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[For Salisbury's thoughts on Romania, click here.]
No lesson seems to be so deeply inculcated by the experience of life as that you should never trust experts. If you believe doctors, nothing is wholesome: if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent: if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe. They all require their strong wine diluted by a very large admixture of insipid common sense.
No lesson seems to be so deeply inculcated by the experience of life as that you should never trust experts. If you believe doctors, nothing is wholesome: if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent: if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe. They all require their strong wine diluted by a very large admixture of insipid common sense.
Letter to Lord Lytton (15 June 1877)
After all, the great characteristic of this country is that it is a free country, and by a free country I mean a country where people are allowed, so long as they do not hurt their neighbours, to do as they like. I do not mean a country where six men may make five men do exactly as they like. That is not my notion of freedom.
Speech to the third annual banquet of the Kingston and District Working Men's Conservative Association (13 June, 1883).
...if our ancestors had cared for the
rights of other people, the British empire would not have been made.
Salisbury to the Cabinet (8 March 1878),
from John Vincent (ed.), The Diaries of Edward Henry Stanley, Fifteenth
Earl of Derby (London: The Royal Historical Society, 1994), p. 523
A party whose mission is to live entirely
upon the discovery of grievances are apt to manufacture the element upon which
they subsist.
Speech at Edinburgh (24 November 1882),
from in G. Cecil, The Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury. Volume III, p.
65
...institutions like the House of Lords
must die, like all other organic beings, when their time comes.
Letter to Alfred Austin (29 April 1888)
...though it is England's right to enforce
the law of Europe [i.e. treaties] as between contending states, she has no
claim, so long as her own interests are untouched, to interfere in the national
affairs of any country, whatever the extent of its misgovernment or its
anarchy.
...the common sense of Christendom has
always prescribed for national policy principles diametrically opposed to those
that are laid down in the Sermon on the Mount.
Saturday Review, 17, 1864, pp. 129–30
A Government which is strong enough to hold
its own will generally command an acquiescence which with all but very
speculative minds, is the equivalent of contentment.
Quarterly Review, 117, 1865, p. 550
Salisbury said two things which are more decided than any former utterances of his: that Russia at Constantinople would do us no harm: and that we ought to seize Egypt.
Salisbury to the Cabinet (16 June 1877), from John Vincent (ed.), The Diaries of Edward Henry Stanley, Fifteenth Earl of Derby
Salisbury to the Cabinet (16 June 1877), from John Vincent (ed.), The Diaries of Edward Henry Stanley, Fifteenth Earl of Derby
The federation of Europe is the only hope we have; but that federation is only to be maintained by observing the conditions on which every Legislature must depend, on which every judicial system must be based—the engagements into which it enters must be respected.
Speech in
the House of Lords (19 March 1897)
[I read somewhere in Google Books Lord Salisbury writing that Poles complain about the partition of Poland in the eighteenth century but they partitioned the Ukraine with Sweden in the seventeenth century. I cannot find the quotation. He thought Poland in his time could not exist as an independent state and could only hope for autonomy within Russia.]
[I read somewhere in Google Books Lord Salisbury writing that Poles complain about the partition of Poland in the eighteenth century but they partitioned the Ukraine with Sweden in the seventeenth century. I cannot find the quotation. He thought Poland in his time could not exist as an independent state and could only hope for autonomy within Russia.]
That quote is exactly what is wrong with Brexit and why 48.6% of the electorate have sworn to their bones to oppose or reverse it.
ReplyDeleteWhat an ill informed anonymous person. 48.6% of the electorate have not sworn to oppose or reverse it. Most Remain voters respect the outcome of the referendum, naturally.
DeleteWhat an out of touch Brexiters, talked to many 48%'s lately? Like it or not the polls are swinging back nobody respects the result of a skewed poll
DeleteLord Salisbury was a libertarian?
ReplyDeleteA conservative. A real one. Pessimistic and Christian, a lover of freedom and of his country.
DeleteLabels change over time. From this quote alone, I would deduce he could be labeled a "classical liberal" (i.e. libertarian). One can be both libertarian, and Christian and patriotic. For an example pertaining to Romanian culture, I would suggest reading up on Nicu Steinhardt - he was a very erudite convert to Christianity who was imprisoned for many years, and his writings are very deep and interesting. He strikes me as very libertarianish (relying on cultural norms and religious sentiments to guide behavior in the context of free will, rather than through laws and the bureaucratic apparatus).
DeleteThis old-school liberalism is a very different mentality from today's, where various leftist/collectivist/tribe-focused ideologies (whether they are called progressivism, native populism, neoconservatism, etc.) fight over the spoils. Lord Salisbury's notion of freedom is no longer exists in the West. It's not politically advantageous in a modern democracy to proclaim the right of the individual, when you could achieve electoral success by buying off large groups of voters at a time.
"After all, the great characteristic of this country is that it is a free country, and by a free country I mean a country where people are allowed, so long as they do not hurt their neighbours, to do as they like. I do not mean a country where six men may make five men do exactly as they like. That is not my notion of freedom."
"No lesson seems to be so deeply inculcated by the experience of life as that you should never trust experts. If you believe doctors, nothing is wholesome: if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent: if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe. They all require their strong wine diluted by a very large admixture of insipid common sense."
ReplyDeleteOr, as Granpa Newguy would say, "Never ask a barber if you need a haircut."
I loved Michael Gove for saying the country is tired of experts. I am tired of the unexamined premises of left wing academics, particularly historians.
Delete'I held with the great Lord Salisbury that cooperation with Russia was a wiser course than hostility.' A.J.P. Taylor
ReplyDeleteThe Europeans wanted gold and slaves, like everybody else; but at the same time they wanted statues put up to themselves as people who had done good things for the slaves.
ReplyDeleteV. S. Naipaul
I wish I had read Naipaul. I had his 'Among the Believers' and gave it away unread - after Sept 11th it became horribly topical.
Delete