Wendell Phillips Quotes

Corruption does not so much rot the masses: it poisons Congress. Credit-Mobilier and money rings are not housed under thatched roofs: they flaunt at the Capitol. As usual in chemistry, the scum floats uppermost.

[R]aces love to be judged in two ways—by the great men they produce, and by the average merit of the mass of the race.

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.

Christianity is a battle, not a dream.

What the Puritans gave the world was not thought, but action.

Whether in chains or in laurels, Liberty knows nothing but victories.

External vigilance is the price of liberty.

Sit not, like the figure on our silver coin, looking ever backward.

Revolutions never go backward.

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

Every man meets his Waterloo at last.

I think the first duty of society is justice.

Difference of religion breeds more quarrels than difference of politics.

The manna of popular liberty must be gathered each day or it is rotten.

Revolutions are not made; they come. A revolution is as natural a growth as an oak. It comes out of the past. Its foundations are laid far back.