Vincent Massey

Vincent Massey
We can best serve the cause of Canadian unity and understanding by living first in and through and then beyond our own immediate traditions.

Charles Vincent Massey PC CH CC CD FRSC(hon) (February 20, 1887 – December 30, 1967) was a Canadian lawyer and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada, the 18th since Canadian Confederation. Massey was the first Canadian-born individual to serve as Canada's governor general.

Quotes

Speaking Of Canada - (1959)

In fact, in the far North one sees the northern lights facing south!

We must pass through the barriers of language and race, of geography and religion, of custom and tradition and we must build on a common foundation.

• It is the University's function to turn out well-balanced persons with an understanding of themselves and of their place in life.
  • Address on the occasion of the Centenary of Trinity College, Toronto, Ontario, April 17, 1952

• We are not born of the passions of war or of the fervours of revolution. And we grew quietly into the realization that, set as we are in a great wide land, with all our differences, there are certain traditions and ideals which we had in common, and which could best be preserved in a distinct society of our own.
  • Address to the Canadian Club of Vancouver, October 14, 1952

• The age which we live in is not suited to idle complacency or to pleasant dreams of past greatness.
  • Address at the Convocation of the University of Manitoba, October 28, 1952

• Rational comprehension of the universe is not enough. We must call to our aid not merely reason, but the vision and the spiritual insight of the ages. These things we must seek.
  • Address at the Convocation of the University of Manitoba, October 28, 1952

• I have had what might be called a post graduate course in the most important subject for all Canadians - Canada itself.
  • Address to the Canadian Club of Ottawa, December 18, 1952

• We can best serve the cause of Canadian unity and understanding by living first in and through and then beyond our own immediate traditions.
  • Address to the Canadian Club of Ottawa, December 18, 1952

• In opening and conquering a country great and wild and rich - a country indeed not yet fully known or conquered - we have still to learn more about ourselves and each other.
  • Address to the Canadian Club of Ottawa, December 18, 1952

• This visit "north of 60" was to complete what might be called at least a preliminary survey. I arrived here and realized that my survey had hardly begun.
  • Address to the Board of Trade, Yellowknife, North West Territories, February 25, 1953

• It is worthy of notice that many of this generation, fed on text-books, on anthologies and on abstracts, cannot read.
  • Address at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, March 7, 1953

• The great menace of civilization in the present is that we offer an education with too little regard for the roots.
  • Address at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, March 7, 1953

• The neglect of the humanities in present-day education is doubtless not a cause but a symptom of an age.
  • Address at the Centenary Dinner of University College, Toronto, October 16, 1953

• Truth must the guide of those who hold the power; but humility is their sign, the promise that their privileges are in safe hands.
  • Address at the Convocation of the University of British Columbia, May 18, 1954

• We must pass through the barriers of language and race, of geography and religion, of custom and tradition and we must build on a common foundation.
  • Address at a Citizenship Ceremony, Winnipeg Manitoba, May 20, 1955

• Canada is not a melting-pot. Canada is an association of peoples who have, and cherish, great differences but who work together because they can respect themselves and each other.
  • Address to the Rotary Club, St. John's, Newfoundland, August 22, 1955

• Technology has been defined, perhaps a little ungenerously, as "a long Greek name for a bag of tools".
  • Address at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, December 6, 1955

• In fact, in the far North one sees the northern lights facing south!
  • Address to the Annual Dinner of the Canadian Press, Toronto, April 18, 1956

• How great a quality is horse sense! Someone has defined it as that something which keeps horses from betting on men!
  • Address to the Annual Dinner of the Canadian Press, Toronto, April 18, 1956

• Old wives' tales are not enough in a day when old wives and old men, too, are constantly moving away from their labours.
  • Address to the Women's Canadian Club, Montreal, Quebec, March 26, 1958

• History is the necessary food of good and noble sentiments. It ought to give us at once humility and confidence in the face of greatness.
  • Address to the Women's Canadian Club, Montreal, Quebec, March 26, 1958

• It would be foolish and wrong to ignore the fact that all our universities today tread a very dangerous path. Increasingly, they are accepting government money because they are doing things that government wants done. How great a peril is this in a democracy?
  • Address at the Congress of the Association of the Universities of the British Commonwealth, Montreal, September 1, 1958

Quotes about Massey

• On behalf of my countrymen, I join you in mourning the death of your distinguished predecessor, the former Governor-General. Canada has lost one of its most honored citizens and the United States, a valued friend. Vincent Massey was a wise and eloquent statesman, and we in the United States were especially honored by his service as the first Minister of Canada.
  • Lyndon B. Johnson; Message to the Governor-General of Canada on the Death of Vincent Massey Online, The American Presidency Project; 30 December 1967

• It was Prime Minister Laurier who said of Canada's differing components: "I want the marble to remain the marble; I want the granite to remain the granite; I want the oak to remain the oak." This has been the Canadian way. As a result, Canadians have helped to teach the world, as Governor-General Massey once said, that the "toleration of differences is the measure of civilization." Today, more than ever before, we need to apply that understanding to the whole range of world affairs. And to begin with, we must apply it to our dealings with one another.
  • Richard Nixon; Address to a Joint Meeting of the Canadian Parliament Online, The American Presidency Project; 14 April 1972