19th-century Politician Quotes

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Alexander II of Russia

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

Ignatius L. Donnelly

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

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

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.

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

... 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

This is destined to be a very wealthy portion of the United States, and, if to this we can add the most temperate, nothing will prevent our rising, and becoming a valuable acquisition to the union. Much power now lies in your hands, and, I sincerely hope, we may commence our new career with a law in our statute books, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of ardent spirits in Oregon territory.

George Abernethy

We have carried out the attempted premeditated murder of an entire nation. We were caught in that criminal act and have been obstructed. Now we have to suffer the punishment.... In the Balkan Wars, Serbia not only doubled its territory, but also its external enemies.

Dimitrije Tucović

We have in our country the patriotism of Ontarians, the patriotism of Quebecers and the patriotism of westerners…but there is no Canadian patriotism, and there will not be a Canadian nation as long as we do not have a Canadian patriotism.

The world is facing a historic turning point because the system of materialistic liberalism has come to a deadlock.

Kingoro Hashimoto

Christianity depends f1nally on consciousness and experience. From other departments of the mind she may retire at times or seem to, but never from this. Sitting here, if allowed to, on the throne of the soul, she occasionally walks into the other rooms and sets them in order; and accustomed lo her presence, sooner or later the soul finds every department flooded with her light.

Erastus Otis Haven

Success is like the sunshine—it brings the rattlesnakes out.

Men will not forget that Pancho Villa was loyal to the cause of the people.

It was the calm and silent night!
Seven hundred years and fifty-three
Had Rome been growing up to might,
And now was queen of land and sea.
No sound was heard of clashing wars,
Peace brooded o'er the hushed domain;
Apollo, Pallas, Jove, and Mars
Held undisturbed their ancient reign
In the solemn midnight,
Centuries ago.

The reason why the race of man moves slowly is because it must move all together.

Thomas Brackett Reed

Success, which touches nothing that it does not vulgarize, should be its own reward.

Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham

If I were a Mexican I would tell you: Have you not room enough in your own country to bury your dead men? If you come into mine we will greet you with bloody hands and welcome you to hospitable graves.

Nothing affects the heart like that which is purely from itself, and of its own nature; such as the beauty of sentiments, the grace of actions, the turn of characters, and the proportions and features of a human mind.

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember what the second one is.