Quotes from Charles James Fox

Illustrious man! deriving honor less from the splendor of his situation than from the dignity of his mind.

There is no man who hates the power of the crown more, or who has a worse opinion of the Person to whom it belongs than I.

All political power is a trust.

There is not a power in Europe, no not even Bonaparte's that is so unlimited [as the British monarchy].

He was uniformly of an opinion which, though not a popular one, he was ready to aver, that the right of governing was not property, but a trust.

Kings govern by popular assemblies only when they cannot do without them.

Toleration in religion was one of the great rights of man, and a man ought never to be deprived of what was his natural right.

The worst of revolutions is a restoration.

How much the greatest event it is that ever happened in the world! And how much the best!

I prefer the hardest terms of peace to the most just war.

No one could be so wise as Thurlow looked.

Men are entitled to equal rights-but to equal rights to unequal things.

[On the fall of the Bastille:] How much the greatest event it is that ever happened in the world! and how much the best!

All political power is a trust.

He that is conscious of guilt cannot bear the innocence of others:So they will try to reduce all others to their own level.

It is intolerable that it should be in the power of one blockhead to do so much mischief.

Action, not principle is the object of law and legislation; with a person's principles no government has any right to interfere.

If you silence remonstrance and stifle complaint, you then leave no other alternative but force and violence.