Interview with the Birmingham Post (4 May 1968), quoted in Simon Heffer, Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell (1998), pp. 466-467
“

What I would take 'racialist' to mean is a person who believes in the inherent inferiority of one race of mankind to another, and who acts and speaks in that belief. So the answer to the question of whether I am a racialist is 'no'—unless, perhaps, it is to be a racialist in reverse. I regard many of the peoples in India as being superior in many respects—intellectually, for example, and in other respects—to Europeans. Perhaps that is over-correcting.

— Enoch Powell

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "What I would take 'racialist' to mean is a person who believes in the inherent inferiority of one race of mankind to another, and who acts and speaks in that belief. So the answer to the question of whether I am a racialist is 'no'—unless, perhaps, it is to be a racialist in reverse. I regard many of the peoples in India as being superior in many respects—intellectually, for example, and in other respects—to Europeans. Perhaps that is over-correcting." in the context of "Interview with the Birmingham Post (4 May 1968), quoted in Simon Heffer, Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell (1998), pp. 466-467" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Enoch Powell" (Quotes, 1960s) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Enoch Powell

About Enoch Powell

John Enoch Powell (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974), then Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MP (1974–1987), and was Minister of Health (1960–1963).