From the public-domain record · 81,371 quotes
Founders, statesmen and world leaders — cited from their collected works.
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Her idea of national honor seems to consist in national insult, and that to be a great people, is to be neither a Christian, a philosopher, or a gentleman, but to threaten with the rudeness of a bear, and to devour with the ferocity of a…
Her ideas of national honor seem devoid of that benevolence of heart, that universal expansion of philanthropy, and that triumph over the rage of vulgar prejudice, without which man is inferior to himself, and a companion of common animals.
It is, I think, exceedingly easy to define what ought to be understood by national honor; for that which is the best character for an individual is the best character for a nation; and wherever the latter exceeds or falls beneath the…
In private life we call it by the plain name of bullying, and the elevation of rank cannot alter its character.
As individuals we profess ourselves Christians, but as nations we are heathens, Romans, and what not.
Peace by treaty is only a cessation of violence for a reformation of sentiment.
There is such an idea existing in the world, as that of national honor, and this, falsely understood, is oftentimes the cause of war.
My attachment is to all the world, and not to any particular part, and if what I advance is right, no matter where or who it comes from.
But to make war with those who trade with us, is like setting a bull-dog upon a customer at the shop-door.
War never can be the interest of a trading nation, any more than quarrelling can be profitable to a man in business.
If they are made war upon, their country invaded, or their existence at stake, it is their duty to defend and preserve themselves, but in every other light, and from every other cause, is war inglorious and detestable.
In a general view, there are few conquests that repay the charge of making them, and mankind are pretty well convinced that it can never be worth their while to go to war for profit's sake.
It is therefore most probable that the ministry will at last justify their policy by their dishonesty, and openly declare, that their original design was conquest: and, in this case, it well becomes the people of England to consider how…
Taxation, as I mentioned before, could never be worth the charge of obtaining it by arms; and any kind of formal obedience which America could have made, would have weighed with the lightness of a laugh against such a load of expense.
The market for plunder in the East Indies was over; and the profligacy of government required that a new mine should be opened, and that mine could be no other than America, conquered and forfeited.
For in a country where all men were once adventurers, the difference of a few years in their arrival could make none in their right.
Those who had been long settled had something to defend; those who had just come had something to pursue; and the call and the concern was equal and universal.
But when the country, into which I had just set my foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to stir.
If I had any talents for either, they were buried in me, and might ever have continued so, had not the necessity of the times dragged and driven them into action.
I found the disposition of the people such, that they might have been led by a thread and governed by a reed.
Men have a right to reason for themselves, and though they cannot contradict the intelligence in the London Gazette, they may frame upon it what sentiments they please.
It is low, cruel, indolent and profligate; and had the people of America no other cause for separation than what the army has occasioned, that alone is cause sufficient.
There was a time when I felt the same prejudices, and reasoned from the same errors; but experience, sad and painful experience, has taught me better.
When information is withheld, ignorance becomes a reasonable excuse; and one would charitably hope that the people of England do not encourage cruelty from choice but from mistake.
