23 Quotes by William Beveridge

If the way of heaven be narrow, it is not long; and if the gate be straight, it opens into endless life.

Any proposals for the future, while they should use to the full the experience gathered in the past, should not be restricted by consideration of sectional interests established in the obtaining of that experience. Now, when the war is abolishing landmarks of every kind, is the opportunity for using experience in a clear field. A revolutionary moment in the world's history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.

no one believes an hypothesis except its originator but everyone believes an experiment except the experimenter.

Scratch a pessimist and you will often find a defender of privilege.

The human mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with a similar energy.

Full employment does not mean literally no unemployment; that is to say, it does not mean that every man and woman in the country who is fit and free for work is employed productively every day of his or her working life ... Full employment means that unemployment is reduced to short intervals of standing by, with the certainty that very soon one will be wanted in one's old job again or will be wanted in a new job that is within one's powers.

Organisation of social insurance should be treated as one part only of a comprehensive policy of social progress. Social insurance fully developed may provide income security; it is an attack upon Want. But Want is one only of five giants on the road of reconstruction and in some ways the easiest to attack. The others are Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness.

There is no inherent mechanism in our present system which can with certainty prevent competitive sectional bargaining for wages from setting up a vicious spiral of rising prices under full employment.

Want is one only of five giants on the road of reconstruction; the others are Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, and Idleness.