It does so happen to be the case that if the freedom of the people of this country - and especially the rights of trade unionists - if those precious things in the past had been left to the good sense and fairmindedness of judges, we would have precious few freedoms in this country.

Michael Foot

We are not here in this world to find elegant solutions, pregnant with initiative, or to serve the ways and modes of profitable progress. No, we are here to provide for all those who are weaker and hungrier, more battered and crippled than ourselves. That is our only certain good and great purpose on earth, and if you ask me about those insoluble economic problems that may arise if the top is deprived of their initiative, I would answer 'To hell with them.' The top is greedy and mean and will always find a way to take care of themselves. They always do.

Michael Foot

common-purpose helping-others mean

Men of power have no time to read; yet the men who do not read are unfit for power.

Michael Foot

he-man reading men

Is the Labour Party to remain a democratic party in which the right of free criticism and free debate is not merely tolerated but encouraged? Or are the rank and file of the party to be bludgeoned or cowed into an uncritical subservience towards the leadership?

Michael Foot

debate party criticism

Most liberties have been won by people who broke the law.

Michael Foot

liberty law people

He's passed from rising hope to elder statesman without any intervening period whatsoever.

Michael Foot

rising politics political

Politicians live in little worlds of their own and imagine these are the universe.

Michael Foot

imagine littles world

In my opinion, Marxism is a great creed of human liberation. It is the creed which says that when all other empires fade and vanish, our business is to enlarge the empire of the human mind.

Michael Foot

empires opinion mind

The only man I knew who could make a curse sound like a caress.

Michael Foot

curse sound men

People must learn more and more that the strength of this country is the democratic power of the trade union movement.

Michael Foot

movement country people

People can say what they want in the Labour Party.

Michael Foot

party want people

I've been on the left of the Party since I joined it about 1934 and I haven't seen much reason for altering... I have always been a strong libertarian both inside the Labour Party and outside... what I want to seek to do over a period of course is to establish a Socialist society.

Michael Foot

party strong want

How long will it be before the cry goes up: "Let's kill all the judges"?

Michael Foot

cry judging long

I have never been in favour of expelling people from the Labour Party.

Michael Foot

favour party people

Socialism without public ownership is nothing but a fantastic apology.

Michael Foot

fantastic socialism apology

I certainly think that a Labour Government will have to have effective powers to control the outflow of capital.

Michael Foot

labour government thinking

You can have a wages policy imposed by mass unemployment.

Michael Foot

economics unemployment wages

There are judges who stretch the law... to suit reactionary attitudes.

Michael Foot

judging law attitude

Think of it! A second chamber selected by the Whips. A seraglio of eunuchs.

Michael Foot

selected chamber thinking

No rising hope on the political scene who offered his services to Labour when I happened to be its leader can be dismissed as an opportunist.

Michael Foot

rising political leader

Of all the sights and sounds which attracted me on my first arrival to live in London in the mid-thirties, one combined operation left a lingering, individual spell. I naturally went to Hyde Park to hear the orators, the best of the many free entertainments on offer in the capital. I heard the purest milk of the world flowing, then as now, from the platform of the Socialist Party of Great Britain.

Michael Foot

party sight world