Quotes from Tony Benn

Making mistakes is part of life. The only things I would feel ashamed of would be if I had said things I hadn't believed in order to get on. Some politicians do do that.

If you file your waste-paper basket for fifty years, you have a public library.

At the end of my life, I was told to vote for it for pensioners; I' m not in favour of means tests for pensioners or anybody.

It's the same each time with progress. First they ignore you, then they say you're mad, then dangerous, then there's a pause and then you can't find anyone who disagrees with you.

The people who have sacrificed their view in order to get to the top have very often left no footprints in the sands of time.

I now want more time to devote to politics and more freedom to do so.

If ever I left the House of Commons it would be because I wanted to spend more time on politics.

The uncut diaries are 16 million words. It's very tiring to do your diary every night before you go to bed.

I've had a very full life, and I've enjoyed it very much. I've learned a great deal and feel indebted to all the people who have worked so hard.

I believe the more difficult the circumstances, the more people will be inclined to trust those in charge at the moment.

I've been a member of the Labour Party sixty five years, and I remain in it, but I think it's all about campaigning for justice and peace, and if you do that, you get a lot of support.

It's lovely to be old. I've got age, experience and zero personal ambition. No body could corrupt me by anything: possibly a job in the government, a peerage, a quango, I don't want any of it.

The one thing that unites Sunni, Shiites and Kurds is they want the Americans out.

All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

There is no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons.

I've made every mistake - but mistakes are how you learn.

Undoubtedly the war with Iraq was a tragedy. I think it was also a crime.

The peace movement didn't stop the Iraq but I think that Blair would not be able to go along and support an Iranian war.

There is no moral difference between a Stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. They both kill innocent people for political reasons.

I can't go to bed if I haven't done my diary. I always record them just as I've always recorded all my interviews and speeches.

The Marxist analysis has got nothing to do with what happened in Stalin's Russia: it's like blaming Jesus Christ for the Inquisition in Spain.

When you think of the number of men in the world who hate each other, why, when two men love each other, does the church split?

Someone comes every morning at nine o'clock to see if I am still alive. I do get lonely, yes, but I have the children who come and see me. I see all my children every week, and there are the grandchildren, too.

The exhaustion of old age is something people who are younger don't fully appreciate.