Harold Macmillan, prime minister from 1957 to 1963, is widely quoted as saying that politics is driven by “Events, dear boy, events.” Accounts differ on when he said it and to whom.
The attribution has never been firmly established. The earliest printed citation that Quote Investigator located, with the wording “Events, my dear boy, events,” dates from 1984. That is more than twenty years after Macmillan left office.