“Hitherto, we have been told that our navy was the glory of the country, and that our maritime commerce and extensive manufactures were the mainstays of the realm. We have also been told that the land has its share in our greatness, and should be justly considered as the pride and glory of England. The Bank, also, has put in its claim to share in this praise, and has stated that public credit is due to it; but now, a most surprising discovery has been made, namely, that our superiority over other nations is owing to 300,00 little girls in Lancashire.”
“Protestations of impartiality I shall make none. Theyare always useless and are besides perfect nonsense, when used bya news-monger.”
“All Middlesex is ugly, notwithstanding the millions upon millionswhichit iscontinuallysucking up fromtherestof the kingdom.”
“DEAL is a most villainous place. It is full of filthy-looking people.Great desolationof abomination has beengoing on here.”
“The town of GUILDFORD, which (taken with its environs) I, who have seen so many, many towns, think the prettiest, and, taken all together, the most agreeable and most happy-looking, that I ever saw in my life.”
“The ancient nobility and gentry of the kingdom... have been thrust out of all public employment... a race of merchants, and manufacturers and bankers and loan-jobbers and contractors have usurped their place.”
“I cannot... perceive any ground for hoping that any practical good would, while the funding system exists in its present extent, result from the adoption of any of those projects, which have professed to have in view what is called Parliamentary Reform... when the funding system, from whatever cause, shall cease to operate upon civil and political liberty, there will be no need of projects for parliamentary reform. The parliament will, as far as shall be necessary, then reform itself.”
“Having still in my recollection so many excellent men, to whose grandfathers, upon the same spots, my grandfather had yielded cheerful obedience and reverence, it is not without sincere sorrow that I have beheld many of the sons of these men driven from their fathers' mansions, or holding them as little better than tenants or stewards, while the swarms of Placemen, Pensioners, Contractors, and Nabobs... have usurped a large part of the soil.”
“All my plans in private life; all my pursuits; all my designs, wishes, and thoughts, have this one great object in view: the overthrow of the ruffian Boroughmongers. If I write grammars; if I write on agriculture; if I sow, plant, or deal in seeds; whatever I do has first in view the destruction of those infamous tyrants.”
“But what is to be the fate of the great wen of all? The monster, called, by the silly coxcombs of the press, "the metropolis of the empire"?”
Source: Rural Rides (Two Volumes in One)
“Good government is known from bad government by this infallible test: that under the former the labouring people are well fed and well clothed, and under the latter, they are badly fed and badly clothed.”
Source: The Progress of a Plough-boy to a Seat in Parliament: As Exemplified in the History of the Life of William Cobbett, Member for Oldham
“But I do not remember ever having seen a newspaper in the house; and, most certainly, that privation did not render us less industrious, happy, or free.”
Source: Beauties of Cobbett
“Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada are the horns, the head, the neck, the shins, and the hoof of the ox, and the United States are the ribs, the sirloin, the kidneys, and the rest of the body.”
Source: The Progress of a Plough-boy to a Seat in Parliament: As Exemplified in the History of the Life of William Cobbett, Member for Oldham
“I was a countryman and a father before I was a writer on political subjects... Born and bred up in the sweet air myself, I was resolved that my children should be bred up in it too.”
“A full belly to the labourer was, in my opinion, the foundation of public morals and the only source of real public peace.”
Source: The Progress of a Plough-boy to a Seat in Parliament: As Exemplified in the History of the Life of William Cobbett, Member for Oldham
“If the people of Sheffield could only receive a tenth part of what their knives sell for by retail in America, Sheffield might pave its streets with silver.”
Source: Rural Rides: In the Counties of Surrey ... [etc.] in the Years 1821, 1822, 1823, 1825, 1826, 1829, 1830 and 1832, with Economical and Political Observations Relative to Matters Applicable To, and Illustrated By, the State of Those Counties Respectively
“I view tea drinking as a destroyer of health, an enfeebler of the frame, an en-genderer of effeminancy and laziness, a debaucher of youth and maker of misery for old age. Thus he makes that miserable progress towards that death which he finds ten or fifteen years sooner than he would have found it if he had made his wife brew beer instead of making tea.”
“WESTBURY, a nasty odious rotten-borough, a really rotten place.”
“When, from the top of any high hill, one looks round the country, and sees the multitude of regularly distributed spires, one not only ceases to wonder that order and religion are maintained, but one is astonished that any such thing as disaffection or irreligion should prevail.”
“Freedom is not an empty sound; it is not an abstract idea; it is not a thing that nobody can feel. It means, - and it means nothing else, - the full and quiet enjoyment of your own property. If you have not this, if this be not well secured to you, you may call yourself what you will, but you are a slave.”
Source: A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland
“You may twist the word freedom as long as you please, but at last it comes to quiet enjoyment of your own property, or it comes to nothing. Why do men want any of those things that are called political rights and privileges? Why do they, for instance, want to vote at elections for members of parliament? Oh! Because they shall then have an influence over the conduct of those members. And of what use is that? Oh! Then they will prevent the members from doing wrong.”
Source: A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland
“A couple of flitches of bacon are worth fifty thousand Methodist sermons and religious tracts. They are great softeners of temper and promoters of domestic harmony.”
Source: Cottage Economy
“Poverty is, except where there is an actual want of food and raiment, a thing much more imaginary than real. The shame of poverty--the shame of being thought poor--it is a great and fatal weakness, though arising in this country, from the fashion of the times themselves.”
Source: Advice to Young Men - And (Incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life. In a Series of Letters, Addressed to a Youth, a Bachelor, a Lover, a Husband, a Father, a Citizen, or a Subject.
“The smallness of our desires may contribute reasonably to our wealth.”
“Learning consists of ideas, and not of the noise that is made by the mouth.”
Source: A Grammar of the English Language: In a Series of Letters
“I set out as a sort of self-dependent politician. My opinions were my own. I dashed at all prejudices. I scorned to follow anybodyin matter of opinion.... All were, therefore, offended at my presumption, as they deemed it.”
Source: The Progress of a Plough-boy to a Seat in Parliament: As Exemplified in the History of the Life of William Cobbett, Member for Oldham
“He who writes badly thinks badly”
Source: A Grammar of the English Language in a Series of Letters: Intended for the Use of Schools and of Young Persons in General; But More Especially for the Use of Soldiers, Sailors, Apprentices, and Plough-boys. To which are Added Six Lessons, Intended to Prevent Statesmen from Using False Grammar and from Writing in an Awkward Manner
“The Norfolk people are quick and smart in their motions and their speaking. Very neat and trim in all their farming concerns and very skilful. Their land is good, their roads are level, and the bottom of their soil is dry, to be sure; and these are great advantages; but they are diligent and make the most of everything.”
Source: Rural Rides: In the Counties of Surrey ... [etc.] in the Years 1821, 1822, 1823, 1825, 1826, 1829, 1830 and 1832, with Economical and Political Observations Relative to Matters Applicable To, and Illustrated By, the State of Those Counties Respectively
“Norwich is a very fine city, and the castle, which stands in the middle of it, on a hill, is truly majestic.”
Source: Rural Rides: In the Counties of Surrey ... [etc.] in the Years 1821, 1822, 1823, 1825, 1826, 1829, 1830 and 1832, with Economical and Political Observations Relative to Matters Applicable To, and Illustrated By, the State of Those Counties Respectively
“Without bread all is misery.”
Source: Cottage Economy: Containing Information Relative to the Brewing of Beer, Making of Bread, Keeping of Cows, Pigs, Bees, Ewes, Goats, Poultry and Rabbits, and Relative to Other Matters Deemed Useful in the Conducting of the Affairs of a Labourer's Family: To which are Added, Instructions Relative to the Selecting, the Cutting and the Bleaching of the Plants of English Grass and Grain, for the Purpose of Making Hats and Bonnets
“It is by attempting to reach the top at a single leap that so much misery is caused in the world.”
Source: Cottage Economy: Containing Information Relative to the Brewing of Beer, Making of Bread, Keeping of Cows, Pigs, Bees, Ewes, Goats, Poultry, and Rabbits, and Relative to Other Matters Deemed Useful in the Conducting of the Affairs of a Labourer's Family : to which are Added, Instructions Relative to the Selecting, the Cutting and the Bleaching of the Plants of English Grass and Grain, for the Purpose of Making Hats and Bonnets : and Also Instructions for Erecting and Using Ice-houses, After the Virginian Manner
“Patience is the most necessary quality for business, many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request.
It is by attempting to reach the top in a single leap that so much misery is produced in the world.”
“Dancing is at once rational & healthful: it gives animal spirits; it is the natural amusement of young people, & such it has been from the days of Moses.”
Source: Advice to Young Men
“The tendency of taxation is, to create a class of persons, who do not labour: to take from those who do labour the produce of that labour, and to give it to those who do not labour.”
“It is not the greatness of a man's means that makes him independent, so much as the smallness of his wants.”
“To suppose such a thing possible as a society, in which men, who are able and willing to work, cannot support their families, and ought, with a great part of the women, to be compelled to lead a life of celibacy, for fear of having children to be starved; to suppose such a thing possible is monstrous.”
Source: Selections from Cobbett's Political Works: Being a Complete Abridgement of the 100 Volumes which Comprise the Writings of
“The truth is that the fall of Napoleon is the hardest blow that our taxing system ever felt. It is now impossible to make people believe that immense fleets and armies are necessary.”
“Be you in what line of life you may, it will be amongst your misfortunes if you have not time properly to attend to [money management]; for. ... want of attention to pecuniary matters ... has impeded the progress of science and of genius itself.”
Source: Advice to Young Men And (Incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life. In a Series of Letters, Addressed to a Youth, a Bachelor, a Lover, a Husband, a Father, a Citizen, or a Subject.
“Men of integrity are generally pretty obstinate, in adhering to an opinion once adopted.”
Source: Beauties of Cobbett
“Women are a sisterhood. They make common cause in behalf of the sex; and, indeed, this is natural enough, when we consider the vast power that the law gives us over them.”
Source: Advice to Young Men, and (incidentally) to Young Women, in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life: In a Series of Letters, Addressed to a Youth, a Bachelor, a Lover, a Husband, a Citizen Or a Subject
“Never esteem men on account of their riches or their station. Respect goodness, find it where you may.”
Source: Cobbett's Political Register
“Another great evil arising from this desire to be thought rich; or rather, from the desire not to be thought poor, is the destructive thing which has been honored by the name of "speculation"; but which ought to be called Gambling.”
“Give me, Lord, neither poverty nor riches.”
Source: A Year's Residence in the United States of America: Treating of the Face of the Country, the Climate, the Soil... of the Expenses of Housekeeping... of the Manners and Customs of the People; And, of the Institutions of the Country...
“Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and a great national debt.”
“Happiness, or misery, is in the mind. It is the mind that lives.”
Source: Advice to Young Men, and, incidentally, to Young Women, in the middle and higher ranks of life. In a series of letters, etc
“Before I dismiss this affair of eating and drinking, let me beseech you to resolve to free yourselves from the slavery of the tea and coffee and other slop-kettle, if, unhappily, you have been bred up in such slavery.”
“Grammar, perfectly understood, enables us not only to express our meaning fully and clearly, but so to express it as to enable us to defy the ingenuity of man to give to our words any other meaning than that which we ourselves intend them to express.”
Source: A grammar of the English language, etc
“However roguish a man may be, he always loves to deal with an honest man.”
Source: Cobbett's America: a selection from the writings of William Cobbett
“The power which money gives is that of brute force; it is the power of the bludgeon and the bayonet.”
Source: Advice to young men, and, incidentally, to young women, in the middle and higher ranks of life, in a series of letters
“To be poor and independent is very nearly an impossibility.”
Source: Advice to Young Men, and, incidentally, to Young Women, in the middle and higher ranks of life. In a series of letters, etc
