Kenneth Robert Livingstone's Quotes

The truth is, no one pays more tax than they have to.

The whole culture of my background was deeply Conservative.

The world is run by monsters and you have to deal with them. Some of them run countries, some of them run banks, some of them run news corporations.

There isn't much about my life that's been particularly conventional.

This life is messy.

Well, I get on with people who believe in something.

When I'm sifting the compost seed or pruning, I argue over issues in my head; I talk to myself.

Working with the Jewish community is essential to me and what I stand for.

You lose power in Britain and you are just Joe Public again.

I actually think the civil service, who are the malignancy at the heart of public life, have consciously prevented, talked ministers out of, made it difficult regulatory-wise, to allow more pressure on alternative energy sources to grow.

I came into politics because I wished to change things. You can't do that by lying to people; you have to educate, and persuade, and carry them with you - and it's often a long haul.

I can't understand why anyone would want to live the life of a politician if you can't say pretty much what you think. You are not in it for the money: there's unremitting pressure on your life, you give up so much of your privacy. It can only be because of the things you want to do and the things you want to say.

I could not cherish London and not value Jewish London. The contribution of Jews to London is immense - politically, economically, culturally, intellectually, philanthropically, artistically.

I Kenneth Robert Livingstone, having been elected to the office of mayor of London, declare that I take that office upon myself, and will duly and faithfully fulfil the duties of it to the best of my judgement and ability.

I undertake that, in the exercise of my functions of that office I will have regard to any guidance with respect to ethical standards issued by the secretary of state under Section 66 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999.

I'm in exactly the same position as everybody else who has a small business. I mean I get loads of money, all from different sources. You give it to your accountant. They manage it.

I'm never going to take the view that I should say whatever I need to say in order to achieve something. Because that implies a level of dishonesty.

Every budget I have ever prepared has been balanced.

Everyone changes all the time.

Give me the whole world to run and then I'll be happy. If tomorrow I was told I had to sort out the whole world's problems I'd sleep like a baby.

Global warming could be solved by shifting three to four per cent of global GDP to pay for it.

I am a socialist, a believer in rational thought and the rule of law.

I am not against Israel, I am against Zionists.

I can easily lose myself emotionally in absolute Hollywood garbage.

I do explicitly see Jewish people as a people - not either a religion or an ethnicity but a people.

I do the gardening.

I go all around London advocating lesbian and gay rights.

I grew up in a house with very few books.

I have met the people who run the world, and I am not in awe of them.

I have no interest in managing my financial affairs.

I have only ever borrowed money for investment. I have been sound money all my life.

I have opened newspapers and read incredible lies.

I never came into life with any favours or privileges.

I spent the 1960s and 1970s seeking myself - the working-class tradition of self-education.

I swim three times a week.

I think democracy's undermined when those who own newspapers fill them with trivia rather than real issues.

I think I have gone through my entire public career never telling a lie. I have made mistakes but I never knowingly lied.

I think it's much more important to keep people in work than have pay rises.

The sun has not yet set for all time.

The troubles which have come upon us always seem more serious than those which are only threatening.

There are laws for peace as well as war.

There is always more spirit in attack than in defence.

There is nothing man will not attempt when great enterprises hold out the promise of great rewards.

There is nothing that is more often clothed in an attractive garb than a false creed.

There is nothing worse than being ashamed of parsimony or poverty.

They are more than men at the outset of their battles; at the end they are less than the women.

This above all makes history useful and desirable; it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.

Toil and pleasure, dissimilar in nature, are nevertheless united by a certain natural bond.

Truth, they say, is but too often in difficulties, but is never finally suppressed.

We can endure neither our vices nor the remedies for them.

Woe to the conquered.

A fraudulent intent, however carefully concealed at the outset, will generally, in the end, betray itself.

Under the influence of fear, which always leads men to take a pessimistic view of things, they magnified their enemies' resources, and minimized their own.

Rome has grown since its humble beginnings that it is now overwhelmed by its own greatness.

No crime can ever be defended on rational grounds.

All things will be clear and distinct to the man who does not hurry; haste is blind and improvident.

Envy like fire always makes for the highest points.

Favor and honor sometimes fall more fitly on those who do not desire them.

Fortune blinds men when she does not wish them to withstand the violence of her onslaughts.

From abundance springs satiety.

He will have true glory who despises it.

In difficult and desperate cases, the boldest counsels are the safest.

It is better that a guilty man should not be brought to trial than that he should be acquitted.

It is easier to criticize than to correct our past errors.

It is easy at any moment to surrender a large fortune; to build one up is a difficult and an arduous task.

Luck is of little moment to the great general, for it is under the control of his intellect and his judgment.

Many difficulties which nature throws in our way, may be smoothed away by the exercise of intelligence.

Men are only clever at shifting blame from their own shoulders to those of others.

Men are slower to recognize blessings than misfortunes.

No law can possibly meet the convenience of every one: we must be satisfied if it be beneficial on the whole and to the majority.

Nowhere are our calculations more frequently upset than in war.

Resistance to criminal rashness comes better late than never.

Temerity is not always successful.

The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.