treaties that empower so many different people to pursue so many contradictory aims."
- James Q. Wilson
(Related: Peace, Power, People, Result, Separation, Struggle)
"It is impossible to practice parliamentary politics without having patience, decency, politeness and courtesy."
- Khaleda Zia
(Related: Politics, Courtesy, Decency, Patience, Politeness, Practice)