Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury - State Quotes
6 Sourced Quotes
The perils of change are so great the promise of the most hopeful theories is so often deceptive, that it is frequently the wiser part to uphold the existing state of things, if it can be done, even though, in point of argument, it should be utterly indefensible... Resistance is folly or heroism—a virtue or a vice—in most cases, according to the probabilities there are of its being successful.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Where property is in question I am guilty…of erecting individual liberty as an idol, and of resenting all attempts to destroy or fetter it; but when you pass from liberty to life, in no well-governed State, in no State governed according to the principles of common humanity, are the claims of mere liberty allowed to endanger the lives of the citizens.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Wherever democracy has prevailed, the power of the State has been used in some form or other to plunder the well-to-do classes for the benefit of the poor.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Of intervening in the domestic affairs of foreign states:
There is no practice which the experience of nations more uniformly condemns, and none which governments more consistently pursue.Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
In a carefully balanced structure like the European system of nations, each State has a vested right in the complete and real independence of its neighbour.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
... though it is England's right to enforce the law of Europe [i. e. treaties] as between contending states, she has no claim, so long as her own interests are untouched, to interfere in the national affairs of any country, whatever the extent of its misgovernment or its anarchy.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
