17th-century Politician Quotes

Anne of Great Britain

James II of England

Oliver Cromwell

William III

Charles II of England

Joseph Addison

Samuel Pepys

The only way therefore to try a Piece of Wit, is to translate it into a different Language: If it bears the Test you may pronounceit true; but if it vanishes in the Experiment you may conclude it to have been a Punn.

Whoever of ye Whigs thinks I am to be Hecktor'd or frighted into a Complyance tho I am a woman, are mightely mistaken in me. I thank God I have a Soul above that, & am too much conserned for my reputation to do any thing to forfeit it.

Anne of Great Britain

All Politeness is owing to Liberty. We polish one another, and rub off our Corners and rough Sides by a sort of amicable Collision. To restrain this, is inevitably to bring a Rust upon Mens Understandings.

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

All these threatening storms, which, like impregnate Clouds, hover o'er our heads, will (when they once are grasp'd but by the eye of reason) melt into fruitful showers of blessings on the people.

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

I will not by myself, or any other, directly or indirectly trouble, molest or discountenance any person professing to believe in Jesus Christ for or in respect of religion. I will make no difference of persons in conferring offices, favors or rewards for or in respect of religion, but merely as they shall be found faithful and well deserving and endued with moral virtue and abilities. My aim shall be public unity and that if any person or official shall molest any person professing to believe in Jesus Christ on account of his religion I will protect the person molested and punish the offender.

An oath he wrote in 1636 for future Maryland governors

Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore

Good jests ought to bite like lambs, not dogs: they should cut, not wound.

Charles II of England

It is a general rule of Judgment, that a mischief should rather be admitted than an inconvenience.

William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper

I would have my son mind and understand business, read little history, study the mathematics and cosmography; these are good, with subordination to the things of God.... These fit for public services for which man is born.

Oliver Cromwell

The remembrance of death is very powerful to restrain us from sinning. For he should well consider the day will come (and he knoweth not how soon)..... no more Suns will rise and set upon him;.. no more seeing, no more hearing. no more speaking, no more touching, no more tasting, no more fancying, no more understanding, no more remembering, no more desiring, no more loving, no more delights of any sort to be enjoyed by him... let any man duly and daily ponder these things, and how can it be that he should dare.....

Nicholas Ferrar

... above all, I must recommend to you the Care of the Navy, the Strength and Glory of this Nation, that you will put it into such a Condition, as may make us considered and respected Abroad. I cannot express My Concern upon this Occasion more suitable to My own Thoughts of it, than by assuring you I have a true English Heart, as jealous of the Honour of the Nation as you can be. And I please Myself with the Hopes, that, by GOD'S Blessing and your Assistance, I may carry the Reputation of it yet higher in the World, than ever it has been in the Time of any of My Ancestors.

James II of England

As to my body and burial, I do leave it to the disposition and discretion of my executor, hereafter named, but with this special charge, that it be done as privately as may be, without any state, acknowledging myself to be unworthy of the least outward regard in this world, and unworthy of any remembrance, that hath been so great a sinner, and I do further charge and desire that no monument be made for me, but at the utmost a plain stone with this inscription only — Vermis sum. [I am a worm.]

William Lenthall

How could such sweet and wholesome hours be reckoned, but in herbs and flowers?

What matters this or that reason? What we want is more of the trade which the Dutch now have.

No State can enjoy tranquility, nor repel hostile attacks, nor defend its laws, its religion and its liberty, unless it be armed.

Raimondo Montecuccoli

For a profest architect is proud, opiniative and troublesome, seldom at hand, and a head workman pretending to the designing part, is full of paltry vulgar contrivances; therefore be your owne architect, or sitt still.

And it is a wonder what will be the fashion after the plagueisdoneastoperiwigs, fornobody will daretobuy any haire for fear of the infectionthat it had been cut off the heads of people dead of the plague.

The flowers anew returning seasons bring!
But beauty faded has no second spring.

Ambrose Philips

Consider a little how you treat the Court; the objection hath been solemnly taken in this Court, argued and adjudged by this Court, and now you come to arraign that judgment that was then given.

The army causes taxes, the taxes cause discontents, & the discontents are alleged to make an army necessary. Thus you go in a circle.

William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath

The lower sort of men must be indulged the consolation of finding fault with those above them; without that, they would be so melancholy that it would be dangerous, considering their numbers.

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax

Love still has something of the sea
From whence his mother rose.

And when I feigned an angry look,
Alas! I loved you best.

John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby

Cunning pays no regard to virtue, and is but the low mimic of reason.

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

I love to consider an Infidel, whether distinguished by the title of deist, atheist, or free-thinker, by three different lights, in his solitude, his afflictions, and his last moments.... [In these situations such people show themselves] in solitude, incapable or rapture or elevation,... in distress, [with] a halter or a pistol the only refuge [they] can fly to,... [and liable to conversion] at the approach of death.

Nothing is of greater importance than the right early instruction of youth.

Peter Stuyvesant