Quotations from John L. Motley Works

by John Lothrop Motley

ENTIRE 1574-84 THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, by Motley[#35][jm35v10.txt]4835

A terrible animal, indeed, is an unbridled woman
A good lawyer is a bad Christian
A most fatal success
A common hatred united them, for a time at least
Absurd affectation of candor
Agreements were valid only until he should repent
All the majesty which decoration could impart
All Protestants were beheaded, burned, or buried alive
All claimed the privilege of persecuting
Always less apt to complain of irrevocable events
Amuse them with this peace negotiation
Are apt to discharge such obligations—(by) ingratitude
Arrive at their end by fraud, when violence will not avail them
As the old woman had told the Emperor Adrian
Attachment to a half-drowned land and to a despised religion
Barbara Blomberg, washerwoman of Ratisbon
Beautiful damsel, who certainly did not lack suitors
Believed in the blessed advent of peace
Blessing of God upon the Devil's work
Breath, time, and paper were profusely wasted and nothing gained
Bribed the Deity
Care neither for words nor menaces in any matter
Character of brave men to act, not to expect
Claimed the praise of moderation that their demands were so few
Colonel Ysselstein, "dismissed for a homicide or two"
Compassing a country's emancipation through a series of defeats
Conflicting claims of prerogative and conscience
Confused conferences, where neither party was entirely sincere
Country would bear his loss with fortitude
Customary oaths, to be kept with the customary conscientiousness
Daily widening schism between Lutherans and Calvinists
Deadliest of sins, the liberty of conscience
Difficult for one friend to advise another in three matters
Distinguished for his courage, his cruelty, and his corpulence
Don John of Austria
Don John was at liberty to be King of England and Scotland
Dying at so very inconvenient a moment
Eight thousand human beings were murdered
Establish not freedom for Calvinism, but freedom for conscience
Everything was conceded, but nothing was secured
Fanatics of the new religion denounced him as a godless man
Ferocity which even Christians could not have surpassed
Forgiving spirit on the part of the malefactor
Glory could be put neither into pocket nor stomach
God has given absolute power to no mortal man
Great error of despising their enemy
Happy to glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror
He had never enjoyed social converse, except at long intervals
He would have no Calvinist inquisition set up in its place
He would have no persecution of the opposite creed
His personal graces, for the moment, took the rank of virtues
Hope delayed was but a cold and meagre consolation
Human ingenuity to inflict human misery
I regard my country's profit, not my own
Imagined, and did the work of truth
In character and general talents he was beneath mediocrity
Indecision did the work of indolence
Insinuate that his orders had been hitherto misunderstood
It is not desirable to disturb much of that learned dust
Its humility, seemed sufficiently ironical
Judas Maccabaeus
King set a price upon his head as a rebel
Like a man holding a wolf by the ears
Local self-government which is the life-blood of liberty
Logical and historical argument of unmerciful length
Made no breach in royal and Roman infallibility
Mankind were naturally inclined to calumny
Men were loud in reproof, who had been silent
Mistake to stumble a second time over the same stone
Modern statesmanship, even while it practises, condemns
More easily, as he had no intention of keeping the promise
Natural to judge only by the result
Necessary to make a virtue of necessity
Neither wished the convocation, while both affected an eagerness
Neither ambitious nor greedy
No man ever understood the art of bribery more thoroughly
No authority over an army which they did not pay
No man could reveal secrets which he did not know
Not so successful as he was picturesque
Not upon words but upon actions
Not to fall asleep in the shade of a peace negotiation
Nothing was so powerful as religious difference
Of high rank but of lamentably low capacity
On the first day four thousand men and women were slaughtered
One-half to Philip and one-half to the Pope and Venice (slaves)
Our pot had not gone to the fire as often
Peace was desirable, it might be more dangerous than war
Peace, in reality, was war in its worst shape
Perfection of insolence
Plundering the country which they came to protect
Pope excommunicated him as a heretic
Power grudged rather than given to the deputies
Preferred an open enemy to a treacherous protector
Presumption in entitling themselves Christian
Preventing wrong, or violence, even towards an enemy
Proposition made by the wolves to the sheep, in the fable
Protect the common tranquillity by blood, purse, and life
Quite mistaken: in supposing himself the Emperor's child
Rebuked the bigotry which had already grown
Reformer who becomes in his turn a bigot is doubly odious
Reformers were capable of giving a lesson even to inquisitors
Republic, which lasted two centuries
Result was both to abandon the provinces and to offend Philip
Sentimentality that seems highly apocryphal
She knew too well how women were treated in that country
Superfluous sarcasm
Suppress the exercise of the Roman religion
Taxes upon income and upon consumption
The disunited provinces
The more conclusive arbitration of gunpowder
There is no man who does not desire to enjoy his own
They could not invent or imagine toleration
Those who "sought to swim between two waters"
Those who fish in troubled waters only to fill their own nets
Throw the cat against their legs
To hear the last solemn commonplaces
Toleration thought the deadliest heresy of all
Unduly dejected in adversity
Unremitted intellectual labor in an honorable cause
Usual phraseology of enthusiasts
Uunmeaning phrases of barren benignity
Volatile word was thought preferable to the permanent letter
Was it astonishing that murder was more common than fidelity?
Word-mongers who, could clothe one shivering thought
Worn crescents in their caps at Leyden
Worship God according to the dictates of his conscience
Writing letters full of injured innocence

ENTIRE 1555-84 THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, by Motley[#36][jm36v10.txt]4836

1566, the last year of peace
A country disinherited by nature of its rights
A pleasantry called voluntary contributions or benevolences
A good lawyer is a bad Christian
A terrible animal, indeed, is an unbridled woman
A common hatred united them, for a time at least
A most fatal success
Absolution for incest was afforded at thirty-six livres
Absurd affectation of candor
Achieved the greatness to which they had not been born
Advancing age diminished his tendency to other carnal pleasures
Advised his Majesty to bestow an annual bribe upon Lord Burleigh
Affecting to discredit them
Age when toleration was a vice
Agreements were valid only until he should repent
All offices were sold to the highest bidder
All denounced the image-breaking
All his disciples and converts are to be punished with death
All the majesty which decoration could impart
All reading of the scriptures (forbidden)
All Protestants were beheaded, burned, or buried alive
All claimed the privilege of persecuting
Altercation between Luther and Erasmus, upon predestination
Always less apt to complain of irrevocable events
Amuse them with this peace negotiation
An hereditary papacy, a perpetual pope-emperor
An inspiring and delightful recreation (auto-da-fe)
An age when to think was a crime
Angle with their dissimulation as with a hook
Announced his approaching marriage with the Virgin Mary
Annual harvest of iniquity by which his revenue was increased
Anxiety to do nothing wrong, the senators did nothing at all
Are apt to discharge such obligations—(by) ingratitude
Arrested on suspicion, tortured till confession
Arrive at their end by fraud, when violence will not avail them
As ready as papists, with age, fagot, and excommunication
As the old woman had told the Emperor Adrian
Attachment to a half-drowned land and to a despised religion
Attacking the authority of the pope
Attempting to swim in two waters
Barbara Blomberg, washerwoman of Ratisbon
Batavian legion was the imperial body guard
Beating the Netherlanders into Christianity
Beautiful damsel, who certainly did not lack suitors
Before morning they had sacked thirty churches
Beggars of the sea, as these privateersmen designated themselves
Believed in the blessed advent of peace
Bigotry which was the prevailing characteristic of the age
Bishop is a consecrated pirate
Blessing of God upon the Devil's work
Bold reformer had only a new dogma in place of the old ones
Breath, time, and paper were profusely wasted and nothing gained
Brethren, parents, and children, having wives in common
Bribed the Deity
Burned alive if they objected to transubstantiation
Burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive (100,000)
Business of an officer to fight, of a general to conquer
Care neither for words nor menaces in any matter
Character of brave men to act, not to expect
Charles the Fifth autocrat of half the world
Claimed the praise of moderation that their demands were so few
Colonel Ysselstein, "dismissed for a homicide or two"
Compassing a country's emancipation through a series of defeats
Conde and Coligny
Condemning all heretics to death
Conflicting claims of prerogative and conscience
Confused conferences, where neither party was entirely sincere
Consign to the flames all prisoners whatever (Papal letter)
Constitutional governments, move in the daylight
Consumer would pay the tax, supposing it were ever paid at all
Country would bear his loss with fortitude
Courage of despair inflamed the French
Craft meaning, simply, strength
Crescents in their caps: Rather Turkish than Popish
Criminal whose guilt had been established by the hot iron
Criminals buying Paradise for money
Cruelties exercised upon monks and papists
Crusades made great improvement in the condition of the serfs
Customary oaths, to be kept with the customary conscientiousness
Daily widening schism between Lutherans and Calvinists
Deadliest of sins, the liberty of conscience
Decrees for burning, strangling, and burying alive
Deeply criminal in the eyes of all religious parties
Democratic instincts of the ancient German savages
Denies the utility of prayers for the dead
Despot by birth and inclination (Charles V.)
Difference between liberties and liberty
Difficult for one friend to advise another in three matters
Dispute between Luther and Zwingli concerning the real presence
Dissenters were as bigoted as the orthodox
Dissimulation and delay
Distinguished for his courage, his cruelty, and his corpulence
Divine right
Don John of Austria
Don John was at liberty to be King of England and Scotland
Drank of the water in which, he had washed
Dying at so very inconvenient a moment
Eight thousand human beings were murdered
Endure every hardship but hunger
English Puritans
Enormous wealth (of the Church) which engendered the hatred
Enriched generation after generation by wealthy penitence
Enthusiasm could not supply the place of experience
Envying those whose sufferings had already been terminated
Erasmus encourages the bold friar
Erasmus of Rotterdam
Establish not freedom for Calvinism, but freedom for conscience
Even for the rape of God's mother, if that were possible
Ever-swarming nurseries of mercenary warriors
Everything was conceded, but nothing was secured
Excited with the appearance of a gem of true philosophy
Executions of Huss and Jerome of Prague
Fable of divine right is invented to sanction the system
Fanatics of the new religion denounced him as a godless man
Felix Mants, the anabaptist, is drowned at Zurich
Ferocity which even Christians could not have surpassed
Few, even prelates were very dutiful to the pope
Fiction of apostolic authority to bind and loose
Fifty thousand persons in the provinces (put to death)
Financial opposition to tyranny is apt to be unanimous
Fishermen and river raftsmen become ocean adventurers
For myself I am unworthy of the honor (of martyrdom)
For faithful service, evil recompense
For women to lament, for men to remember
Forbids all private assemblies for devotion
Force clerical—the power of clerks
Forgiving spirit on the part of the malefactor
Furious fanaticism
Furnished, in addition, with a force of two thousand prostitutes
Gallant and ill-fated Lamoral Egmont
Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band of pigmies
German finds himself sober—he believes himself ill
Glory could be put neither into pocket nor stomach
God has given absolute power to no mortal man
God Save the King! It was the last time
Govern under the appearance of obeying
Great Privilege, the Magna Charta of Holland
Great transactions of a reign are sometimes paltry things
Great science of political equilibrium
Great error of despising their enemy
Great battles often leave the world where they found it
Guarantees of forgiveness for every imaginable sin
Habeas corpus
Hair and beard unshorn, according to ancient Batavian custom
Halcyon days of ban, book and candle
Hanged for having eaten meat-soup upon Friday
Happy to glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror
Having conjugated his paradigm conscientiously
He did his best to be friends with all the world
He came as a conqueror not as a mediator
He would have no persecution of the opposite creed
He would have no Calvinist inquisition set up in its place
He had never enjoyed social converse, except at long intervals
He knew men, especially he knew their weaknesses
He had omitted to execute heretics
Heresy was a plant of early growth in the Netherlands
His imagination may have assisted his memory in the task
His personal graces, for the moment, took the rank of virtues
History shows how feeble are barriers of paper
Holland, England, and America, are all links of one chain
Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands
Hope delayed was but a cold and meagre consolation
Hope deferred, suddenly changing to despair
Human ingenuity to inflict human misery
I would carry the wood to burn my own son withal
I regard my country's profit, not my own
If he had little, he could live upon little
Imagined, and did the work of truth
In Holland, the clergy had neither influence nor seats
In character and general talents he was beneath mediocrity
Incur the risk of being charged with forwardness than neglect
Indecision did the work of indolence
Indignant that heretics had been suffered to hang
Informer, in case of conviction, should be entitled to one half
Inquisition was not a fit subject for a compromise
Inquisition of the Netherlands is much more pitiless
Insane cruelty, both in the cause of the Wrong and the Right
Insinuate that his orders had been hitherto misunderstood
Insinuating suspicions when unable to furnish evidence
Invented such Christian formulas as these (a curse)
Inventing long speeches for historical characters
It is not desirable to disturb much of that learned dust
Its humility, seemed sufficiently ironical
Judas Maccabaeus
July 1st, two Augustine monks were burned at Brussels
King set a price upon his head as a rebel
King of Zion to be pinched to death with red-hot tongs
Labored under the disadvantage of never having existed
Learn to tremble as little at priestcraft as at swordcraft
Leave not a single man alive in the city, and to burn every house
Let us fool these poor creatures to their heart's content
Licences accorded by the crown to carry slaves to America
Like a man holding a wolf by the ears
Little grievances would sometimes inflame more than vast
Local self-government which is the life-blood of liberty
Logical and historical argument of unmerciful length
Long succession of so many illustrious obscure
Look through the cloud of dissimulation
Luther's axiom, that thoughts are toll-free
Lutheran princes of Germany, detested the doctrines of Geneva
Made no breach in royal and Roman infallibility
Made to swing to and fro over a slow fire
Maintaining the attitude of an injured but forgiving Christian
Man had only natural wrongs (No natural rights)
Mankind were naturally inclined to calumny
Many greedy priests, of lower rank, had turned shop-keepers
Meantime the second civil war in France had broken out
Men were loud in reproof, who had been silent
Mistake to stumble a second time over the same stone
Modern statesmanship, even while it practises, condemns
Monasteries, burned their invaluable libraries
More accustomed to do well than to speak well
More easily, as he had no intention of keeping the promise
Natural to judge only by the result
Necessary to make a virtue of necessity
Neither wished the convocation, while both affected an eagerness
Neither ambitious nor greedy
No qualities whatever but birth and audacity to recommend him
No man could reveal secrets which he did not know
No law but the law of the longest purse
No calumny was too senseless to be invented
No one can testify but a householder
No man ever understood the art of bribery more thoroughly
No authority over an army which they did not pay
Not strong enough to sustain many more such victories
Not to fall asleep in the shade of a peace negotiation
Not for a new doctrine, but for liberty of conscience
Not to let the grass grow under their feet
Not so successful as he was picturesque
Not upon words but upon actions
Not of the stuff of which martyrs are made (Erasmus)
Nothing was so powerful as religious difference
Notre Dame at Antwerp
Nowhere was the persecution of heretics more relentless
Obstinate, of both sexes, to be burned
Of high rank but of lamentably low capacity
Often much tyranny in democracy
Oldenbarneveld; afterwards so illustrious
On the first day four thousand men and women were slaughtered
One-half to Philip and one-half to the Pope and Venice (slaves)
One golden grain of wit into a sheet of infinite platitude
Only kept alive by milk, which he drank from a woman's breast
Only healthy existence of the French was in a state of war
Orator was, however, delighted with his own performance
Others go to battle, says the historian, these go to war
Our pot had not gone to the fire as often
Panegyrists of royal houses in the sixteenth century
Pardon for crimes already committed, or about to be committed
Pardon for murder, if not by poison, was cheaper
Pathetic dying words of Anne Boleyn
Paying their passage through, purgatory
Peace, in reality, was war in its worst shape
Peace was desirable, it might be more dangerous than war
Perfection of insolence
Perpetually dropping small innuendos like pebbles
Persons who discussed religious matters were to be put to death
Petty passion for contemptible details
Philip, who did not often say a great deal in a few words
Planted the inquisition in the Netherlands
Plundering the country which they came to protect
Poisoning, for example, was absolved for eleven ducats
Pope and emperor maintain both positions with equal logic
Pope excommunicated him as a heretic
Power to read and write helped the clergy to much wealth
Power grudged rather than given to the deputies
Preferred an open enemy to a treacherous protector
Premature zeal was prejudicial to the cause
Presumption in entitling themselves Christian
Preventing wrong, or violence, even towards an enemy
Procrastination was always his first refuge
Promises which he knew to be binding only upon the weak
Proposition made by the wolves to the sheep, in the fable
Protect the common tranquillity by blood, purse, and life
Provided not one Huguenot be left alive in France
Purchased absolution for crime and smoothed a pathway to heaven
Put all those to the torture out of whom anything can be got
Questioning nothing, doubting nothing, fearing nothing
Quite mistaken: in supposing himself the Emperor's child
Rashness alternating with hesitation
Readiness to strike and bleed at any moment in her cause
Rearing gorgeous temples where paupers are to kneel
Rebuked the bigotry which had already grown
Reformer who becomes in his turn a bigot is doubly odious
Reformers were capable of giving a lesson even to inquisitors
Repentant females to be buried alive
Repentant males to be executed with the sword
Republic, which lasted two centuries
Result was both to abandon the provinces and to offend Philip
Revocable benefices or feuds
Ruinous honors
Saint Bartholomew's day
Sale of absolutions was the source of large fortunes to the priests
Same conjury over ignorant baron and cowardly hind
Scaffold was the sole refuge from the rack
Scepticism, which delights in reversing the judgment of centuries
Schism which existed in the general Reformed Church
Science of reigning was the science of lying
Scoffing at the ceremonies and sacraments of the Church
Secret drowning was substituted for public burning
Sent them word by carrier pigeons
Sentimentality that seems highly apocryphal
Seven Spaniards were killed, and seven thousand rebels
Sharpened the punishment for reading the scriptures in private
She knew too well how women were treated in that country
Sick and wounded wretches were burned over slow fires
Slavery was both voluntary and compulsory
Slender stock of platitudes
So much responsibility and so little power
Soldier of the cross was free upon his return
Sometimes successful, even although founded upon sincerity
Sonnets of Petrarch
Sovereignty was heaven-born, anointed of God
Spendthrift of time, he was an economist of blood
St. Bartholomew was to sleep for seven years longer
St. Peter's dome rising a little nearer to the clouds
Storm by which all these treasures were destroyed (in 7 days)
Superfluous sarcasm
Suppress the exercise of the Roman religion
Tanchelyn
Taxation upon sin
Taxes upon income and upon consumption
Ten thousand two hundred and twenty individuals were burned
That vile and mischievous animal called the people
The noblest and richest temple of the Netherlands was a wreck
The Gaul was singularly unchaste
The vivifying becomes afterwards the dissolving principle
The bad Duke of Burgundy, Philip surnamed "the Good,"
The greatest crime, however, was to be rich
The more conclusive arbitration of gunpowder
The disunited provinces
The faithful servant is always a perpetual ass
The time for reasoning had passed
The perpetual reproductions of history
The egg had been laid by Erasmus, hatched by Luther
The illness was a convenient one
The calf is fat and must be killed
The tragedy of Don Carlos
There is no man who does not desire to enjoy his own
These human victims, chained and burning at the stake
They could not invent or imagine toleration
They had at last burned one more preacher alive
Those who "sought to swim between two waters"
Those who fish in troubled waters only to fill their own nets
Thousands of burned heretics had not made a single convert
Three hundred fighting women
Throw the cat against their legs
Thus Hand-werpen, hand-throwing, became Antwerp
Time and myself are two
To think it capable of error, is the most devilish heresy of all
To hear the last solemn commonplaces
To prefer poverty to the wealth attendant upon trade
Toleration thought the deadliest heresy of all
Torquemada's administration (of the inquisition)
Tranquillity of despotism to the turbulence of freedom
Two witnesses sent him to the stake, one witness to the rack
Tyrannical spirit of Calvinism
Tyranny, ever young and ever old, constantly reproducing herself
Understood the art of managing men, particularly his superiors
Unduly dejected in adversity
Unremitted intellectual labor in an honorable cause
Upon one day twenty-eight master cooks were dismissed
Usual phraseology of enthusiasts
Uunmeaning phrases of barren benignity
Villagers, or villeins
Volatile word was thought preferable to the permanent letter
Was it astonishing that murder was more common than fidelity?
We believe our mothers to have been honest women
We are beginning to be vexed
Wealth was an unpardonable sin
Weep oftener for her children than is the usual lot of mothers
When the abbot has dice in his pocket, the convent will play
Who loved their possessions better than their creed
William of Nassau, Prince of Orange
Wiser simply to satisfy himself
Wonder equally at human capacity to inflict and to endure misery
Word-mongers who, could clothe one shivering thought
Worn crescents in their caps at Leyden
Worship God according to the dictates of his conscience
Would not help to burn fifty or sixty thousand Netherlanders
Writing letters full of injured innocence

HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1584 by Motley[#37][jm37v10.txt]4837

Diplomatic adroitness consists mainly in the power to deceive
Enmity between Lutherans and Calvinists
Find our destruction in our immoderate desire for peace
German-Lutheran sixteenth-century idea of religious freedom
Intentions of a government which did not know its own intentions
Lord was better pleased with adverbs than nouns
Make sheep of yourselves, and the wolf will eat you
Necessity of kingship
Neighbour's blazing roof was likely soon to fire their own
Nor is the spirit of the age to be pleaded in defence
Pauper client who dreamed of justice at the hands of law
Seem as if born to make the idea of royalty ridiculous
Shutting the stable-door when the steed is stolen
String of homely proverbs worthy of Sancho Panza
The very word toleration was to sound like an insult
There was apathy where there should have been enthusiasm
Tranquillity rather of paralysis than of health
Write so illegibly or express himself so awkwardly

HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1584-85 by Motley[#38][jm38v10.txt]4838

Hibernian mode of expressing himself
His inordinate arrogance
His insolence intolerable
Humility which was but the cloak to his pride
Longer they delay it, the less easy will they find it
Oration, fertile in rhetoric and barren in facts
Round game of deception, in which nobody was deceived
'Twas pity, he said, that both should be heretics
Wasting time fruitlessly is sharpening the knife for himself
With something of feline and feminine duplicity

HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1585 by Motley[#39][jm39v10.txt]4839

College of "peace-makers," who wrangled more than all
Military virtue in the support of an infamous cause
Not distinguished for their docility
Repentance, as usual, had come many hours too late