William Beveridge
William Beveridge
William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge KCBwas a British economist, noted progressive and social reformer. He is best known for his 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Serviceswhich served as the basis for the post-World War II welfare state put in place by the Labour government elected in 1945. He was considered an authority on unemployment insurance from early in his career, served under Winston Churchill on the Board of Trade as Director of the newly created labour exchanges and...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth5 March 1879
Unemployment is like a headache or a high temperature - unpleasant and exhausting but not carrying in itself any explanation of its cause.
Scratch a pessimist and you find often a defender of privilege.
Not only the worst of my sins, but the best of my duties speak me a child of Adam
There is a very important distinction between a critical attitude of mind (or critical faculty) and a sceptical attitude.
The trouble in modern democracy is that men do not approach to leadership until they have lost the de e to lead anyone.
A cockle-fish may as soon crowd the ocean into its narrow shell, as vain man ever comprehend the decrees of God!
Let us proportion our alms to our ability, lest we provoke God to proportion His blessings to our alms.
I have spent most of my life most happily making plans for others to carry out.
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.