18th-century Politician Quotes

Love thy country, wish it well,
Not with too intense a care,
'Tis enough, that when it fell,
Thou its ruin didst not share.

George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe

GENTLEMEN: Before the Senate adjourns, I desire to return my thanks for the very kind and complimentary resolution unanimously passed on Saturday last, and to assure the Senate that so long as I shall have the honor of continuing Presiding Officer, my highest ambition will be to retain the personal regard and confidence of my colleagues. In pursuance of the resolution adopted on Saturday last, I now declare the Senate adjourned sine die

William R. King

It is worse than a crime, it is a blunder.

On the execution of the Duc d'Enghien

Antoine Boulay de la Meurthe

O worship the King, all-glorious above;
O gratefully sing his power and his love:
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendour, and girded with praise.

It is only the fear of God, can deliver us from the fear of man.

John Witherspoon

Several inhabitants have been killed and wounded, and nearly sixty within a short time carried into confinement and robbed of their property, and unless some protection is afforded, those who are of ability and inclination will retire into the country, and others will make their peace. The ardor of the people, (which is to be lamented,) has abated in consequence of their distresses, so that very little opposition is to be expected from them.

Abraham Davenport

A citizen, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.

There are two great antagonistic principles at the root of all government—stability and experiment.

John Wilson Croker

As it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation, amicably if they can, violently if they must.

The Eating and Drinking Reformation is at the foundation of all the good that would be produced in society.

Joseph Brotherton

I cannot be a good Catholic; I cannot go to heaven; and if a man is to go to the devil, he may as well go thither from the House of Lords as from any other place on earth.

Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk

After us the deluge.

Madame de Pompadour

His Majesty has thought proper to order a new Commission of the Treasury to be made out, in which I do not see your name.

Frederick North

Conquering kings their titles take
From the foes they captive make.

It is said to be very hard on his majesty's ministers to raise objections to this proposition. For my own part, I think it is more hard on his majesty's opposition (a laugh) to compel them to take this course.

John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton

Seattle is a comparatively new-looking city that covers an old frontier like frosting on a cake.

Winthrop Sargent

Woe to the man who in the first moments of a love-affair does not believe that it will last forever! Woe to him who even in the arms of some mistress who has just yielded to him maintains an awareness of trouble to come and foresees that he may later tear himself away!

Benjamin Constant

I bow to no man for I am considered a prince among my own people. But I will gladly shake your hand.

On being presented to King George III

Eloquence, transcendent eloquence, formed the foundation and the key-stone of Pitt's Ministerial greatness. Every other quality in him was accessory.

Of William Pitt the Younger

Nathaniel Wraxall

Merit, indeed!…We are come to a pretty pass if they talk of merit for a bishopric.

John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland

Abbreviations are the wheels of language, the wings of Mercury. And though we might be dragged along without them, it would be with much difficulty, very heavily and tediously.

John Horne Tooke

Then there is my noble and biographical friend who has added a new terror to death.

Of Lord Campbell

Charles Wetherell

No man should live where he can hear his neighbor's dog bark.

Nathaniel Macon

Before the Battle of Trafalgar:

Now, gentlemen, let us do something today which the world may talk of hereafter.

Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood

Illness may precipitate a spiritual crisis. Since illness is man's reaction to disease, it is a time when men are brought face to face with the ultimate concerns of life.

Samuel L. Southard