Quotes Library

August 5, 2025

[On being prime minister] Sometimes the strain is awful, you have to resort to Jane Austen.

Harold Macmillan (1894–1986), British Conservative politician, prime minister, in the Butler Papers; Peter Hennessy The Hidden Wiring (1995), Jay p.245

How well do you deal with strain? Is that the best you can do?

Better Austen, than alcohol, affairs, or alternative strategies for relieving the strain. Besides, in every Austen novel, after great turmoil, things turn out right in the end.

Politics & Politicians

More Quotes

December 15, 2025
December 15, 2025
Politics & Politicians
If you want to know the depth and meanness of Human Nature, you have got to be a prime minister running a general election.
May 19, 2025
May 19, 2025
Politics & Politicians
Let me…warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party.
June 30, 2025
June 30, 2025
Governance
No government has ever been, or can ever be, wherein time-servers and blockheads will not be uppermost.
1…3334353637…123
Page 35 of 123