Famous quotes containing the words john, house and/or commons:
“Quintilian [educational writer in Rome about A.D. 100] hoped that teachers would be sensitive to individual differences of temperament and ability. . . . Beating, he thought, was usually unnecessary. A teacher who had made the effort to understand his pupils individual needs and character could probably dispense with it: I will content myself with saying that children are helpless and easily victimized, and that therefore no one should be given unlimited power over them.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.”
—Tony Benn (b. 1925)
“I am really sorry to see my countrymen trouble themselves about politics. If men were wise, the most arbitrary princes could not hurt them. If they are not wise, the freest government is compelled to be a tyranny. Princes appear to me to be fools. Houses of Commons & Houses of Lords appear to me to be fools; they seem to me to be something else besides human life.”
—William Blake (17571827)