19th-century Politician Quotes

This war is really the greatest insanity in which white races have ever been engaged.

Alfred von Tirpitz

If judge and jury had to hang the prisoner themselves in cold blood, there would be fewer executions; if we each had to butcher our own meat, there would be a great increase in the number of vegetarians.

Ernest Howard Crosby

Definition of an independent Member of Parliament, viz. one that could not be depended upon.

Edward Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby

Eleven months' hard work and one month's acute disappointment.

On gardening

Sir John Heathcoat-Amory, 1st Baronet

I know I will be severely criticized by the interventionists in America when I say we should not enter a war unless we have a reasonable chance of winning.... We are no better prepared today than France was when the interventionists persuaded her to attack the Siegfried Line....
It is not only our right but it is our obligation as American citizens to look at this war objectively and to weigh our chances for success if we should enter it. I have attempted to do this, especially from the standpoint of aviation; and I have been forced to the conclusion that we cannot win this war for England, regardless of how much assistance we extend.

Burton K. Wheeler

Sir, there have existed, in every age and every country, two distinct orders of men—the lovers of freedom, and the devoted advocates of power.

On being asked by Mr Stephen Spender in the 1930s how best a poet could serve the Communist cause:

Go to Spain and get killed. The movement needs a Byron.

In these somewhat troublesome days when the great Mother Empire stands splendidly isolated in Europe.

George Eulas Foster

... the wreck of the Batavia provides the greatest dramatic tragedy in Australian history, beside which the Mutiny on the Bounty is an anaemic tale.

Thomas Davies Mutch

The vice-presidency isn't worth a pitcher of warm piss. It doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

On the mistake of letting himself be elected Vice President of the United States

John Nance Garner

There have been many Presidents of the United States and the roll will be indefinitely extended. We have had a number of brilliant soldiers, but only one great general.

Patel's speech at Bahaddin College, Junagadh: If Hyderabad does not see the writing on the wall, it goes the way Junagadh has gone. Pakistan attempted to set off Kashmir against Junagadh. When we raised the question of settlement in a democratic way, they (Pakistan) at once told us that they would consider it if we applied that policy to Kashmir. Our reply was that we would agree to Kashmir if they agreed to Hyderabad.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

In the race of life, always back self-interest; at least you know it's trying.

The Democratic Party is like a mule—without pride of ancestry or hope of posterity.

Ignatius L. Donnelly

It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for it to abolish itself from below.

Alexander II of Russia

It becomes essential to choose one's path. Life consists in making these choices. One develops by choosing. It requires strength to become a child of God...

Toyohiko Kagawa

You are ordered abroad as a soldier of the King to help our French comrades against the invasion of a common enemy…In this new experience you may find temptations both in wine and women. You must entirely resist both temptations, and, while treating all women with perfect courtesy, you should avoid any intimacy. Do your duty bravely. Fear God. Honour the King.

The cry that we have entered upon our imperial course in order to benefit the native populations in the lands that we have conquered is an old one.... I have before me McKinley's proclamation to the Filipinos, and I have placed it side by side with a proclamation of the King of Assyria, written eighteen hundred years before Christ. A man would think that McKinley had plagiarized the idea from Asshurbanipal.

Richard F. Pettigrew

The first forty-eight hours decide whether a Minister is going to run his office or whether his office is going to run him.

Arthur Henderson

If we enjoy the benefits of peace, it is only because we have an excellent armed force and a fine socialist economy. Let us exert all efforts so that our further development may be strong and mighty, so that our numerous enemies may think well and long before they decide to attack our fatherland, and so that if they attack, they will quickly regret it.

Kliment Voroshilov

In a thousand years we shall all forget The things that trouble us now.

Adam Lindsay Gordon

Men trade unionists are accused of sex privilege and prejudice … A belief in the divine right of every man to his job is not peculiar to kings and capitalists, and men in organised trades are not disposed to share these advantages with a host of women competitors.

Just for a word 'neutrality'—a word which in wartime has so often been disregarded—just for a scrap of paper, Great Britain is going to make war on a kindred nation who desires nothing better than to be friends with her.

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg

We really believed in our hearts that this was the dawn of the new day we had all been praying for and talking about for so many years. We were absolutely certain that we had won the first great victory of the peace.

After the Yalta Conference, 1945

My only counsel to Ireland is that in order to become deeply Irish, she must become European.