Pierre Trudeau (Politician)

Of course a bilingual state is more expensive than a unilingual one — but it is a richer state.

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.

— Pierre Trudeau sleep

Let us overthrow the totems, break the taboos. Or better, let us consider them cancelled. Coldly, let us be intelligent.

— Pierre Trudeau

We peer so suspiciously at each other that we cannot see that we Canadians are standing on the mountaintop of human wealth, freedom and privilege.

— Pierre Trudeau freedom

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.

— Pierre Trudeau hope

The essential ingredient of politics is timing.

— Pierre Trudeau politics

I believe a constitution can permit the co-existence of several cultures and ethnic groups with a single state.

— Pierre Trudeau culture

Well, Just watch me!

— Pierre Trudeau

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.

— Pierre Trudeau art

I would have to point out in the strongest terms the autocracy of the Liberal structure and the cowardice of its members. I have never seen in all my examination of politics so degrading a spectacle as that of all these Liberals turning their coats in unison with their Chief, when they saw the chance to take power.

— Pierre Trudeau politics

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.

— Pierre Trudeau language

There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.

— Pierre Trudeau

Vive la France libre.

— Pierre Trudeau

I'm not leaving! I must stay.

— Pierre Trudeau

I am trying to put Quebec in its place — and the place of Quebec is in Canada.

— Pierre Trudeau

The attainment of of ais the cherished hope of civilized men.

— Pierre Trudeau hope

Liberalism is the philosophy for our time, because it does not try to conserve every tradition of the past, because it does not apply to new problems the old doctrinaire solutions, because it is prepared to experiment and innovate and because it knows that the past is less important than the future.

— Pierre Trudeau philosophy

If you want to see me again, don't bring signs saying "Trudeau is a pig" and don't bring signs that he hustles women, because I won't talk to you. I didn't get into politics to be insulted. And don't throw wheat at me either. If you don't stop that, I'll kick you right in the ass.

— Pierre Trudeau politics

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.

— Pierre Trudeau art

The past is to be respected and acknowledged, but not to be worshipped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness.

— Pierre Trudeau knowledge

Trudeau: Well there are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don't like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is, go on and bleed. But it's more important to keep law and order in the society than to be worried about weak-kneed people who don't like the looks of a soldier—CBC reporter Tim Ralfe [interrupting]: At any cost? How far would you go with that? How far would you extend that?Trudeau: Well, just watch me.

— Pierre Trudeau art

Mangez de la merde.

— Pierre Trudeau man

Fuddle duddle.

— Pierre Trudeau

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.

— Pierre Trudeau society

I've been called worse things by better people.

— Pierre Trudeau people

The next time you see, ask Him what happened to the just society He promised 2,000 years ago.

— Pierre Trudeau time

I don't really know what a cyclotron is but I am certainly very happy Canada has one!

— Pierre Trudeau happy

If Canada is to survive, it can only survive in mutual respect and in love for one another.

— Pierre Trudeau love

Oh, for Christ's sake shut up. Obviously the New Democratic Party is not only misinformed but uninterested in the subject.

— Pierre Trudeau art

I don't know if the member ofthinks he's on camera, but he's not.

— Pierre Trudeau think

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."

— Pierre Trudeau life

I walked until midnight in the storm, then I went home and took a sauna for an hour and a half. It was all clear. I listened to my heart and saw if there were any signs of my destiny in the sky, and there were none — there were just snowflakes.

— Pierre Trudeau art

I, for one, will be convinced that the Canada we know and love will be gone forever. But, then,wrote that ' greatness lay in the fact that he realized Athens was not immortal. I think we have to realize that Canada is not immortal; but, if it is going to go, let it go with a bang rather than a whimper.

— Pierre Trudeau love

Paddling a canoe is a source of enrichment and inner renewal.

— Pierre Trudeau men

People are more interested in ideas than dress.

— Pierre Trudeau ideas

If all politicians were like Pierre Trudeau, there would be world peace. ~

— Pierre Trudeau peace

I was too busy doing my job and living my life to spend time keeping notes for some future volume of memoirs.

— Pierre Trudeau life

Thewere good educators, exceptional teachers. In an era and in a society where freedom of speech was not held in high regard, of course, that the discourse be focused on what they were teaching, but we were able to go beyond this framework without incurring too great a risk.

— Pierre Trudeau freedom

was an extraordinary window on the world.

— Pierre Trudeau world

What is wonderful about a university likeis that you not only receive teaching of very high quality, you also learn where to find the knowledge you are seeking. And you make unexpected discoveries;it was a Marxist professor who introduced me to the work of , a great master of English prose as well as theology.

— Pierre Trudeau knowledge

What is considered sinful in one of the great religions to which citizens belong isn't necessarily sinful in the others.therefore cannot be based on the notion of sin; it is crimes that it must define.

— Pierre Trudeau religion

When I had been appointed to the Cabinet in 1967, I had been struck by the amateurism that reigned in the upper echelons of the federal government.

— Pierre Trudeau men

demands that elected members be able to realize fully the role for which they have been chosen.

— Pierre Trudeau man

I must say that "" has always seemed to me to be sensible advice.

— Pierre Trudeau advice

I am sometimes also asked whether thetaught me anything about the art of governing, or about the means that were at my disposal for defusing the crisis. First of all, it taught me that you can be the prescient futurologist in the world, you can lay out the best-made plans and define your priorities with the utmost care, but if you show yourself to be incapable of managing a crisis when it arises, you will lose your right to govern and the whole thing will blow up in your face.

— Pierre Trudeau time

Some things I never learned to like. I didn't like to kiss babies, though I didn't mind kissing their mothers. I didn't like to slap backs or other parts of the anatomy. I liked hecklers, because they brought my speeches alive. I liked supporters, because they looked happy. And I really enjoyed mingling with people, if there wasn't too much of it.

— Pierre Trudeau art

The state has an active role to play in ensuring that there is equilibrium between the constituent parts of the economy, the consumers and the producers.

— Pierre Trudeau art

As against the "invisible hand" of , there has to be a visible hand of politicians whose objective is to have the kind of society that is caring and humane.

— Pierre Trudeau society

I never actually got around to taping conversations with my guests, but there are a lot of things you can learn from a man like .

— Pierre Trudeau man

The community of man should be treated in the same way you would treat your community of brothers or fellow citizens.

— Pierre Trudeau man

I remember thinking that walking on the beach as a free man is pretty desirable.

— Pierre Trudeau thinking

The federal government is the balance wheel of the federal system, and the federal system means using counterweights.

— Pierre Trudeau men

I saw theas an expression of my long-held view that the subject of law must be the individual human being; the law must permit the individual to fulfil himself or herself to the utmost.

— Pierre Trudeau self

We aimed far and high, but we did not miss the mark.

— Pierre Trudeau

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.

— Pierre Trudeau value

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.

— Pierre Trudeau art

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