Wendell Phillips Quotes

Revolutions are not made, they come.

It is but the littleness of man that seeth no greatness in trifles.

Sin is not taken out of man, as Eve was out of Adam, by putting him to sleep.

Though plunged in ills and exercised in care, Yet never let the noble mind despair.

Neither do I acknowledge the right of Plymouth to the whole rock. No, the rock underlies all America: it only crops out here.

Political convulsions, like geological upheavings usher in new epochs of the world's progress.

The Puritan did not stop to think; he recognized God in his soul, and acted.

Baron Grimm declared that, as a rule, it was easy for little minds to attain splendid positions, because they devoted all their ability to the one object.

The man who, for party, forsakes righteousness, goes down; and the armed battalions of God march over him.

Politics is but the common pulse-beat, of which revolution is the fever-spasm.

Take the whole range of imaginative literature, and we are all wholesale borrowers. In every matter that relates to invention, to use, or beauty or form, we are borrowers.

Insurrection of thought always precedes the insurrection of arms.

It is easy to be independent when all behind you agree with you, but the difficulty comes when nine hundred and ninety-nine of your friends think you are wrong.

Peace, if possible, but justice at any rate.

Republics exist only on tenure of being agitated.

The hand entrusted with power becomes, either from human depravity or esprit de corps, the necessary enemy of the people

You can always get the truth from an American statesman after he has turned seventy, or given up all hope of the Presidency.

It is only liquid currents of thought that move men and the world

Will the slave fight? If any man asks you, tell him No. But if anyone asks you will a Negro fight, tell him Yes!

Great political questions stir the deepest nature of one-half the nation, but they pass far above and over the heads of the other half.

Two kinds of men generally best succeed in political life; men of no principle, but of great talent; and men of no talent, but of one principle - that of obedience to their superiors.

Let us always remember that he does not really believe his own opinion, who dares not give free scope to his opponent.

Hearts are stronger than swords.

No class is safe unless government is so arranged that each class has in its hands the means of protecting itself. That is the idea of republics.

The slowest of us cannot but admit that the world moves.

The press is the exclusive literature of the million; to them it is literature, church, and college.

Immoral laws are doubtless void, and should not be obeyed.

Never forgive at the ballot box!

Freedom to preach was first gained, dragging in its train freedom to print.

To be as good as our fathers, we must be better. Imitation is not discipleship. When some one sent a cracked plate to China to have a set made, every piece in the new set had a crack in it.

War and Niagara thunder to a music of their own.

Wants awaken intellect. To gratify them disciplines intellect. The keener the want the lustier the growth.

What gunpowder did for war, the printing-press has done for the mind; and the statesman is no longer clad in the steel of special education, but every reading man is his judge.

God gives manhood but one clew to success,--utter and exact justice; that he guarantees shall be always expediency.

The heart beats louder and the soul hears quicker in silence and solitude.

Every step of progress the world has made has been from scaffold to scaffold, and from stake to stake.

Republics exist only on the tenure of being constantly agitated.... There is no republican road to safety but in constant distrust.

The keener the want the lustier the growth.

Our agitation, you know, helps keep yours alive in the rank and file.

Government arrogates to itself that it alone forms men. Everybody knows that government never began anything. It is the whole world that thinks and governs.

Example acquires tenfold authority when it speaks from the grave.

On a single winged word hath hung the destiny of nations.

Eternal vigilence is the price of liberty.

Right is the eternal sun; the world cannot delay its coming.

The heart is the best logician.

The republic which sinks to sleep, trusting to constitutions and machinery, to politicians and statesmen, for the safety of its liberties, never will have any.

The best use of good laws is to teach men to trample bad laws under their feet.

Politicians are like the bones of a horse's foreshoulder-not a straight one in it.

What gunpowder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind.

When I want to find the vanguard of the people I look to the uneasy dreams of an aristocracy and find what they dread most.