Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC, FRS (1894–1986) was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963. Nicknamed “Supermac” and known for his pragmatism, wit and unflappability, Macmillan achieved note before the Second World War as a Tory radical and critic of appeasement. As a child, young teenager and later young man, he was an admirer of the policies and leadership of a succession of Liberal Prime Ministers, starting with Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who came to power near the end of 1905 when Macmillan was only 11 years old, and then H. H. Asquith, whom he later described as having “intellectual sincerity and moral nobility”, and particularly of Asquith’s successor, David Lloyd George, whom he regarded as a “man of action”, likely to accomplish his goals.
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I have never found in a long experience of politics that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.
—Harold Macmillan
We do not intend to part from the Americans and we do not intend to be satellites. I am sure they do not want us to be so. The stronger we are, the better partners we shall be; and I feel certain that as the months pass we shall draw continually closer together with mutual confidence and respect.
—Harold Macmillan
Power? It’s like a Dead Sea fruit. When you achieve it, there is nothing there.
—Harold Macmillan
Topics: Power
In long experience I find that a man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.
—Harold Macmillan
Topics: Experience
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