Great Throughts Treasury

"He who stops being better stops being good."

"Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will."

"None climbs so high as he who knows not whether he is going."

"Though peace be made, yet it is interest that keeps peace."

"Not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking."

"A few honest men are better than numbers."

"Do not trust to the cheering, for those very persons would shout as much if you and I were going to be hanged."

"We study the glory of God, and the honour and liberty of parliament, for which we unanimously fight, without seeking our own interests... I profess I could never satisfy myself on the justness of this war, but from the authority of the parliament to maintain itself in its rights; and in this cause I hope to prove myself an honest man and single-hearted. "

"Necessity hath no law. Feigned necessities, imagined necessities... are the greatest cozenage that men can put upon the Providence of God, and make pretenses to break known rules by."

"Men have been led in dark paths, through the providence and dispensation of God. Why, surely it is not to be objected to a man, for who can love to walk in the dark? But providence doth often so dispose."

"Keep your faith in God, but keep your powder dry."

"Nature can do more than physicians. "

"Consider that ye may be wrong."

""I am," said he, "as much for a government by consent as any man; but where shall we find that consent? Amongst the Prelatical, Presbyterian, Independent, Anabaptist, or Leveling Parties?"... then he fell into the commendation of his own government, boasting of the protection and quiet which the people enjoyed under it, saying, that he was resolved to keep the nation from being imbrued in blood. I said that I was of the opinion too much blood had already been shed, unless there were a better account of it. "You do well," said he, "to charge us with the guilt of blood; but we think there is a good return for what hath been shed.""

"A man never rises so high as when he knows not whither he is going."

"A devotee of law, he was forced to be often lawless; a civilian to the core, he had to maintain himself by the sword; with a passion to construct, his task was chiefly to destroy; the most scrupulous of men, he had to ride roughshod over his own scruples and those of others; the tenderest, he had continually to harden his heart; the most English of our greater figures, he spent his life in opposition to the majority of Englishmen; a realist, he was condemned to build that which could not last."

"A man-of-war is the best ambassador."

"A complex character such as that of Cromwell, is incapable of creation, except in times of great civil and religious excitement, and one cannot judge of the man without at the same time considering the contending elements by which he was surrounded. It is possible to take his character to pieces, and, selecting one or other of his qualities as a corner-stone, to build around it a monument which will show him as a patriot or a plotter, a Christian man or a hypocrite, a demon or a demi-god as the sculptor may choose."

"A perfect master of all the arts of dissimulation: who, turning up the whites of his eyes, and seeking the Lord with pious gestures, will weep and pray, and cant most devoutly, till an opportunity offers of dealing his dupe a knock-down blow under the short ribs."

"At dinner we talked much of Cromwell, all saying he was a brave fellow and did owe his crown he got to himself, as much as any man that ever got one."

"As to your own person the title of King would be of no advantage, because you have the full Kingly power in you already... I apprehend indeed, less envy and danger, and pomp, but not less power, and real opportunities of doing good in your being General than would be if you had assumed the title of King."

"As for that famous and magnanimous commander, Lieutenant-General Cromwell, whose prowess and prudence, as they have rendered him most renowned for many former successful deeds of chivalry, so in this fight they have crowned him with the never withering laurels of fame and honor, who with so lion-like courage and impregnable animosity, charged his proudest adversaries again and again, like a Roman Marcellus indeed....and at last came off, as with some wounds, so with honor and triumph inferior to none."

"Cruel necessity."

"Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud, not of war only, but detractions rude, by faith and matchless fortitude, to peace and truth thy glorious way has ploughed and on the neck of crowned fortune proud has reared God?s trophies, and his work pursued, while Darwen stream with blood of Scots imbrued, and Dunbar field resounds thy praises loud, and Worcester?s laureate wreath. Yet much remains to conquer still; peace hath her victories No less renowned than war: new foes arise, Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains: Help us to save free conscience from the paw of hireling wolves whose gospel is their maw."

"Generally he respected, or at least pretended a love to, all ingenious persons in any arts, whom he arranged to be sent or brought to him. But the niggardliness and incompetence of his reward shewed that this man was a personated act of greatness, and that Private Cromwell yet governed Prince Oliver."

"Cromwell was a man in whom ambition had not wholly suppressed, but only suspended, the sentiments of religion."

"Does a man speak foolishly? - suffer him gladly, for you are wise. Does he speak erroneously? - stop such a man's mouth with sound words that cannot be gainsaid. Does he speak truly? - rejoice in the truth."

"During a great part of the eighteenth century most Tories hated him because he overthrew the monarchy, most Whigs because he overthrew Parliament. Since Carlyle wrote, all liberals have seen in him their champion, and all revolutionists have apotheosized the first great representatives of their school; while, on the other side, their opponents have hailed the dictator who put down anarchy. Unless the socialists or the anarchists finally prevail ? and perhaps even then ? his fame seems as secure as human reputation is likely to be in a changing world."

"God made them as stubble to our swords."

"He has arrogated to himself despotic authority and the actual sovereignty of these realms under the mask of humility and the public service... Obedience and submission were never so manifest in England as at present... their spirits are so crushed? yet... they dare not rebel and only murmur under their breath, though all live in hope of the fulfilment one day of the prophecies foretelling a change of rule ere long."

"God has brought us where we are, to consider the work we may do in the world, as well as at home."

"He was a practical mystic, the most formidable and terrible of all combinations, uniting an aspiration derived from the celestial and supernatural with the energy of a mighty man of action; a great captain, but off the field seeming, like a thunderbolt, the agent of greater forces than himself; no hypocrite, but a defender of the faith; the raiser and maintainer of the Empire of England."

"He lived a hypocrite and died a traitor."

"He would sometimes be very cheerful with us, and laying aside his greatness he would be exceeding familiar with us, and by way of diversion would make verses with us, and everyone must try his fancy. He commonly called for tobacco, pipes, and a candle, and would now and then take tobacco himself; then he would fall again to his serious and great business."

"He was of a sanguine complexion, naturally of such a vivacity, hilarity and alacrity as another man is when he hath drunken a cup too much."

"He thought secrecy a virtue, and dissimulation no vice, and simulation, that is in plain English, a lie, or perfidiousness to be a tolerable fault in case of necessity."

"His body was wel compact and strong, his stature under 6 foote ( I beleeve about two inches) his head so shaped, as you might see it a storehouse and shop both of vast tresury of natural parts. His temper exceeding fyery as I have known, but the flame of it kept downe, for the most part, or soon allayed with those moral endowments he had. He was naturally compassionate towards objects in distresse, even to an effeminate measure; though God had made him a heart, wherein was left little roume for any feare, but what was due to himselfe, of which there was a large proportion, yet did he exceed in tenderness towards suffrerers. A larger soule, I thinke, hath seldom dwelt in a house of clay than his was."

"I am neither heir nor executor to Charles Stuart."

"His character does not appear more extraordinary and unusual by the mixture of so much absurdity with so much penetration, than by his tempering such violent ambition, and such enraged fanaticism with so much regard to justice and humanity."

"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken."

"I beseech you, dear brethren, think it possible that you may be wrong."

"His grandeur he deriv?d from heaven alone, for he was great e?er fortune made him so and wars like mists that rise against the sun made him but greater seem, not greater grow. No borrow?d bays his temple did adorn, but to our Crown he did fresh jewels bring; nor was his virtue poison?d soon as born, with the too early thoughts of being King."

"I confess I have an interest in this Mr. Cromwell; and indeed, if truth must be said, in him alone. The rest are historical, dead to me; but he is epic, still living. Hail to thee, thou strong one; hail across the longdrawn funeral-aisle and night of time!"

"I could not riding out alone about my business, but smile out to god in praises, in assurance of victory because god would, by things that are not, bring to naught things that are."

"I do not believe that this is an evil king. But he is confused. And he cannot say no to his wife. Therefore if it please God I shall raise an army of men who are not confused. Stern men who say no to the tyranny of kings and wives. Men who make no confusion over the ordained place of man and woman, king and subject. And with these stern, God-fearing men, I shall ride. And we shall be called Ironsides because we are like iron, being hard both day and night. And the king shall find us unyielding, like a rod of iron, and shall give us satisfaction. Like our wives!"

"I desire not to keep my place in this government an hour longer than I may preserve England in it?s just rights, and may protect the people of god in such a just liberty of their consciences...."

"I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else."

"I need pity. I know what I feel. Great place and business in the world is not worth looking after."

"I have not the particular shining bauble or feather in my cap for crowds to gaze at or kneel to, but I have power and resolution for foes to tremble at."

"I tell you we will cut off his head with the crown upon it."