Political Quotes

On the record
Who can witness the movements of that tremulous needle, poised upon its centre, still tending to the polar star, but obedient to his distant hand, armed with a metallic guide, round every point of the compass, at the fiat of his will, without feeling a thrill of amazement approaching to superstition?
Said by
Josiah Quincy
Federalist · Massachusetts

Editor's note · Context

Quincy expresses awe at the precision of the magnetic compass and its connection to the polar star.

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A single breath blew all his mock-judicial array into air and smoke.

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