From the public-domain record · 81,371 quotes
Founders, statesmen and world leaders — cited from their collected works.
The figures
With the Revolution of 1688, and more so since the Hanover succession, came the destructive system of continental intrigues, and the rage for foreign wars and foreign dominion; systems of such secure mystery that the expenses admit of no…
The people of England of the present day, have a traditionary and historical idea of the bravery of their ancestors; but whatever their virtues or their vices might have been, they certainly were a people who would not be imposed upon, and…
Either, therefore, the people of former times were more watchful over government than those of the present, or government was administered with less extravagance.
The old terms are kept up, to give an appearance of consequence to empty forms; and the only effect they have is that of increasing expenses.
When we speak of the crown now, it means nothing; it signifies neither a judge nor a general: besides which it is the laws that govern, and not the man.
The hazard to which this office is exposed in all countries, is not from anything that can happen to the man, but from what may happen to the nation--the danger of its coming to its senses.
Burke writes, namely, that the people must be hood-winked, and held in superstitious ignorance by some bugbear or other; and what is called the crown answers this purpose, and therefore it answers all the purposes to be expected from it.
Were we not accustomed to the daily practice, and did we only hear of it as the law of some distant part of the world, we should conclude that the legislators of such countries had not arrived at a state of civilisation.
Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
In stating these matters, I speak an open and disinterested language, dictated by no passion but that of humanity.
Such situations are derogatory to the character of man; and where they can be submitted to, honour cannot reside.
It is from the power of taxation being in the hands of those who can throw so great a part of it from their own shoulders, that it has raged without a check.
Had there been a house of farmers, there had been no game laws; or a house of merchants and manufacturers, the taxes had neither been so unequal nor so excessive.
The inequality, as well as the burthen of taxation, arises from admitting it in one case, and not in all.
If a house of legislation is to be composed of men of one class, for the purpose of protecting a distinct interest, all the other interests should have the same.
The aristocracy are not the farmers who work the land, and raise the produce, but are the mere consumers of the rent; and when compared with the active world are the drones, a seraglio of males, who neither collect the honey nor form the…
It is a prosperity that excludes all envy; and this cannot be said of anything else.
When the valleys laugh and sing, it is not the farmer only, but all creation that rejoice.
It is the interest, not of the policy, but of the existence of man, and when it ceases, he must cease to be.
Every individual, high or low, is interested in the fruits of the earth; men, women, and children, of all ages and degrees, will turn out to assist the farmer, rather than a harvest should not be got in; and they will not act thus by any…
It is difficult to discover what is meant by the landed interest, if it does not mean a combination of aristocratical landholders, opposing their own pecuniary interest to that of the farmer, and every branch of trade, commerce, and…
Whether a combination acts to raise the price of any article for sale, or rate of wages; or whether it acts to throw taxes from itself upon another class of the community, the principle and the effect are the same; and if the one be…
It is in manufacturing towns and labouring villages that those burthens press the heaviest; in many of which it is one class of poor supporting another.
That this has been the consequence (and will always be the consequence) of constructing governments on combinations, is evident with respect to England, from the history of its taxes.
