William Rees-Mogg

government banker auditor lie gold truth

"Governments lie; bankers lie; even auditors sometimes lie: gold tells the truth."

—William Rees-Mogg (1928-2012)

treasury economy wrong

"The Treasury model of the economy has been pretty well wrong on everything for many years."

—William Rees-Mogg (1928-2012)

people ignore rules regulations deter

"If people ignore the rules already, new regulations are not likely to deter them."

—William Rees-Mogg (1928-2012)

freedom distrust government benefit incumbent adminidtration

"Freedom rests on a rational distrust of government; government will always use its power to benefit the incumbent administration."

—William Rees-Mogg (1928-2012)

government control information propaganda secrecy

"Governments want to control information. To do this, they have elaborate systems for promoting themselves via propaganda departments and for ensuring confidentiality with official-secrets laws. There are good reasons for these: people need information, and national security deserves secrecy."

—William Rees-Mogg (1928-2012)

judge people actions words

"You've got to judge people, ultimately, by their actions rather than their words."

—William Rees-Mogg (1928-2012)

women burka defend minority tyranny majority

"Electorally, the number of women who want to wear a burka is insignificant, yet it is important to defend such a minority against the tyranny of the majority."

—William Rees-Mogg (1928-2012)

world end last group predict right wrong public policy

"Perhaps one day the world will end, giving the last group to predict it the satisfaction of being right - but as many have been wrong so far, it does not seem wise to make public policy on the back of these fears."

—William Rees-Mogg (1928-2012)

press freedom scandal-mongering reveal wrongdoing

"Press freedom has great virtues. It is not about irresponsible scandal-mongering, although that may be part of the picture. It is a means of revealing wrongdoing."

—William Rees-Mogg (1928-2012)

EU backward-looking economic model 20th century

"The E.U. is a backward-looking project based on an economic model of the 20th century."

—William Rees-Mogg (1928-2012)