Neither do I acknowledge the right of Plymouth to the whole rock. No, the rock underlies all America: it only crops out here.
Wendell PhillipsGod gives manhood but one clew to success,--utter and exact justice; that he guarantees shall be always expediency.
Wendell PhillipsEvery step of progress the world has made has been from scaffold to scaffold, and from stake to stake.
Wendell PhillipsTruth is one forever absolute, but opinion is truth filtered through the moods, the blood, the disposition of the spectator.
Wendell PhillipsPolitical convulsions, like geological upheavings usher in new epochs of the world's progress.
Wendell PhillipsThe paleontological evidence before us today clearly demonstrates ordered progressive change with the successive development of new faunal and floral assemblages through the changing epochs of our earth's history. There should be no real conflict between science, which is the search for truth, and Christ's teachings, which I hold to be truth itself. It is only when scientists remove God from creation that the Christian is faced with an irreconcilable situation.
Wendell PhillipsTo hear some men talk of the government, you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation, and kept the planets in their places.
Wendell PhillipsRevolution is the only thing, the only power, that ever worked out freedom for any people. The powers that have ruled long and learned to love ruling, will never give up that prerogative until they must, till they see the certainty of overthrow and destruction if they do not. To plant-to revolutionize-these are the twin stars that have ruled our pathway. What have we then to dread in the word Revolution-we, the children of rebels!
Wendell PhillipsGovernment 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 PhillipsWhat gunpowder did for war, the printing-press has done for the mind; and the statesman is no longer clad in the steel of special education, but every reading man is his judge.
Wendell PhillipsMy advice to a young man seeking deathless fame would be to espouse an unpopular cause and devote his life to it.
Wendell PhillipsThe 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 PhillipsIt 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 PhillipsGovernment 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 PhillipsExperience is a safe light to walk by, and he is not a rash man who expects to succeed in future from the same means which have secured it in times past.
Wendell PhillipsTake the whole range of imaginative literature, and we are all wholesale borrowers. In every matter that relates to invention, to use, or beauty or form, we are borrowers.
Wendell PhillipsBaron Grimm declared that, as a rule, it was easy for little minds to attain splendid positions, because they devoted all their ability to the one object.
Wendell PhillipsGovernments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and the rich need no protection: they have many friends and few enemies.
Wendell PhillipsWhat is defeat? Nothing but education, nothing but the first step to something better.
Wendell PhillipsBrains 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