Quotes by Lester B. Pearson

About Lester B. Pearson:

Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson was a Canadian scholar, statesman, soldier and diplomat, who won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis. He was the 14th Prime Minister of Canada from 22 April 1963 to 20 April 1968, as the head of two back-to-back Liberal minority governments following elections in 1963 and 1965.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Every state has not only the right but the duty to make adequate provision for its own defense in the way it thinks best, providing it does not do so at the expense of any other state.

Lester B. Pearson

As to the first, I do not know that I have done very much myself to promote fraternity between nations but I do know that there can be no more important purpose for any man's activity or interests.

Lester B. Pearson

I have worked in a very close and cordial way with Norwegian representatives at many international meetings, and the pleasure I felt at those associations was equaled only by the profit I always secured from them.

Lester B. Pearson

No state, furthermore, unless it has aggressive military designs such as those which consumed Nazi leaders in the thirties, is likely to divert to defense any more of its resources and wealth and energy than seems necessary.

Lester B. Pearson

We know now that in modern warfare, fought on any considerable scale, there can be no possible economic gain for any side. Win or lose, there is nothing but waste and destruction.

Lester B. Pearson

We must keep on trying to solve problems, one by one, stage by stage, if not on the basis of confidence and cooperation, at least on that of mutual toleration and self-interest.

Lester B. Pearson

We are all descendants of Adam, and we are all products of racial miscegenation.

Lester B. Pearson

When you're special to a cat, you're special indeed, she brings to you the gift of her preference of you, the sight of you, the sound of your voice, the touch of your hand.

Lester B. Pearson

Misunderstanding arising from ignorance breeds fear, and fear remains the greatest enemy of peace.

Lester B. Pearson

It would be especially tragic if the people who most cherish ideals of peace, who are most anxious for political cooperation on a wider than national scale, made the mistake of underestimating the pace of economic change in our modern world.

Lester B. Pearson

Of all our dreams today there is none more important - or so hard to realise - than that of peace in the world. May we never lose our faith in it or our resolve to do everything that can be done to convert it one day into reality.

Lester B. Pearson

A great gulf, however, has been opened between man's material advance and his social and moral progress, a gulf in which he may one day be lost if it is not closed or narrowed.

Lester B. Pearson

Until the last great war, a general expectation of material improvement was an idea peculiar to Western man. Now war and its aftermath have made economic and social progress a political imperative in every quarter of the globe.

Lester B. Pearson

True there has been more talk of peace since 1945 than, I should think, at any other time in history. At least we hear more and read more about it because man's words, for good or ill, can now so easily reach the millions.

Lester B. Pearson

The life of states cannot, any more than the life of individuals, be conditioned by the force and the will of a unit, however powerful, but by the consensus of a group, which must one day include all states.

Lester B. Pearson

And I have lived since - as you have - in a period of cold war, during which we have ensured by our achievements in the science and technology of destruction that a third act in this tragedy of war will result in the peace of extinction.

Lester B. Pearson

As for the promotion of peace congresses we have had our meetings and assemblies, but the promotion through them of the determined and effective will to peace displaying itself in action and policy remains to be achieved.

Lester B. Pearson

But while we all pray for peace, we do not always, as free citizens, support the policies that make for peace or reject those which do not. We want our own kind of peace, brought about in our own way.

Lester B. Pearson

I am grateful for the opportunities I have been given to participate in that work as a representative of my country, Canada, whose people have, I think, shown their devotion to peace.

Lester B. Pearson

I cannot think of anything more difficult than to say something which would be worthy of this impressive and, for me, memorable occasion, and of the ideals and purposes which inspired the Nobel Peace Award.

Lester B. Pearson

Author Bio

  • NameLester B. Pearson
  • Description14th Prime Minister of Canada
  • AliasesLester Bowles Pearson; Mike Pearson; Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson; Lester B Pearson; Pearson
  • BornApril 23, 1897
  • DiedDecember 27, 1972
  • CountryCanada
  • ProfessionPolitician; Ice Hockey Player; Diplomat; Historian; Soldier
  • AwardsNobel Peace Prize; Officer Of The Order Of The British Empire; Order Of Merit; Companion Of The Order Of Canada