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David Lange (1942 – 2005)


Served as Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989.
David Lange
He viewed humour as a relaxing introduction to many situations. "It is, of course, completely inappropriate in some... but in the end, you know, if you were serious in this job you'd go mad."
Lange quotes
I wouldn't call the Prime Minister gutless. That's all that's left of him.
Lange
Of his political colleagues: "If you took the glasses off some of them they'd be rendered dumb."




Lange David quotes
While at a Cabinet retreat in Fiji the menu for the day was explained, "You can get Chinese food all day, however if you want anything else you'll have to make a specific order." Lange quipped, "So it's Wok around the clock?"
Lange David
Of Michael Bassett: "A man who could eat a banana sideways".
David Lange quotes
...an economic ignoramus unfit to oversee a fifty-cent raffle.
David Lange
On Roger Douglas: "He's like rust, he never sleeps."
Lange David quotes
After a very long year we've got a very short knight.
Lange
Reacting to news that he had retained his Mangere seat in the 1990 election with a provisional majority of 3366: "Well, my majority might be of some interest to students of the Book of Revelation. It's thirty-three sixty-six."
Lange David
Bassett was a member of parliament and a cousin on my father's side of the family. My father delivered him and it became plain in later days that he must have dropped him.
David Lange
Asked about the Security Intelligence Service by an opposition MP, he responded: "I can understand the member's desire to have a passing connection with intelligence which seems to have by-passed him all his life. He has kept his secret for years."




David Lange quotes
To US Ambassador H. Monroe Browne, who owned a racehorse called Lacka Reason: "You are the only ambassador in the world to race a horse named after your country's foreign policy."
David Lange
"Will the United States pull the rug on New Zealand? The answer is no. They might polish the lino a bit harder and hope that I execute a rather unseemly glide across it."
Lange quotes
Greens are not expected to be anything but nice.
Lange David
Lange was hosting a reception at Vogel House for the Chinese politician Hu Yao Bang when the lights went out. Lange immediately asked all the guests to raise their hands because "many hands make light work." The audience complied, and to their amazement the lights immediately came back on. Lange was invited to visit China.
Lange David quotes
An itinerant masseur, massaging the politically erogenous zones.
David Lange
...a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism.
David Lange quotes
Our military forces are an arm of government, just like the Department of Social Welfare, although probably less able to inflict widespread harm.
David Lange
To a journalist who asked: "Prime Minister, can we go back to Ruatoria for a moment?": "Certainly, goodbye."
Lange David
He had more on his mind than his mind could hold.


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