David Lloyd George 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor (1863–1945) was a British Liberal political leader who served as Britain’s prime minister 1916–22. He dominated the British political scene in the latter part of World War I. Though he was one of Britain’s most successful wartime leaders, he contributed significantly to the decline of the Liberal party.
Born in Manchester of Welsh parentage, Lloyd George was a Welsh Liberal. He entered Parliament in 1890. As Chancellor of the Exchequer 1908–15, he introduced old-age pensions (1908) and national insurance (1911.) Supported by the Conservatives, he headed a cabinet uprising to dislodge Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and led a coalition government for the remainder of World War I.
Lloyd George won by a landslide in the 1918 elections and was a leading figure at the peace conference in Versailles. In 1921, he negotiated with Sinn Féin to create the Irish Free State. This was very unpopular with the Conservatives and led to his downfall and the downfall of the Liberals as a party at the 1922 election.
Lloyd George laid the foundations of what later turned into the welfare state, and put a progressive income tax system at the center of government finance. He wrote his War Memoirs (1933–36) and The Truth about the Peace Treaties (1938.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by David Lloyd George
The finest eloquence is that which gets things done; the worst is that which delays them.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Eloquence, Conversation
Liberty is not merely a privilege to be conferred; it is a habit to be acquired.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Freedom
A fully equipped duke costs as much to keep up as two Dreadnoughts, and dukes are just as great a terror—and they last longer.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Aristocracy
Sweating, slums, the sense of semi-slavery in labor, must go. We must cultivate a sense of manhood by treating men as men.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Man
Death is the most convenient time to tax rich people.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Death
Once blood is shed in a national quarrel reason and right are swept aside by the rage of angry men.
—David Lloyd George
Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Diplomacy
The most dangerous thing in the world is to try to leap a chasm in two jumps.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Danger
What do you want to be a sailor for? There are greater storms in politics than you will ever find at sea. Piracy, broadsides, blood on the decks. You will find them all in politics.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Politicians, Politics
Four specters haunt the Poor—Old Age, Accident, Sickness and Unemployment. We are going to exorcise them. We are going to drive hunger from the hearth. We mean to banish the workhouse from the horizon of every workman in the land.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: The Poor, Poverty
What is our task? To make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Heroism, Heroes, Heroes/Heroism
With me a change of trouble is as good as a vacation.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Change
There is nothing so fatal to character as half-finished tasks.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Procrastination, Character
The Landlord is a gentleman who does not earn his wealth. He has a host of agents and clerks that receive for him. He does not even take the trouble to spend his wealth. He has a host of people around him to do the actual spending. He never sees it until he comes to enjoy it. His sole function, his chief pride, is the stately consumption of wealth produced by others.
—David Lloyd George
Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Goals, Risk, Commitment, Ambition, Graduation, Risk-taking, Success
Liberty has restraints but no frontiers.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Freedom
The stern hand of fate has scourged us to an elevation where we can see the great everlasting things which matter for a nation—the great peaks we had forgotten, of Honor, Duty, Patriotism, and clad in glittering white, the great pinnacle of Sacrifice pointing like a rugged finger to Heaven.
—David Lloyd George
Topics: Sacrifice
No democracy has ever long survived the failure of its adherents to be ready to die for it. My own conviction is this, the people must either go on or go under.
—David Lloyd George
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