Wendell Phillips Quotes

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

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few."

"Christianity is a battle not a dream."

"One on God's side is a majority."

"Physical bravery is an animal instinct; moral bravery is much higher and truer courage."

"What is defeat? Nothing but education. Nothing but the first step to something better."

"Truth is one forever absolute, but opinion is truth filtered through the moods, the blood, the disposition of the spectator."

"If there is anything in the universe that can't stand discussion, let it crack."

"Whether in chains or in laurels, liberty knows nothing but victories."

"Law is nothing unless close behind it stands a warm, living public opinion."

"Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and the rich need no protection: they have many friends and few enemies."

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

"Seldom ever was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment."

"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."

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

"The labor movement means just this: it is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth."

"Today it is not big business that we have to fear. It is big government."

"Many know how to flatter, few know how to praise."

"We live under a government of men and morning newspapers."

"If you want to be an orator, first get your great cause."

"To hear some men talk of the government, you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation, and kept the planets in their places."

"Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms."

"The best education in the world is that got by struggling to get a living."

"Difference of religion breeds more quarrels than difference of politics."

"Aristocracy is always cruel."

"The heart is the best reflective thinker."

"To be as good as our fathers we must be better, imitation is not discipleship."

"Boredom, after all, is a form of criticism."

"The keener the want the lustier the growth."

"Responsibility educates."