Wendell Phillips Men Quotations

The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.

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.

We live under a government of men and morning newspapers.

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.

How prudently we proud men compete for nameless graves, while now and then some starveling of late forgets himself into immortality

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

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

Every man meets his Waterloo at last.

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.

Experience is a safe light to walk by, and he is not a rash man who expects to succeed in future from the same means which have secured it in times past.

There is a very broad theory that society gets the right to hang, as the individual gets the right to defend himself. Suppose she does; there are certain principles which limit this right. Society has got the murderer within four walls; he never can do any more harm. Has society any need to take that man's life to protect itself? If any society has only the right that the individual has, she has no right to inflict the penalty of death, because she can effectually restrain the individual from ever again committing his offence.

How prudently most men creep into nameless graves, while now and then one or two forget themselves into immortality.

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

My advice to a young man seeking deathless fame would be to espouse an unpopular cause and devote his life to it.

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.

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.

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

Education is the only interest worthy the deep, controlling anxiety of the thoughtful man.

Brains and character rule the world. The most distinguished Frenchman of the last century said: Men succeed less by their talents than their character. There were scores of men a hundred years ago who had more intellect than Washington. He outlives and overrides them all by the influence of his character.