Jean Chretien Quotes and Sayings - Page 1

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“A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Funny #Kind #Proof
“I don't know what is marijuana. Perhaps I will try it when it will no longer be criminal. I will have my money for my fine and a joint in the other hand”
-- Jean Chretien

#Marijuana #Hands #Trying
“Pierre Trudeau dreamed of a society that afforded all of its citizens an equal opportunity to succeed in life -- whatever their background or beliefs, whether rich or poor,”
-- Jean Chretien

#Opportunity #Citizens #Succeed
“To be frank, politics is about wanting power, getting it, exercising it, and keeping it.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Exercise #Frank
“When you're a mayor and you have a problem you blame the provincial government. If you are provincial government and you have a problem you blame the federal government. We don't blame the Queen any more, so once in a while we might blame the Americans.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Queens #Government #Might
“To my mind losing is always better than never trying, because you can never tell what may happen.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Mind #Trying #May
“There's no such thing as a genius in politics, or at least I have never met one. There are only human beings, some better than others, who rise or fall on the challenges they meet.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Fall #Challenges #Genius
“I learned early that business is business and politics is politics. The proof is how few important businessmen have made good politicians. They may think that they are very smart about everything because they made millions of dollars by digging a hole in the ground and finding oil, but the talent and luck needed to become rich are not the same talent and luck needed to succeed on Parliament Hill.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Smart #Thinking #Oil
“At one point Trudeau mentioned to me that the National Gallery wanted to buy a masterpiece by the great Italian painter Lotto, and it needed a million dollars from the Treasury Board. "Is that Lotto-Quebec or Lotto-Canada?" I joked, but I got the message, and the National Gallery got the painting.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Italian #Dollars #Boards
“A leader has to know how the system functions - not just the system of government but the whole social and economic system, including business, the unions, and the universities.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Government #Leader #Unions
“It's one thing for a courier service transport letters and documents from one city to another at a cost that only big business can afford; but it's another thing to take a letter from an Indian boy studying at the University of Ottawa to his mother in Old Crow.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Mother #Boys #Cities
“Economics has been called the dismal science. Once you get to understand it, you may not find it so dismal, but you don't find it much of a science either.”
-- Jean Chretien

#May #Economics
“It is not the government's purpose to make a profit the way a company does, because a company doesn't have to give a damn about the unemployed poor or provide services that are non-commercial by definition.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Government #Giving #Doe
“The art of politics is learning to walk with your back to the wall, your elbows high, and a smile on your face. It's a survival game played under the glare of lights.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Art #Wall #Light
“I've never believed in seeking perfection at the risk of losing everything.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Perfection #Risk #Losing
“The problem was, I enjoyed Question Period too much and loved the challenge it provided. Far from being a dreaded burden, it had become an exciting part of my life; opposition members attacked me, I fought back, I won or lost or held them to draw, and the next day we did it all over again.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Challenges #Too Much #Next
“Politicians of all stripes are always in danger at looking at every problem from an abstract point of view or being briefed by officials, academics, or economists who know every science but the science of human nature.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Views #Stripes #Problem
“Vision is not political rhetoric.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Political #Vision #Rhetoric
“Our old - fashioned system is better than any new - fangled voting machine. Not only is it guaranteed to work, but there is something I find appealing in putting a mark on a piece of paper for the candidate of your choice, as opposed to pulling a lever as if you were gambling on a slot machine in Las Vegas.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Vegas #Gambling #Choices
“A successful politician must not only be able to read the mood of the public, he must have the skill to get the public on his side. The public is moved by mood more than logic, by instinct more than reason, and that is something that every politician must make use of or guard against”
-- Jean Chretien

#Successful #Skills #Use
“Most Canadians don't understand the House of Commons. They turn on their televisions, see us yelling at one another, and dismiss us as a bunch of fools.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Yelling #House #Television
“I was stricken by news and television pictures coming from the United States this morning. It is impossible to fully comprehend the evil that would have conjured up such a cowardly and depraved assault upon thousands of innocent people. There can be no cause or grievance that could ever justify such unspeakable violence. Indeed, such an attack is an assault not only on the targets but an offense against the freedom and rights of all civilized nations.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Morning #Rights #Evil
“It is impossible to fully comprehend the evil that would have conjured up such a cowardly and depraved assault upon thousands of innocent people.”
-- Jean Chretien

#People #Evil #September 11
“Why buy repeater carbines and nuclear armament - if this is kept at home a child can play with it”
-- Jean Chretien

#Children #Home #Play
“There will be no silence from Canada. Our friendship has no limit. Generation after generation we have traveled many difficult miles together side by side.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Silence #Together #Limits
“You have to look at history as an evolution of society.”
-- Jean Chretien

#History #Looks #Evolution
“But I accepted that because God gave me other qualities and Iâ€™m grateful.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Grateful #Quality #Accepted
“Obviously, I would have been happier if Canada had not been conquered in the past by the English, if this part of North America had remained French, but you can't rewrite history.”
-- Jean Chretien

#Past #America #Canada
“Ten years ago, in the aftermath of the referendum in Quebec, the very existence of Canada was on the line... I had a responsibility to ensure that Canada never again came close to the precipice,”
-- Jean Chretien

#Responsibility #Years #Aftermath
“Good intentions are not an excuse for maladministration of this magnitude,”
-- Jean Chretien

#Good Intentions #Excuse #Intention

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