Andrew Maclaren

Andrew MacLaren (28 May 1883 – 1975) Member of UK Parliament during the 20th Century. His passions were economic justice and art; he persistently campaigned for Land Value Taxation, and he was a painter.

Quotes

 * My own experience was too bitter to ever forget it. I had a mother who tried to rear a family, but met with disaster. There is nothing more terrible than when poverty strikes a house and those who are in it know there is a better life than the one they are living. I shall never forget when the demand for rates was knocking at our door. We could have managed to pay the high rental, but when the rates came on top of it, it plunged our household into absolute misery.
 * Hansard, col 1877;23:6:1942


 * The home is the place where the woman has to bring forth her children and the place in which the little children touch the knee and ask the first question and receive the first answer. It is the home, as I said before, that marks the beginning of the spiritual development of the race.
 * Hansard, col.301; 15:3:1944


 * Whether it be politics, philosophy, religion or anything else, the once cardinal characteristic of truth is simplicity. The greatest truths that that man ever heard where spoken in the language of simplicity in the streets of Jerusalem. Simplicity and truth stand together, and whenever you get complexity, beware, because there is a falsity somewhere.
 * Hansard, 24th Feb 1937


 * Art is not the plaything of the wealthy, but is the spirit of beauty which permeates the whole of Nature, and gives forth her message to all who can really appreciate it, make it their own, and attach their various artistic meanings to it.
 * Scottish Co-operator, July 1913


 * It does not matter where you look or what examples you select, you will see that every form of enterprise, every step in material progress, is only undertaken after the land monopolist has skimmed the cream off for himself.
 * Hansard, col 563;19:4:29


 * Parliamentary time, can be wasted in kid-glove politics and nothing effective be done. I came to this House desiring to do something definitely along the lines of changing the law in some directions and not with the mere idea of becoming a gentleman in a parliamentary sense.
 * Hansard, col 336;3:7:23


 * A people that have become insensate of all that is really beautiful, are likewise indifferent to the appeals of the idealist.
 * Scottish Co-operator in July 1913


 * Art has come to be regarded as a form of amusement which can only be indulged in by men of great wealth....Thus art which is the soul of every democracy finds no place in the workaday existence
 * Scottish Co-operator in July 1913


 * Art is not the plaything of the wealthy, but is the spirit of beauty which permeates the whole of Nature, and gives forth her message to all who can really appreciate it, make it their own, and attach their various artistic meanings to it.
 * Scottish Co-operator in July 1913


 * The greatness of an artist depends on selecting and interpreting whatever phase in Nature may appeal to his sense of beauty.
 * Scottish Co-operator in July 1913