The state is or can be master of money, but in a free society it is master of very little else. - William Beveridge

Organisation of social insurance should be treated as one part only of a comprehensive policy of social progress. Social insurance fully developed may provide income security; it is an attack upon Want. But Want is one only of five giants on the road of reconstruction and in some ways the easiest to attack. The others are Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness.

The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man.

The door of learning should not shut for anyone at 18, or at any time. Ignorance to its present extent is not only unnecessary, but dangerous. Democracies cannot be well-governed except on the basis of understanding.