Quotes from Wendell Phillips

Many know how to flatter, few know how to praise.

One on God's side is a majority.

Revolutions are not made, they come.

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

Write on my gravestone: 'Infidel, Traitor.', infidel to every church that compromises with wrong; traitor to every government that oppresses the people.

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

What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.

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

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

External vigilance is the price of liberty.

When I want to find the vanguard of the people I look to the uneasy dreams of an aristocracy and find what they dread most.

Republics exist only on the tenure of being constantly agitated.... There is no republican road to safety but in constant distrust.

Law is nothing unless close behind it stands a warm, living public opinion.

Christianity is a battle, not a dream.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Great political questions stir the deepest nature of one-half the nation, but they pass far above and over the heads of the other half.

Agitation prevents rebellion, keeps the peace, and secures progress. Every step she gains is gained forever. Muskets are the weapons of animals. Agitation is the atmosphere of the brains.

Peace, if possible, but justice at any rate.