John Morley

If retreat was impossible, then all the rest was inevitable.

The victory would have been shorn of half its glory if any other chief had been given to the party.

If the majorities that carried the election could have been consulted on the choice of a minister, nobody doubted upon whom with unanimity their choice would fall.

A cabinet without him would hold its councils without the most important of the influences on which it depended.

May He who has of late so wonderfully guided, guide me still in the critical days about to come.

I vaguely feel that this journey is a plunge out of an atmosphere of peace into an element of disturbance.

Meantime, while I inwardly rejoice, I am against all outward signs, beyond such as are purely local, of exultation, for they are not chivalrous, and they would tend to barbarise political warfare.

The downfall of Beaconsfieldism is like the vanishing of some vast magnificent castle in an Italian romance.

It is a very pleasant subject of reflection to me that the riveting effect of companionship in a struggle like this, does not pass away with the struggle itself but abides.

I should feel profoundly ashamed of the burdens we brought you, had I not seen how truly they were borne in the spirit, which alone makes all burdens light.

There are no peers in Westminster Hall, there are no judges on the woolsack; but if we concentrate our minds upon the truth of the case as apart from its mere exterior, it is a grander and a more august spectacle than was ever exhibited…

I figure to myself those who have constituted the majority of the late House of Commons as the persons arraigned, and the constituencies of the country as those who are called together in the solemn order of the constitution to hear the…

The nation is a power hard to rouse, but when roused, harder still and more hopeless to resist....

Above all these, and behind all these, there is something greater than these—there is the nation itself.

We cannot reckon on the wealth of the country, nor upon the rank of the country, nor upon the influence which rank and wealth usually bring.

A clear answer from the nation, a clear answer in the right sense, and a decisive accession of the liberal party to power without me, this is what I hope and pray.

To attain a moral and envied ascendency such as this, is indeed a noble object for any minister or any empire.

It is by these measures that the colonies have been bound in affection to the empire, and the authors of them can afford to smile at baseless insinuations.

Peace rests on the presence, not to say the ascendency of England in the councils of Europe.

The power of England and the peace of Europe will largely depend upon the verdict of the country....

Having attempted and failed to enfeeble our colonies by their policy of decomposition, they may perhaps now recognise in the disintegration of the United Kingdom, a mode which will not only accomplish, but precipitate their purpose....

The first duty of an English minister should be to consolidate that co-operation which renders irresistible the community educated, as our own, in an equal love of liberty and law.

In an easy case any man can plead, and against shattered walls the puniest strength prevails; ’tis the overthrow of standing towers and frowning ramparts that tests manhood.

In causa facili cuivis licet esse disertum, Et minimae vires frangere quassa valent; Subruere est arces et stantia moenia virtus.

But these communications are useful, as they give distinctness to ideas, and through ideas to intentions.