18th-century Politician Quotes

Napoleon I of France

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Franklin

Simón Bolívar

Catherine the Great

Maximilien Robespierre

Let us give to our republic a fourth power with authority over the youth, the hearts of men, public spirit, habits, and republican morality. Let us establish this Areopagus to watch over the education of the children, to supervise national education, to purify whatever may be corrupt in the republic, to denounce ingratitude, coldness in the country's service, egotism, sloth, idleness, and to pass judgment upon the first signs of corruption and pernicious example.

Simón Bolívar

In my opinion physicians kill as many people as we generals.

Napoleon I of France

The rule of my life is to make business a pleasure and pleasure my business.

Some audacity, more audacity, always audacity and the Fatherland will be saved!

I believe from what I have lately seen that we should be substantially safe were our Citizens Armed, but we have not as many Arms as we have Enemies in the State.

Thomas Jefferson

It is with regret that I pronounce the fatal truth: Louis must die that the country may live.

Maximilien Robespierre

In general I esteem it a good maxim, that the best way to preserve the confidence of the people durably is to promote their true interest

George Washington

Cut the Wings of your Hens and Hopes, lest they lead you a weary Dance after them.

Benjamin Franklin

As to war, I am and always was a great enemy, at the same time a warrior the greater part of my life, and were I young again, should still be a warrior while ever this country should be invaded and I lived — a Defensive war I think a righteous war to Defend my life & property & that of my family, in my own opinion, is right & justifiable in the sight of God.
An offensive war, I believe to be wrong and would therefore have nothing to do with it, having no right to meddle with another man's property, his ox or his ass, his man servant or his maid servant or anything that is his. Neither does he have a right to meddle with anything that is mine, if he does I have a right to defend it by force.

The political Liberty of a Citizen is the Peace of Mind arising from the Consciousness, that every Individual enjoys his peculiar Safety; and in order that the People might attain this Liberty, the Laws ought to be so framed, that no one Citizen should stand in Fear of another; but that all of them should stand in Fear of the same Laws....

Catherine the Great

During the days of his last illness:

If Mr. Selwyn calls again, show him up: if I am alive I shall be delighted to see him; and if I am dead he would like to see me.

Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland

I am of opinion that it is highly requisite forthwith to pass a law, prohibiting upon great penalties all trade with our enemies, and more especially the supplying of them with arms, ammunition or provisions of any kind whatsoever.

William Shirley

If we expect to inherit the blessings of our Fathers, we should return a little more to their primitive Simplicity of Manners.

Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination.

My stern chase after time is, to borrow a simile from Tom Paine, like the race of a man with a wooden leg after a horse.

John Quincy Adams

Inconvenience arising from the operation of an Act of Parliament can be no ground of argument in a Court of law.

Richard Arden, 1st Baron Alvanley

The people as a body cannot deliberate. Nevertheless, they will feel an irresistible impulse to act, and their resolutions will be dictated to them by their demagogues... and the violent men, who are the most forward to gratify those passions, will be their favorites. What is called the government of the people is in fact too often the arbitrary power of such men. Here, then, we have the faithful portrait of democracy.

Friends, more often than you think, upon the spot
Where gleams the spangle, you will find the blot.

Antoine-Vincent Arnault

It is only the dead who do not return.

Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac

If the famous Clementi, whom I found here (Italy) in the year 1766, and bought of his father for seven years, is not still a Catholic, the fault is not with me.—I assured the Pope I would not endeavour to convert him. Meeting him one Sunday when we were in the country, I asked him—" Why he did not go to mass" (there was a Catholic chapel about ten miles distant) : he said—" There was no horse."—" No horse! Why don't you take the grey horse?"—"O quello, Signore, scappa via.(O that one, Gentleman, run off.)"—" Take then the black poney."—" E quello casca subito.(And that one falls quickly.)" So what with the horse that fell, and the horse that ran away, I fear Signior Clementi attended mass as seldom as you do a sermon.

The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the holy scriptures.. are found upon comparison to be really part of the original law of nature. Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these.

William Blackstone

A discovery in mathematics, or a successful induction of facts, when once completed, cannot be too soon given to the world. But... an hypothesis is a work of fancy, useless in science, and fit only for the amusement of a vacant hour.

Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux

There is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people.

Oppression makes wise men mad; but the distemper is still the madness of the wise, which is better than the sobriety of fools.

True consistency, that of the prudent and the wise, is to act in conformity with circumstances, and not to act always the same way under a change of circumstances.

John C. Calhoun