Charles James Fox Quotations

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

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.

Persecution always says, 'I know the consequences of your opinion better than you know them yourselves.' But the language of toleration was always amicable, liberal, and just: it confessed its doubts, and acknowledged its ignorance ... Persecution had always reasoned from cause to effect, from opinion to action, [that such an opinion would invariably lead to but one action], which proved generally erroneous; while toleration led us invariably to form just conclusions, by judging from actions and not from opinions.

the question now was...whether that beautiful fabric [the English constitution]...was to be maintained in that freedom...for which blood had been spilt; or whether we were to submit to that system of despotism, which had so many advocates in this country.

What acquaintance have the people at large with the arena of political rectitude, with the connections of kingdoms, the resources of national strength, the abilities of ministers, or even with their own dispositions?...I pay no regard whatever to the voice of the people: it is their duty to do what is proper, without considering what may be agreeable.

Opinions become dangerous to a state only when persecution makes it necessary for the people to communicate their ideas under the bond of secrecy.

The worst of revolutions is a restoration.

All political power is a trust.

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.

a greater evil than the restoration of the Bourbons to the world in general, and England in particular, can hardly happen.

Peace is the wish of the French of Italy Spain Germany and all the world, and Great Britain alone the cause of preventing its accomplishment, and this not for any point of honour or even interest, but merely lest there should be an example in the modern world of a great powerful Republic.

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

So fully am I impressed with the vast importance and necessity of attaining what will be the object of my motion this night, that if, during the almost forty years that I have had the honour of a seat in parliament, I had been so fortunate as to accomplish that, and that only, I should think I had done enough, and could retire from public life with comfort, and the conscious satisfaction, that I had done my duty.

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

Bonaparte's wish is Peace, nay that he is afraid of war to the last degree.

Our Sovereign's Health, the Majesty of the People.

[Napoleon has now] surpassed...Alexander & Caesar, not to mention the great advantage he has over them in the Cause he fights in.

There is a spirit of resistance implanted by the Deity in the breast of man, proportioned to the size of the wrongs he is destined to endure.

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

Any thing that proves that it is not in the power of Kings and Princes by their great armies to have every thing their own way is of such good example that without any good will to the French one can not help being delighted by it, and you know I have a natural partiality to what some people call rebels.

No human government has a right to enquire into private opinions, to presume that it knows them, or to act on that presumption. Men are the best judges of the consequences of their own opinions, and how far they are likely to influence their actions; and it is most unnatural and tyrannical to say, "as you think, so must you act. I will collect the evidence of your future conduct from what I know to be your opinions."

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.

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