WILLIAM PITT THE YOUNGER

Poverty of course is no disgrace, but it is damned annoying.

Unlimited power corrupts the possessor.

Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who posses it; and this I know, my lords: that where law ends, tyranny begins.

Theoretical principals must sometimes give way for the sake of practical advantages.

Confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged heart.

The press is like the air, a chartered libertine.

Don't talk to me about a man's being able to talk sense; everyone can talk sense. Can he talk nonsense?

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example.

Being responsible, I will direct, and will be responsible for nothing that I do not direct.

The gentleman asks, when were the colonies emancipated? But I desire to know, when were they made slaves

When two countries are connected together, like England and her colonies, without being incorporated, the one must necessarily govern; the greater must rule the less; but so rule it, as not to contradict the fundamental principles that are common to both.

Sorry I am to hear the liberty of speech in this house, imputed as a crime. No gentleman ought to be afraid to exercise it. It is a liberty by which the gentleman who calumniates it might have profited, and by which he ought to have profited.

There is something behind the throne greater than the King himself.

It must cut up Liberty by the root and poison the Fountain of Publick Security

If we mean seriously to unite the nation within itself, we must convince them that their complaints are regarded, that their injuries shall be redressed. On that foundation I would take the lead in recommending peace and harmony to the people. On any other, I would never wish to see them united again. If the breach in the Constitution be effectually repaired, the people will of themselves return to a state of tranquillity; if not, may discord prevail forever

Suppose, Sir, the Soldiers of our Army were all such as had served a Campaign or two against a publick Enemy; is it from hence to be inferred, that they must for ever after live idly, and be maintained at the Expense of their Country

As the Laws now stand, an old Officer, a Man who has often ventured his Life, and often spilt his Blood, in the Service of his Country, may be dismissed, and reduced, perhaps, to a starving Condition, at the arbitrary Will and Pleasure, perhaps at the Whim of a favourite Minister; so that by the present Establishment of our Army, the Reward of a Soldier seems not to depend upon the Services done to his Country, but upon the Services he does to those who happen to be the favourite Ministers at the Time

When trade is at stake it is your last retrenchment; you must defend it, or perish.

I fear, my Lords, it is too much the temper of this country to be insensible of the approach of danger, until it comes with accumulated terror upon us.

How, sir! Is this enormous evil ever to be eradicated, if every nation is thus prudentially to wait till the concurrence of all the world shall have been obtained?

The amount of our danger, therefore, it would be impolitic to conceal from the people. It was the first duty of ministers to make it known, and after doing so, it should have been their study to provide against it, and to point out the means to the country by which it might be averted.

We owe our present happiness and prosperity, which has never been equaled in the annals of mankind, to a mixture of monarchical government.

You may take from me, Sir, the privileges and emoluments of place, but you cannot, and you shall not, take from me those habitual and warm regards for the prosperity of Great Britain which constitute the honour, the happiness, the pride of my life, and which, I trust, death alone can extinguish.

The simple question is: will you change your Ministers and keep the Empire, or keep your Ministers and lose the Kingdom?