60+ William E. Gladstone Quotes On Education, Slavery And Progressive

William E. Gladstone was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician. He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom four times between 1868 and 1894, and was also Chancellor of the Exchequer four times. He was known as the "Grand Old Man of British politics" and was a key figure in the introduction of many reforms during his political career. Following is our collection on famous quotes by William E. Gladstone on education, slavery, leadership.

Top 10 William E. Gladstone Quotes

1. Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.
2. No one ever became great except through many and great mistakes.
3. Be inspired with the belief that life is a great and noble calling; not a mean and groveling thing that we are to shuffle through as we can, but an elevated and lofty destiny.
4. Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books - even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome.
5. National injustice is the surest road to national downfall.
6. If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you; If you are depressed, it will cheer you; If you are excited, it will calm you.
7. My only hope for the world is in bringing the human mind into contact with divine revelation.
8. Be thorough in all you do; and remember that although ignorance often may be innocent, pretension is always despicable.
9. To call a man a characteristically Oxford man is, in my opinion, to give him the highest compliment that could be paid to any human being.
10. Thrift of time will repay you in after-life with a thousandfold of profit beyond your most sanguine dreams.

William E. Gladstone Short Quotes

• Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home.
• Commerce is the equalizer of the wealth of nations.
• The ravages of drink are greater than those of war pestilence and famine combined.
• To be engaged in opposing wrong affords...but a slender guarantee for being right.
• Swimming for his life, a man does not see much of the country through which the river winds.
• To serve Armenia is to serve civilization.
• Is not that state a warning and a judgment for our heavy sins as a nation?
• It is the duty of government to make it difficult for people to do wrong, easy to do right.
• Man is to be trained chiefly by studying and by knowing man.
• Decision by majorities is as much an expedient as lighting by gas.

William E. Gladstone Quotes About Politics

You cannot fight against future. Time is on its side. — William E. Gladstone

I was tenaciously opposed by the governor and deputy-governor of the Bank, who had seats in parliament, and I had the City for an antagonist on almost every occasion. — William E. Gladstone

I venture to say that every man who is not presumably incapacitated by some consideration of personal unfitness or of political danger is morally entitled to come within the pale of the Constitution. — William E. Gladstone

Ireland, Ireland. That cloud in the west, that coming storm. That minister of God's retribution upon cruel, inveterate, and but half-atoned injustice! Ireland forces upon us those great social and great religious questions. God grant that we may have courage to look them in the face! — William E. Gladstone

William E. Gladstone Famous Quotes And Sayings

Show me the manner in which a nation or a community cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender sympathies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land and their loyalty to high ideals. — William E. Gladstone

Never forget that the purpose for which a man lives is the improvement of the man himself, so that he may go out of this world having, in his great sphere or his small one, done some little good for his fellow creatures and labored a little to diminish the sin and sorrow that are in the world. — William E. Gladstone

There is a limit to the work that can be got out of a human body or a human brain, and he is a wise man who wastes no energy on pursuits for which he is not fitted; and he is still wiser who, from among the things that he can do well, chooses and resolut — William E. Gladstone

As the British Constitution is the most subtle organism which has proceeded from progressive history, so the American Constitution is the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man. — William E. Gladstone

Censure and criticism never hurt anybody. If false, they can't hurt you unless you are wanting in manly character; and if true, they show a man his weak points, and forewarn him against failure and trouble. — William E. Gladstone

I think that the principle of the Conservative Party is jealousy of liberty and of the people, only qualified by fear; but I think the principle of the Liberal Party is trust in the people, only qualified by prudence. — William E. Gladstone

A rational reaction against irrational excesses and vagaries of skepticism may * * * readily degenerate into the rival folly of credulity. — William E. Gladstone

The American Revolution was a vindication of liberties inherited and possessed. It was a conservative revolution. — William E. Gladstone

A rational reaction against the irrational excesses and vagaries of scepticism may, I admit, readily degenerate into the rival folly of credulity. To be engaged in opposing wrong affords, under the conditions of our mental constitution, but a slender guarantee for being right. — William E. Gladstone

All the wonders of the Greek civilization heaped together are less wonderful than the single book of Psalms. Greece had all that this world could give her; but the flowers of Paradise blossomed in Palestine alone. — William E. Gladstone

Mediocrity is now, as formerly, dangerous, commonly fatal, to the poet; but among even the successful writers of prose, those who rise sensibly above it are the very rarest exceptions. — William E. Gladstone

The book must of necessity be put into a bookcase. And the bookcase must be housed. And the house must be kept. And the library must be dusted, must be arranged, must be catalogued. What a vista of toil, yet not unhappy toil! — William E. Gladstone

Nothing more surely cultivates and embellishes a man than association with refined and virtuous women. — William E. Gladstone

[The British constitution] presumes more boldly than any other the good sense and the good faith of those who work it. — William E. Gladstone

From the time I took office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, I began to learn that the State held, in the face of the Bank and the City, an essentially false position as to finance. The Government itself was not to be a substantive power, but was to leave the Money Power supreme and unquestioned. — William E. Gladstone

Letter to the committee in charge of the celebration of the centennial of the American Constitution. I have always regarded that Constitution as the most remarkable work known to me in modern times to have been produced by the human intellect, at a single stroke (so to speak), in its application to political affairs. — William E. Gladstone

The hopelessness of the Turkish Government should make me witness with delight its being swept out of the countries which it tortures. Next to the Ottoman Government nothing can be more deplorable and blameworthy than jealousies between Greek and Slav and plans by the States already existing for appropriating other territory. Why not Macedonia for the Macedonians as well as Bulgaria for the Bulgarians and Serbia for the Serbians? — William E. Gladstone

It is not a life at all. It is a reticence, in three volumes. — William E. Gladstone

Economy is the first and great article (economy such as I understand it) in my financial creed. The controversy between direct and indirect taxation holds a minor, though important place. — William E. Gladstone

I am certain, from experience, of the immense advantage of strict account-keeping in early life. It is just like learning the grammar then, which when once learned need not be referred to afterwards. — William E. Gladstone

I am inclined to say that the personal attendance and intervention of women in election proceedings, even apart from any suspicion of the wider objects of many of the promoters of the present movement, would be a practical evil not only of the gravest, but even of an intolerable character. — William E. Gladstone

The oppression of a majority is detestable and odious; the oppression of a minority is only by one degree less detestable and odious. — William E. Gladstone

The idea of abolishing Income Tax is to me highly attractive, both on other grounds and because it tends to public economy. — William E. Gladstone

If Germany is to become a colonizing power, all I say is, God speed her! She becomes our ally and partner in the execution of the great purposes of Providence for the advantage of mankind. — William E. Gladstone

It is no use for the honorable member to shake his head in the teeth of his own words. — William E. Gladstone

For works of the mind really great there is no old age, no decrepitude. It is inconceivable that a time should come when Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, should not ring in the ears of civilized man. — William E. Gladstone

Good laws make it easier to do right and harder to do wrong. — William E. Gladstone

I have known ninety-five of the world's great men in my time, and of these eighty-seven were followers of the Bible. — William E. Gladstone

The resources of civilization are not yet exhausted. — William E. Gladstone

Budgets are not merely affairs of arithmetic, but in a thousand ways go to the root of prosperity of individuals, the relation of classes and the strength of kingdoms. — William E. Gladstone

One example is worth a thousand arguments. — William E. Gladstone

The errors of former times are recorded for our instruction in order that we may avoid their repition. — William E. Gladstone

Avarice, where it has full dominion, excludes every other passion. — William E. Gladstone

I venture on assuring you that I regard the design formed by you and your friends with sincere interest, and in particular wish well to all the efforts you may make on behalf of individual freedom and independence as opposed to what is termed Collectivism. — William E. Gladstone

He is the purest figure in history. About George Washington — William E. Gladstone

It is difficult to see anything but infatuation in the destructive temperament which leads to the action ... that each of us is to rejoice that our several units are to be distinguished at death into countless millions of organisms; for such, it seems, is the latest revelation delivered from the fragile tripod of a modern Delphi. — William E. Gladstone

Life Lessons by William E. Gladstone

1. William E. Gladstone taught the importance of hard work and dedication to achieve success. He was a firm believer in the power of education and encouraged people to strive for knowledge. He also advocated for the importance of having a moral compass and doing what is right, no matter what the consequences may be.
2. William E. Gladstone was a strong advocate for social reform and believed in the power of the people to make positive changes in society. He was a passionate speaker and a tireless campaigner for justice and equality.
3. William E. Gladstone was a leader who understood the importance of compromise and understanding different perspectives. He was a firm believer in the power of dialogue and negotiation to reach a mutually beneficial outcome. He also believed in the importance of