Wendell Phillips

“What is fanaticism today is the fashionable creed tomorrow, and trite as the multiplication table a week after.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.”

“The keener the want the lustier the growth.”

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

“Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people.”

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

“Let me make the newspapers, and I care not what is preached in the pulpit or what is enacted in Congress.”

“Difference of religion breeds more quarrels than difference of politics.”

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

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