Quote

Agitation is the atmosphere of the brains.

Wendell Phillips

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Wendell Phillips
Age: 72 †
Born: 1811
Born: November 29
Died: 1884
Died: February 2
Jurist
Lawyer
Politician
Boston
Massachusetts
Atmosphere
Brain
Agitation
Brains

More quotes by Wendell Phillips

Image
The community which does not protect its humblest and most hated member in the free utterance of his opinions, no matter how false or hateful, is only a gang of slaves. If there is anything in the universe that can't stand discussion, let it crack.
Wendell Phillips
Image
The republic which sinks to sleep, trusting to constitutions and machinery, to politicians and statesmen, for the safety of its liberties, never will have any.
Wendell Phillips
Image
No class is safe unless government is so arranged that each class has in its hands the means of protecting itself. That is the idea of republics.
Wendell Phillips
Image
Every government is always growing corrupt.
Wendell Phillips
Image
Today it is not big business that we have to fear. It is big government.
Wendell Phillips
Image
We live under a government of men and morning newspapers.
Wendell Phillips
Image
The press is the exclusive literature of the million to them it is literature, church, and college.
Wendell Phillips
Image
Health lies in labor, and there is no royal road to it but through toil.
Wendell Phillips
Image
Many men know how to flatter, few men know how to praise.
Wendell Phillips
Image
Statutes are mere milestone, telling how far yesterday's thought had traveled and the talk of the sidewalk today is the law of the land. With us, law in nothing unless close behind it stands a warm, living public opinion.
Wendell Phillips
Image
The best education in the world is that got by struggling to get a living.
Wendell Phillips
Image
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.
Wendell Phillips
Image
There is nothing stronger than human prejudice. A crazy sentimentalism, like that of Peter the Hermit, hurled half of Europe upon Asia, and changed the destinies of kingdoms.
Wendell Phillips
Image
Government is only a necessary evil, like other go-carts and crutches. Our need of it shows exactly how far we are still children. All governing overmuch kills the self-help and energy of the governed.
Wendell Phillips
Image
It is easy to be independent when all behind you agree with you, but the difficulty comes when nine hundred and ninety-nine of your friends think you are wrong.
Wendell Phillips
Image
Hearts are stronger than swords.
Wendell Phillips
Image
Government arrogates to itself that it alone forms men. Everybody knows that government never began anything. It is the whole world that thinks and governs.
Wendell Phillips
Image
The reformer is careless of numbers, disregards popularity, and deals only with ideas, conscience, and common sense. He feels, with Copernicus, that as God waited long for an interpreter, so he can wait for his followers.
Wendell Phillips
Image
Brains and character rule the world. The most distinguished Frenchman of the last century said: Men succeed less by their talents than their character. There were scores of men a hundred years ago who had more intellect than Washington. He outlives and overrides them all by the influence of his character.
Wendell Phillips
Image
Government began in tyranny and force, began in the feudalism of the soldier and bigotry of the priest and the ideas of justice and humanity have been fighting their way, like a thunderstorm, against the organized selfishness of human nature.
Wendell Phillips