Quotes About Witt

Thus, then, on the 20th of August, 1672, as we have already stated in the beginning of this chapter, the whole town was crowding towards the Buytenhof, to witness the departure of Cornelius de Witt from prison, as he was going to exile; and to see what traces the torture of the rack had left on the noble frame of the man who knew his Horace so well.

Has not, they would say, this Cornelius de Witt been locked up and broken by the rack? Shall we not see him pale, streaming with blood, covered with shame? And was not this a sweet triumph for the burghers of the Hague, whose envy even beat that of the common rabble; a triumph in which every honest citizen and townsman might be expected to share?

but pride only helps us to be generous; it never makes us so, any more than vanity makes us witt