False Quote: "If you are not a liberal when you are young..."
"If you are not a liberal when you are young, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative when you are old, you have no brain." The quotation is variously rephrased and often (wrongly) attributed to Sir Winston Churchill.
'If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.'
There is no record of anyone hearing Churchill say this. Paul Addison of Edinburgh University made this comment: 'Surely Churchill can't have used the words attributed to him. He'd been a Conservative at 15 and a Liberal at 35! And would he have talked so disrespectfully of Clemmie, who is generally thought to have been a lifelong Liberal?'
From the International Churchill Society at
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/resou...
It is also important to remember that in the context of British politics those labels are almost the opposites of their American meanings. British liberals favored free trade, while the conservatives (landed class) often sided with socialists (Labor Party) against the industrialists and merchants.
'If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.'
There is no record of anyone hearing Churchill say this. Paul Addison of Edinburgh University made this comment: 'Surely Churchill can't have used the words attributed to him. He'd been a Conservative at 15 and a Liberal at 35! And would he have talked so disrespectfully of Clemmie, who is generally thought to have been a lifelong Liberal?'
From the International Churchill Society at
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/resou...
It is also important to remember that in the context of British politics those labels are almost the opposites of their American meanings. British liberals favored free trade, while the conservatives (landed class) often sided with socialists (Labor Party) against the industrialists and merchants.
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- 1Posted by fosterj717 8 years, 4 months agoThe reality is however that modern day liberalism is not "Classical Liberalism" so in reality, the truth of this statement is still valid. Modern day conservatives "Classical Liberals" do have it right and the left does not! So, I think we can stand by the quote as it stands, regardless of the meanings in place at the time.| Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink
