Pierre Trudeau
I bear solemn witness to the fact that NATO heads of state and of government meet only to go through the tedious motions of reading speeches, drafted by others, with the principal objective of not rocking the boat.Collection: Government
The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.Collection: Business
Luck, that's when preparation and opportunity meet.Collection: Chance
The essential ingredient of politics is timing.Collection: Politics
Canada will be a strong country when Canadians of all provinces feel at home in all parts of the country, and when they feel that all Canada belongs to them.Collection: Home
Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.
My life is one long curve, full of turning points.
We wish nothing more, but we will accept nothing less. Masters in our own house we must be, but our house is the whole of Canada.
There is no such thing as a model or ideal Canadian. What could be more absurd than the concept of an "all Canadian" boy or girl? A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate.Collection: Girl
The past is to be respected and acknowledged, but not to be worshipped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness.Collection: Past
If Canada is to survive, it can only survive in mutual respect and in love for one another.Collection: Canada
Americans should never underestimate the constant pressure on Canada which the mere presence of the United States has produced. We're different people from you and we're different people because of you. Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is effected by every twitch and grunt. It should not therefore be expected that this kind of nation, this Canada, should project itself as a mirror image of the United States.Collection: Sleep
If you live in a society where those who govern society and determine its path do not respect freedom of speech and freedom of religion, freedom of choice, freedom of assembly, and if there is no democratic process and no way to change the order of things by reason and peace and love and so on, and if, as a result of that, certain ideas in which you believe are being crushed, then I think the only way you can defend yourself against this violence is in using violence of your own.Collection: Believe
You just cannot cut a country in two any more than you can cut a human being in two. If you do, you do not have two human beings; you have a corpse.Collection: Country
A country, after all, is not something you build as the pharaohs built the pyramids, and then leave standing there to defy eternity. A country is something that is built every day out of certain basic shared values.Collection: Country
Our hopes are high. Our faith in the people is great. Our courage is strong. And our dreams for this beautiful country will never die.Collection: Beautiful
I've been called worse things by better people.Collection: People
I think that the only ultimate guide we have is our conscience, and if the law of the land goes against our conscience I think we should disobey the law.Collection: Thinking
We must now establish the basic principles, the basic values and beliefs which hold us together as Canadians so that beyond our regional loyalties there is a way of life and a system of values which make us proud of the country that has given us such freedom and such immeasurable joy.Collection: Loyalty
I will use all my strength to bring about a just society to a nation living in a tough world.Collection: Use
As against the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith, there has to be a visible hand of politicians whose objective is to have the kind of society that is caring and humane.Collection: Caring
It is wonderful to be despised, if, deep down, we know we are right.Collection: Wonderful
There are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just dont like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is go and bleed It is more important to keep law and order in society than to be worried about weak-kneed people Society must take every means at its disposal to defend itself against the emergence of a parallel power which defies the elected power.Collection: Heart
Le raison avant la passion - Reason over passion.Collection: Wisdom
What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature.Collection: Children
Freedom can flow from order. That is not to say that freedom always flows from order because you can have a totalitarian order and you can have an undemocratic order from which freedom will not flow, but that surest way to destroy freedom is to have chaos.Collection: Order
I believe a constitution can permit the co-existence of several cultures and ethnic groups with a single state.Collection: Believe
I think that as the guardian of justice elected by the people it's our duty to use whatever forms of force, police, army, to make sure that at least the freedom of choice is preserved.Collection: Army
I want to separate sin from crime. You may have to ask forgiveness for your sins from God, but not from the Minister of Justice. There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.Collection: Justice
Bilingualism is not an imposition on the citizens. The citizens can go on speaking one language or six languages, or no languages if they so choose. Bilingualism is an imposition on the state and not the citizens.Collection: Citizens
Obviously I prefer freedom, but I know, and I think all history has told us, that freedom cannot flow from anarchy and disorder.Collection: Thinking
When the religious principles, like the philosophical, are translated into reality, sometimes the reality forces violence on you, and there is no escape from it, and then I don't think it's something you should try to hide your face from.Collection: Religious
I think that religions must seek peace and love and therefore be pacifist.Collection: Thinking
The state has no place in the nation's bedrooms.Collection: Bedroom
Obviously, the state's responsibility should be to legislate rules for a well-ordered society. It has no right or duty to creep into the bedrooms of the nation.Collection: Responsibility
Long live free France.Collection: France
In my formative years the people who influenced me most were the Christian existentialists, I mean men like Munier and Kierkegaard and perhaps most of all Nicholas Berdyaev and in my travels I looked for one thing more than anything. I rarely discussed, probably mainly because of language difficulties, metaphysics with the various religious people of other groups I'd meet with. But I'd very much try to see how they were incarnated, how their particular soul was incarnated or took roots into reality.Collection: Christian
Democracy demands that elected members be able to realize fully the role for which they have been chosen.Collection: Democracy
The next time you see Jesus Christ, ask Him what happened to the just society He promised 2,000 years ago.Collection: Jesus
In reality, though, the first thing to ask of history is that it should point out to us the paths of liberty. The great lesson to draw from revolutions is not that they devour humanity but rather that tyranny never fails to generate them.Collection: Reality
lf there is anything that puzzles me in this game lt is that the longer that you are in the job of Prime Minister, the harder you have to work to do your job. With anything else, such as stenography, administering a store, or whatever done it for nine or ten years you get to know the ropes pretty well and it becomes easy and you can spend a lot of time playing golf or something. l feel that the more you know, the more you have to know and the more problems come.Collection: Jobs
I'm sure in a few years it will be unthinkable to say there were 20 years when we didn't recognize the People's Republic of China. And then we'll have to explain what the political constraints were and why it didn't happen earlier.Collection: Years
Who is it that said that 'you have not converted a man because you have silenced him?' This is true of the use of the military on people.Collection: Military
The attainment of a just society is the cherished hope of civilized men.Collection: Men
Sometimes you must live in a violent world in order to get greater justice.Collection: Order
For my part...I am a realist but, somehow, optimism always keeps breaking out.Collection: Optimism
We are in the extreme centre, the radical middle. That is our position.Collection: Inspirational
I don't see any easy way of disqualifying people on the basis that they decide not to work.Collection: People
Canada regards herself as responsible to all mankind for the peculiar ecological balance that now exists so precariously in the water, ice and land areas of the Arctic archipelago. We do not doubt for a moment that the rest of the world would find us at fault, and hold us liable, should we fail to ensure adequate protection of that environment from pollution or artificial deterioration.Collection: Ice
Society is responsible for its social organization, and if it can't provide the wherewithal for men to be gainfully employed then it should pay the penalty and give them welfare.Collection: Men