"Yes, but the people would prefer John A. drunk to George Brown sober."

John A. Macdonald Politics See all quotes by John A. Macdonald →

React to this quote

More by John A. Macdonald

“He hoped that Britain and Canada would have "a healthy and cordial alliance. Instead of looking upon us as a merely dependent colony, England will have in us a friendly nation, a subordinate but still a powerful people to stand by her in North America in peace or in war." - 1865”

“Ain't I the old devil though?”

“Yes, In my Canada the rich will always be a minority”

“Let us be English or let us be French... but above all let us be Canadians.”

“I get sick ... not because of drink I am forced to listen to the ranting of my honourable opponent.”

“I would be quite willing, personally, to leave that whole country a wilderness for the next half-century but I fear if Englishmen do not go there, Yankees will.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Perhaps when distant people on other planets pick up some wave-length of ours all they hear is a continuous scream."

— Iris Murdoch

Philosophy1919–1999

#Human Nature

"Some of the most vocal critics of the way things are being done are people who have done nothing themselves, and whose only contributions to society are their complaints and moral exhibitionism."

— Thomas Sowell

Economics1930

#Human Nature

"In an age of explosive development in the realm of medical technology, it is unnerving to find that the discoveries of Salk, Sabin, and even Pasteur remain irrelevant to much of humanity."

— Paul Farmer

Medicine1959–2022

#Human Nature