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Quotations From John Lothrop Motley
by David Widger
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around a green table except as fencers in the field Men were loud in reproof, who had been silent Men fought as if war was the normal condition of humanity Men who meant what they said and said what they meant Mendacity may always obtain over innocence and credulity Military virtue in the support of an infamous cause Misanthropical, sceptical philosopher Misery had come not from their being enemies Mistake to stumble a second time over the same stone Mistakes might occur from occasional deviations into sincerity Mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated Modern statesmanship, even while it practises, condemns Monasteries, burned their invaluable libraries Mondragon was now ninety-two years old Moral nature, undergoes less change than might be hoped More accustomed to do well than to speak well More easily, as he had no intention of keeping the promise More catholic than the pope More fiercely opposed to each other than to Papists More apprehension of fraud than of force Most detestable verses that even he had ever composed Most entirely truthful child whe had ever seen Motley was twice sacrificed to personal feelings Much as the blind or the deaf towards colour or music Myself seeing of it methinketh that I dream Names history has often found it convenient to mark its epochs National character, not the work of a few individuals Nations tied to the pinafores of children in the nursery Natural to judge only by the result Natural tendency to suspicion of a timid man Nearsighted liberalism Necessary to make a virtue of necessity Necessity of extirpating heresy, root and branch Necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns Necessity of kingship Negotiated as if they were all immortal Neighbour's blazing roof was likely soon to fire their own Neither kings nor governments are apt to value logic Neither wished the convocation, while both affected an eagerness Neither ambitious nor greedy Never peace well made, he observed, without a mighty war Never did statesmen know better how not to do Never lack of fishers in troubled waters New Years Day in England, 11th January by the New Style Night brings counsel Nine syllables that which could be more forcibly expressed in on No one can testify but a householder No man can be neutral in civil contentions No law but the law of the longest purse No two books, as he said, ever injured each other No retrenchments in his pleasures of women, dogs, and buildings No great man can reach the highest position in our government No man is safe (from news reporters) No man could reveal secrets which he did not know No authority over an army which they did not pay No man pretended to think of the State No synod had a right to claim Netherlanders as slaves No qualities whatever but birth and audacity to recommend him No generation is long-lived enough to reap the harvest No man ever understood the art of bribery more thoroughly No calumny was too senseless to be invented None but God to compel me to say more than I choose to say Nor is the spirit of the age to be pleaded in defence Not a friend of giving details larger than my ascertained facts Not distinguished for their docility Not to let the grass grow under their feet Not a single acquaintance in the place, and we glory in the fact Not safe for politicians to call each other hard names Not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed Not of the genus Reptilia, and could neither creep nor crouch Not strong enough to sustain many more such victories Not to fall asleep in the shade of a peace negotiation Not many more than two hundred Catholics were executed Not upon words but upon actions Not for a new doctrine, but for liberty of conscience Not of the stuff of which martyrs are made (Erasmus) Not so successful as he was picturesque Nothing could equal Alexander's fidelity, but his perfidy Nothing cheap, said a citizen bitterly, but sermons Nothing was so powerful as religious difference Notre Dame at Antwerp Nowhere was the persecution of heretics more relentless Nowhere were so few unproductive consumers O God! what does man come to! Obscure were thought capable of dying natural deaths Obstinate, of both sexes, to be burned Octogenarian was past work and past mischief Of high rank but of lamentably low capacity Often much tyranny in democracy Often necessary to be blind and deaf Oldenbarneveld; afterwards so illustrious On the first day four thousand men and women were slaughtered One-half to Philip and one-half to the Pope and Venice (slaves) One-third of Philip's effective navy was thus destroyed One golden grain of wit into a sheet of infinite platitude One could neither cry nor laugh within the Spanish dominions One of the most contemptible and mischievous of kings (James I) Only healthy existence of the French was in a state of war Only true religion Only citadel against a tyrant and a conqueror was distrust Only kept alive by milk, which he drank from a woman's breast Only foundation fit for history,—original contemporary document Opening an abyss between government and people Opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood Oration, fertile in rhetoric and barren in facts Orator was, however, delighted with his own performance Others that do nothing, do all, and have all the thanks Others go to battle, says the historian, these go to war Our pot had not gone to the fire as often Our mortal life is but a string of guesses at the future Outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency Over excited, when his prejudices were roughly handled Panegyrists of royal houses in the sixteenth century Pardon for crimes already committed, or about to be committed Pardon for murder, if not by poison, was cheaper Partisans wanted not accommodation but victory Party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk Passion is a bad schoolmistress for the memory Past was once the Present, and once the Future Pathetic dying words of Anne Boleyn Patriotism seemed an unimaginable idea Pauper client who dreamed of justice at the hands of law Paving the way towards atheism (by toleration) Paying their passage through, purgatory Peace founded on the only secure basis, equality of strength Peace was desirable, it might be more dangerous than war Peace seemed only a process for arriving at war Peace and quietness is brought into a most dangerous estate Peace-at-any-price party Peace, in reality, was war in its worst shape Peace was unattainable, war was impossible, truce was inevitable Peace would be destruction Perfection of insolence Perpetually dropping small innuendos like pebbles Persons who discussed religious matters were to be put to death Petty passion for contemptible details Philip II. gave the world work enough Philip of Macedon, who considered no city impregnable Philip IV. Philip, who did not often say a great deal in a few words Picturesqueness of crime Placid unconsciousness on his part of defeat Plain enough that he is telling his own story Planted the inquisition in the Netherlands Played so long with other men's characters and good name Plea of infallibility and of authority soon becomes ridiculous Plundering the country which they came to protect Poisoning, for example, was absolved for eleven ducats Pope excommunicated him as a heretic Pope and emperor maintain both positions with equal logic Portion of these revenues savoured much of black-mail Possible to do, only because we see that it has been done Pot-valiant hero Power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist Power to read and write helped the clergy to much wealth Power grudged rather than given to the deputies Practised successfully the talent of silence Pray here for satiety, (said Cecil) than ever think of variety Preferred an open enemy to a treacherous protector Premature zeal was prejudicial to the cause Presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made Presumption in entitling themselves Christian Preventing wrong, or violence, even towards an enemy Priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests Princes show what they have in them at twenty-five or never Prisoners were immediately hanged Privileged to beg, because ashamed to work Proceeds of his permission to eat meat on Fridays Proclaiming the virginity of the Virgin's mother Procrastination was always his first refuge Progress should be by a spiral movement Promises which he knew to be binding only upon the weak Proposition made by the wolves to the sheep, in the fable Protect the common tranquillity by blood, purse, and life Provided not one Huguenot be left alive in France Public which must have a slain reputation to devour Purchased absolution for crime and smoothed a pathway to heaven Puritanism in Holland was a very different thing from England Put all those to the torture out of whom anything can be got Putting the cart before the oxen Queen is entirely in the hands of Spain and the priests Questioning nothing, doubting nothing, fearing nothing Quite mistaken: in supposing himself the Emperor's child Radical, one who would uproot, is a man whose trade is dangerous Rarely able to command, having never learned to obey Rashness alternating with hesitation Rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic Readiness to strike and bleed at any moment in her cause Readiness at any moment to defend dearly won liberties Rearing gorgeous temples where paupers are to kneel Reasonable to pay our debts rather than to repudiate them Rebuked him for his obedience Rebuked the bigotry which had already grown Recall of a foreign minister for alleged misconduct in office Reformer who becomes in his turn a bigot is doubly odious Reformers were capable of giving a lesson even to inquisitors Religion was made the strumpet of Political Ambition Religion was rapidly ceasing to be the line of demarcation Religion was not to be changed like a shirt Religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult Religious persecution of Protestants by Protestants Repentance, as usual, had come many hours too late Repentant males to be executed with the sword Repentant females to be buried alive Repose under one despot guaranteed to them by two others Repose in the other world, "Repos ailleurs" Republic, which lasted two centuries Republics are said to be ungrateful Repudiation of national debts was never heard of before Requires less mention than Philip III himself Resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military Resolved thenceforth to adopt a system of ignorance Respect for differences in religious opinions Result was both to abandon the provinces and to offend Philip Revocable benefices or feuds Rich enough to be worth robbing Righteous to kill their own children Road to Paris lay through the gates of Rome Rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive Round game of deception, in which nobody was deceived Royal plans should be enforced adequately or abandoned entirely Ruinous honors Rules adopted in regard to pretenders to crowns Sacked and drowned ten infant princes Sacrificed by the Queen for faithfully obeying her orders Safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust Sages of every generation, read the future like a printed scroll Saint Bartholomew's day Sale of absolutions was the source of large fortunes to the priests Same conjury over ignorant baron and cowardly hind Scaffold was the sole refuge from the rack Scepticism, which delights in reversing the judgment of centuries Schism in the Church had become a public fact Schism which existed in the general Reformed Church Science of reigning was the science of lying Scoffing at the ceremonies and sacraments of the Church Secret drowning was substituted for public burning Secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers Security is dangerous Seeking protection for and against the people Seem as if born to make the idea of royalty ridiculous Seemed bent on self-destruction Seems but a change of masks, of costume, of phraseology Sees the past in the pitiless light of the present Self-assertion—the healthful but not engaging attribute Self-educated man, as he had been a self-taught boy Selling the privilege of eating eggs upon fast-days Senectus edam maorbus est Sent them word by carrier pigeons Sentiment of Christian self-complacency Sentimentality that seems highly apocryphal Served at their banquets by hosts of lackeys on their knees Seven Spaniards were killed, and seven thousand rebels Sewers which have ever run beneath decorous Christendom Shall Slavery die, or the great Republic? Sharpened the punishment for reading the scriptures in private She relieth on a hope that will deceive her She declined to be his procuress She knew too well how women were treated in that country Shift the mantle of religion from one shoulder to the other Shutting the stable-door when the steed is stolen Sick soldiers captured on the water should be hanged Sick and wounded wretches were burned over slow fires Simple truth was highest skill Sixteen of their best ships had been sacrificed Slain four hundred and ten men with his own hand Slavery was both voluntary and compulsory Slender stock of platitudes Small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one Smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial So much responsibility and so little power So often degenerated into tyranny (Calvinism) So much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality So unconscious of her strength Soldier of the cross was free upon his return Soldiers enough to animate the good and terrify the bad Solitary and morose, the necessary consequence of reckless study Some rude lessons from that vigorous little commonwealth Sometimes successful, even although founded upon sincerity Sonnets of Petrarch Sovereignty was heaven-born, anointed of God Spain was governed by an established terrorism Spaniards seem wise, and are madmen Sparing and war have no affinity together Spendthrift of time, he was an economist of blood Spirit of a man who wishes to be proud of his country St. Peter's dome rising a little nearer to the clouds St. Bartholomew was to sleep for seven years longer Stake or gallows (for) heretics to transubstantiation Stand between hope and fear State can best defend religion by letting it alone States were justified in their almost unlimited distrust Steeped to the lips in sloth which imagined itself to be pride Storm by which all these treasures were destroyed (in 7 days) Strangled his nineteen brothers on his accession Strength does a falsehood acquire in determined and skilful hand String of homely proverbs worthy of Sancho Panza Stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel Studied according to his inclinations rather than by rule Style above all other qualities seems to embalm for posterity Subtle and dangerous enemy who wore the mask of a friend Succeeded so well, and had been requited so ill Successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones Such a crime as this had never been conceived (bankruptcy) Such an excuse was as bad as the accusation Suicide is confession Superfluous sarcasm Suppress the exercise of the Roman religion Sure bind, sure find Sword in hand is the best pen to write the conditions of peace Take all their imaginations and extravagances for truths Talked impatiently of the value of my time Tanchelyn Taxation upon sin Taxed themselves as highly as fifty per cent Taxes upon income and upon consumption Tempest of passion and prejudice Ten thousand two hundred and twenty individuals were burned Tension now gave place to exhaustion That vile and mischievous animal called the people That crowned criminal, Philip the Second That unholy trinity—Force; Dogma, and Ignorance That cynical commerce in human lives That he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice The tragedy of Don Carlos The worst were encouraged with their good success The history of the Netherlands is history of liberty The great ocean was but a Spanish lake The divine speciality of a few transitory mortals The sapling was to become the tree The nation which deliberately carves itself in pieces The expenses of James's household The Catholic League and the Protestant Union The blaze of a hundred and fifty burning vessels The magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness The defence of the civil authority against the priesthood The assassin, tortured and torn by four horses The Gaul was singularly unchaste The vivifying becomes afterwards the dissolving principle The bad Duke of Burgundy, Philip surnamed "the Good," The greatest crime, however, was to be rich The more conclusive arbitration of gunpowder The disunited provinces The noblest and richest temple of the Netherlands was a wreck The voice of slanderers The calf is fat and must be killed The illness was a convenient one The egg had been laid by Erasmus, hatched by Luther The perpetual reproductions of history The very word toleration was to sound like an insult The most thriving branch of national industry (Smuggler) The pigmy, as the late queen had been fond of nicknaming him The slightest theft was punished with the gallows The art of ruling the world by doing nothing The wisest statesmen are prone to blunder in affairs of war The Alcoran was less cruel than the Inquisition The People had not been invented The small children diminished rapidly in numbers The busy devil of petty economy The record of our race is essentially unwritten The truth in shortest about matters of importance The time for reasoning had passed The effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny The evils resulting from a confederate system of government The vehicle is often prized more than the freight The faithful servant is always a perpetual ass The dead men of the place are my intimate friends The loss of hair, which brings on premature decay The personal gifts which are nature's passport everywhere The nation is as much bound to be honest as is the individual The fellow mixes blood with his colors! Their existence depended on war Their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze Theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country Theology and politics were one There is no man who does not desire to enjoy his own There was but one king in Europe, Henry the Bearnese There are few inventions in morals There was no use in holding language of authority to him There was apathy where there should have been enthusiasm There is no man fitter for that purpose than myself Therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured These human victims, chained and burning at the stake They had come to disbelieve in the mystery of kingcraft They chose to compel no man's conscience They could not invent or imagine toleration They knew very little of us, and that little wrong They have killed him, 'e ammazato,' cried Concini They were always to deceive every one, upon every occasion They liked not such divine right nor such gentle-mindedness They had at last burned one more preacher alive Things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful Thirty thousand masses should be said for his soul Thirty-three per cent. interest was paid (per month) Thirty Years' War tread on the heels of the forty years This Somebody may have been one whom we should call Nobody This, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the State This obstinate little republic This wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination Those who fish in troubled waters only to fill their own nets Those who "sought to swim between two waters" Those who argue against a foregone conclusion Thought that all was too little for him Thousands of burned heretics had not made a single convert Three hundred fighting women Three hundred and upwards are hanged annually in London Three or four hundred petty sovereigns (of Germany) Throw the cat against their legs Thus Hand-werpen, hand-throwing, became Antwerp Time and myself are two Tis pity he is not an Englishman To think it capable of error, is the most devilish heresy of all To stifle for ever the right of free enquiry To attack England it was necessary to take the road of Ireland To hear the last solemn commonplaces To prefer poverty to the wealth attendant upon trade To shirk labour, infinite numbers become priests and friars To doubt the infallibility of Calvin was as heinous a crime To negotiate with Government in England was to bribe To milk, the cow as long as she would give milk To work, ever to work, was the primary law of his nature To negotiate was to bribe right and left, and at every step To look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures Toil and sacrifices of those who have preceded us Tolerate another religion that his own may be tolerated Tolerating religious liberty had never entered his mind Toleration—that intolerable term of insult Toleration thought the deadliest heresy of all Torquemada's administration (of the inquisition) Torturing, hanging, embowelling of men, women, and children Tranquil insolence Tranquillity rather of paralysis than of health Tranquillity of despotism to the turbulence of freedom Triple marriages between the respective nurseries Trust her sword, not her enemy's word Twas pity, he said, that both should be heretics Twenty assaults upon fame and had forty books killed under him Two witnesses sent him to the stake, one witness to the rack Tyrannical spirit of Calvinism Tyranny, ever young and ever old, constantly reproducing herself Uncouple the dogs and let them run Under the name of religion (so many crimes) Understood the art of managing men, particularly his superiors Undue anxiety for impartiality Unduly dejected in adversity Unequivocal policy of slave emancipation Unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry Universal suffrage was not dreamed of at that day Unlearned their faith in bell, book, and candle Unproductive consumption being accounted most sagacious Unproductive consumption was alarmingly increasing Unremitted intellectual labor in an honorable cause Unwise impatience for peace Upon their knees, served the queen with wine Upon one day twenty-eight master cooks were dismissed Upper and lower millstones of royal wrath and loyal subserviency Use of the spade Usual phraseology of enthusiasts Usual expedient by which bad legislation on one side countered Utter disproportions between the king's means and aims Utter want of adaptation of his means to his ends Uttering of my choler doth little ease my grief or help my case Uunmeaning phrases of barren benignity Vain belief that they were men at eighteen or twenty Valour on the one side and discretion on the other Villagers, or villeins Visible atmosphere of power the poison of which Volatile word was thought preferable to the permanent letter Vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration Waiting the pleasure of a capricious and despotic woman Walk up and down the earth and destroy his fellow-creatures War was the normal and natural condition of mankind War was the normal condition of Christians War to compel the weakest to follow the religion of the strongest Was it astonishing that murder was more common than fidelity? Wasting time fruitlessly is sharpening the knife for himself We were sold by their negligence who are now angry with us We believe our mothers to have been honest women We are beginning to be vexed We must all die once We have been talking a little bit of truth to each other We have the reputation of being a good housewife We mustn't tickle ourselves to make ourselves laugh Wealth was an unpardonable sin Wealthy Papists could obtain immunity by an enormous fine Weapons Weary of place without power Weep oftener for her children than is the usual lot of mothers Weight of a thousand years of error What exchequer can accept chronic warfare and escape bankruptcy What could save the House of Austria, the cause of Papacy What was to be done in this world and believed as to the next When persons of merit suffer without cause When all was gone, they began to eat each other When the abbot has dice in his pocket, the convent will play Whether dead infants were hopelessly damned Whether murders or stratagems, as if they were acts of virtue Whether repentance could effect salvation While one's friends urge moderation Who the "people" exactly were Who loved their possessions better than their creed Whole revenue was pledged to pay the interest, on his debts Whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans William of Nassau, Prince of Orange William Brewster Wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome Wiser simply to satisfy himself Wish to sell us the bear-skin before they have killed the bear Wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant With something of feline and feminine duplicity Wonder equally at human capacity to inflict and to endure misery Wonders whether it has found its harbor or only lost its anchor Word peace in Spanish mouths simply meant the Holy Inquisition Word-mongers who, could clothe one shivering thought Words are always interpreted to the disadvantage of the weak Work of the aforesaid Puritans and a few Jesuits World has rolled on to fresher fields of carnage and ruin Worn crescents in their caps at Leyden Worn nor caused to be worn the collar of the serf Worship God according to the dictates of his conscience Would not help to burn fifty or sixty thousand Netherlanders Wrath of the Jesuits at this exercise of legal authority Wrath of bigots on both sides Wrath of that injured personage as he read such libellous truths Wringing a dry cloth for drops of evidence Write so illegibly or express himself so awkwardly Writing letters full of injured innocence Yes, there are wicked men about Yesterday is the preceptor of To-morrow You must show your teeth to the Spaniard

THE END

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