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Thursday 29 December 2011

Thought for the day

"Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains."

Or in other versions:
Not to be a Republican at 20 is proof of want of heart;
to be one at 30 is proof of want of head.
    - François Guisot (1787-1874)
 
A man who is not a liberal at 16 has no heart;
a man who is not a conservative at 60 has no head.
    - Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
 
Not to be a socialist at 20 is proof of want of heart;
to be one at 30 is proof of want of head.
    - Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929)
 
Any man who is under 30 and is not a Liberal has no heart; and
any man who is over 30 and not a Conservative has no brains.
    - Winston Churchill (1874-1965)


  Any man who is not a socialist at age 20 has no heart.
   Any man who is still a socialist at age 40 has no head.

The most likely reason is that Bennet Cerf once reported Clemenceau's
response to a visitor's alarm about his son being a communist:
   If he had not become a Communist at 22, I would have disowned him.
   If he is still a Communist at 30, I will do it then.

George Seldes later quoted Lloyd George as having said:
   A young man who isn't a socialist hasn't got a heart;
   an old man who is a socialist hasn't got a head.

The earliest known version of this observation is attributed to
mid-nineteenth century historian and statesman François Guizot:
   Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart;
   to be one at 30 is proof of want of head.

1 comment:

Span Ows said...

Funnily enough it seems that the original has the "not" misplaced: all the saying say the same EXCEPT Guizot's.

"Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head."

should surely read:

"...to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; ,not to be one at 30 is proof of want of head."