Charles James Fox Quotes

38 Sourced Quotes

On the fall of the Bastille:
How much the greatest event it is that ever happened in the world! and how much the best!

Charles James Fox
Kings govern by means of popular assemblies only when they cannot do without them.

Charles James Fox
What acquaintance have the people at large with the arena of political rectitude, with the connections of kingdoms, the resources of national strength, the abilities of ministers, or even with their own dispositions?... I pay no regard whatever to the voice of the people: it is their duty to do what is proper, without considering what may be agreeable.

Charles James Fox
There is no man who hates the power of the crown more, or who has a worse opinion of the Person to whom it belongs than I.

Charles James Fox
As to War I can only say that my opinion is clearly that it will not be. I can tell you my reasons for this opinion in two sentences. 1st. I am sure that Bonaparte will do everything that he can to avoid it. 2nd. that, low as my opinion is of our Ministry, I cannot believe them quite so foolish as to force him to it, without one motive either of ambition or interest to incite them.

Charles James Fox
... a greater evil than the restoration of the Bourbons to the world in general, and England in particular, can hardly happen.

Charles James Fox
Gentlemen, the malicious and groundless Reports which have been spread, make it necessary for me to assure you, that notwithstanding all that has been said, I never have supported, nor ever will support, any Measure which can by any Means be prejudicial to the Protestant Religion, or in any way tend to establish Popery in this Kingdom.

Charles James Fox
... for the truth is, I am gone something further in hate to the English Government than perhaps you and the rest of my friends are, and certainly further than can with prudence be avowed. The triumph of the French Government over the English does in fact afford me a degree of pleasure which it is very difficult to disguise.

Charles James Fox
Religion was best understood when least talked of.

Charles James Fox
Bonaparte's wish is Peace, nay that he is afraid of war to the last degree.

Charles James Fox
If you silence demonstrance and stifle complaint, you then leave no other alternative but force and violence.

Charles James Fox
So fully am I impressed with the vast importance and necessity of attaining what will be the object of my motion this night, that if, during the almost forty years that I have had the honour of a seat in parliament, I had been so fortunate as to accomplish that, and that only, I should think I had done enough, and could retire from public life with comfort, and the conscious satisfaction, that I had done my duty.

Charles James Fox
Humanity [...] does not consist in a squeamish ear. It belongs to the mind as well as the nerves, and leads a man to take measures for the prevention of cruelty which the hypocritical cant of humanity contents itself in deploring.

Charles James Fox
Any thing that proves that it is not in the power of Kings and Princes by their great armies to have every thing their own way is of such good example that without any good will to the French one can not help being delighted by it, and you know I have a natural partiality to what some people call rebels.

Charles James Fox
There appears to me to be no device at present but between an absolute surrender of the liberties of the People and a vigorous exertion... My view of things is I own very gloomy, and I am convinced that in a few years this Government will become completely absolute, or that confusion will arise of a nature almost as much to be deprecated as despotism itself... This is a great Crisis.

Charles James Fox
[Napoleon has now] surpassed... Alexander & Caesar, not to mention the great advantage he has over them in the Cause he fights in.

Charles James Fox
Persecution always says, 'I know the consequences of your opinion better than you know them yourselves.' But the language of toleration was always amicable, liberal, and just: it confessed its doubts, and acknowledged its ignorance … Persecution had always reasoned from cause to effect, from opinion to action, [that such an opinion would invariably lead to but one action], which proved generally erroneous; while toleration led us invariably to form just conclusions, by judging from actions and not from opinions.

Charles James Fox
Toleration in religion was one of the great rights of man, and a man ought never to be deprived of what was his natural right.

Charles James Fox
Opinions become dangerous to a state only when persecution makes it necessary for the people to communicate their ideas under the bond of secrecy.

Charles James Fox
He was uniformly of an opinion which, though not a popular one, he was ready to aver, that the right of governing was not property, but a trust.

Charles James Fox
Advice on how to quote in an appropriate manner:
No Greek; as much Latin as you like: never French in any circumstance: no English poet unless he has completed his century.

Charles James Fox
Why Egypt should be of such importance either to the French or to Us I never could discover and I have always thought the Expedition there the foolishest part, perhaps the only foolish part of Bonaparte's Conduct, unless perhaps he had some views in it connected with the internal Politicks of France of which we are not informed, or (which I have always suspected) that he had a desire to be out of the way of either accepting or refusing the command of an army destined to invade England.

Charles James Fox
I charged Mr. Pitt with having come into office upon unconstitutional grounds, and upon such principles as were disgraceful to himself, disgusting to the country, and such as must necessarily deprive him and his coadjutors of the confidence of that House.

Charles James Fox
That a great General like Bonaparte should be inclined to military means of effecting a military Government is less to be wondered at than lamented... by taking the common & beaten path of Ambition he has... done much against the liberty of mankind in every part of the world... The only good that could come from this Event, so pernicious to the cause of general Liberty, was Peace, and that you see our Ministers are determined to refuse.

Charles James Fox
As to Bonaparte, you know what my apprehensions always were, and I can not help thinking they are in a great degree verified. For though he may, and I hope he will, trounce the Austrians... yet it is impossible to deny that he has lost, or at least risqued the losing of an opportunity. Every man has his weak side, and I have always thought Bonaparte's was the thinking Austria more inclined to peace and more to be depended upon than She is. I hope to God he will not suffer from his errour.

Charles James Fox
... against which we should direct all our force, the navy of France: in the destruction of her marine we might see some hope of recovering America; but while our army remained in that country, we were to expect nothing from its operations. On the continent of Europe, it might be employed; there we might contend with France, in a manner that would make her feel that her own consequence was at stake. But the old Whig system of alliances on the continent had been given up, and we were left to fight all our battles by ourselves. If these alliances were renewed, France might then be taught, that rashness, not prudence, had made her enter into the American confederacy... America... might be won in Europe, while England might be ruined in America.

Charles James Fox
... he was indebted to his right honourable friend [Edmund Burke] for the greatest share of the political knowledge he possessed,—his political education had been formed under him,—his instructions had invariably governed his principles.

Charles James Fox
[The situation was] as in the case of his majesty's having undergone a natural and perfect demise... There was then a person in the kingdom different from any other person that any existing precedents could refer to—an heir apparent of full age and capacity to exercise the royal power. It behoved them, therefore, to waste not a moment unnecessarily, but to proceed with all becoming speed and all becoming diligence to restore the sovereign power and the exercise of royal authority.

Charles James Fox
I stand upon this great principle. I say that the people of England have a right to control the executive power, by the interference of their representatives in this House of parliament. The right honorable gentleman [William Pitt] maintains the contrary. He is the cause of our political enmity.

Charles James Fox
There is not a power in Europe, no not even Bonaparte's that is so unlimited [as the British monarchy].

Charles James Fox