Produced by David Widger
QUOTES AND IMAGES FROM JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
By John Lothrop Motley
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Motley’s History of the Netherlands
Title Page
The Siege of Antwerp
Prince William of Orange-Nassau (William the Silent)
The Earl of Leichester
Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma
John of Barneveld
Bookcover
The Hague
1566, the last year of peace
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 penal offence in the republic to talk of peace or of truce
A most fatal success
A country disinherited by nature of its rights
A free commonwealth–was thought an
absurdity
A hard bargain when both parties are
losers
A burnt cat fears the fire
A despot really keeps no accounts, nor need to do so
A sovereign remedy for the disease of liberty
A pusillanimous peace, always possible at any period
A man incapable of fatigue, of
perplexity, or of fear
A truce he honestly considered a
pitfall of destruction
A great historian is almost a statesman
Able men should be by design and of
purpose suppressed
About equal to that of England at the same period
Absolution for incest was afforded at thirty-six livres
Abstinence from unproductive
consumption
Abstinence from inquisition into
consciences and private parlour
Absurd affectation of candor
Accepting a new tyrant in place of the one so long ago deposed
Accustomed to the faded gallantries
Achieved the greatness to which they
had not been born
Act of Uniformity required Papists to assist
Acts of violence which under pretext of religion
Admired or despised, as if he or she
were our contemporary
Adulation for inferiors whom they
despise
Advanced orthodox party-Puritans
Advancing age diminished his tendency to other carnal pleasures
Advised his Majesty to bestow an annual bribe upon Lord Burleigh
Affecting to discredit them
Affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies
Age when toleration was a vice
Agreements were valid only until he
should repent
Alas! the benighted victims of
superstition hugged their chains
Alas! we must always have something to persecute
Alas! one never knows when one becomes a bore
Alexander’s exuberant discretion
All Italy was in his hands
All fellow-worms together
All business has been transacted with open doors
All reading of the scriptures
(forbidden)
All the majesty which decoration could impart
All denounced the image-breaking
All claimed the privilege of
persecuting
All his disciples and converts are to be punished with death
All Protestants were beheaded, burned, or buried alive
All classes are conservative by
necessity
All the ministers and great
functionaries received presents
All offices were sold to the highest
bidder
Allow her to seek a profit from his
misfortune
Allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body
Almost infinite power of the meanest of passions
Already looking forward to the revolt of the slave States
Altercation between Luther and Erasmus, upon predestination
Always less apt to complain of
irrevocable events
American Unholy Inquisition
Amuse them with this peace negotiation
An inspiring and delightful recreation (auto-da-fe)
An hereditary papacy, a perpetual
pope-emperor
An age when to think was a crime
An unjust God, himself the origin of
sin
An order of things in which mediocrity is at a premium
Anarchy which was deemed inseparable
from a non-regal form
Anatomical study of what has ceased to exist
And give advice. Of that, although
always a spendthrift
And now the knife of another priest-led fanatic
And thus this gentle and heroic spirit took its flight
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
Are wont to hang their piety on the
bell-rope
Argument in a circle
Argument is exhausted and either action or compromise begins
Aristocracy of God’s elect
Arminianism
Arrested on suspicion, tortured till
confession
Arrive at their end by fraud, when
violence will not avail them
Artillery
As logical as men in their cups are
prone to be
As the old woman had told the Emperor Adrian
As if they were free will not make them free
As lieve see the Spanish as the
Calvinistic inquisition
As ready as papists, with age, fagot, and excommunication
As with his own people, keeping no
back-door open
As neat a deception by telling the
truth
At a blow decapitated France
At length the twig was becoming the
tree
Atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy
Attachment to a half-drowned land and to a despised religion
Attacked by the poetic mania
Attacking the authority of the pope
Attempting to swim in two waters
Auction sales of judicial ermine
Baiting his hook a little to his
appetite
Barbara Blomberg, washerwoman of
Ratisbon
Batavian legion was the imperial body guard
Beacons in the upward path of mankind
Beating the Netherlanders into
Christianity
Beautiful damsel, who certainly did not lack suitors
Because he had been successful (hated)
Becoming more learned, and therefore
more ignorant
Been already crimination and
recrimination more than enough
Before morning they had sacked thirty churches
Began to scatter golden arguments with a lavish hand
Beggars of the sea, as these
privateersmen designated themselves
Behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics
Being the true religion, proved by so many testimonies
Believed in the blessed advent of
peace
Beneficent and charitable purposes
(War)
best defence in this case is little
better than an impeachment
Bestowing upon others what was not his property
Better to be governed by magistrates
than mobs
Better is the restlessness of a noble ambition
Beware of a truce even more than of a peace
Bigotry which was the prevailing
characteristic of the age
Bishop is a consecrated pirate
Blessed freedom from speech-making
Blessing of God upon the Devil’s work
Bold reformer had only a new dogma in place of the old ones
Bomb-shells were not often used
although known for a century
Breath, time, and paper were profusely wasted and nothing gained
Brethren, parents, and children, having wives in common
Bribed the Deity
Bungling diplomatists and credulous
dotards
Burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive (100,000)
Burned alive if they objected to
transubstantiation
Burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received
Burning of Servetus at Geneva
Business of an officer to fight, of a general to conquer
But the habit of dissimulation was
inveterate
But after all this isn’t a war It is a revolution
But not thoughtlessly indulgent to the boy
Butchery in the name of Christ was
suspended
By turns, we all govern and are
governed
Calling a peace perpetual can never
make it so
Calumny is often a stronger and more
lasting power than disdain
Can never be repaired and never
sufficiently regretted
Canker of a long peace
Care neither for words nor menaces in any matter
Cargo of imaginary gold dust was
exported from the James River
Casting up the matter “as pinchingly as possibly might be”
Casual outbursts of eternal friendship
Certain number of powers, almost
exactly equal to each other
Certainly it was worth an eighty years’ war
Changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day
Character of brave men to act, not to expect
Charles the Fifth autocrat of half the world
Chief seafaring nations of the world
were already protestant
Chieftains are dwarfed in the
estimation of followers
Children who had never set foot on the shore
Christian sympathy and a small
assistance not being sufficient
Chronicle of events must not be
anticipated
Claimed the praise of moderation that their demands were so few
Cold water of conventional and
commonplace encouragement
College of “peace-makers,” who wrangled more than all
Colonel Ysselstein, “dismissed for a
homicide or two”
Compassing a country’s emancipation
through a series of defeats
Conceding it subsequently, after much contestation
Conceit, and procrastination which
marked the royal character
Conciliation when war of extermination was intended
Conclusive victory for the allies
seemed as predestined
Conde and Coligny
Condemned first and inquired upon after
Condemning all heretics to death
Conflicting claims of prerogative and conscience
Conformity of Governments to the
principles of justice
Confused conferences, where neither
party was entirely sincere
Considerable reason, even if there were but little justice
Considerations of state have never yet failed the axe
Considerations of state as a reason
Considered it his special mission in
the world to mediate
Consign to the flames all prisoners
whatever (Papal letter)
Constant vigilance is the price of
liberty
Constitute themselves at once universal legatees
Constitutional governments, move in the daylight
Consumer would pay the tax, supposing it were ever paid at all
Contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty
Contempt for treaties however solemnly ratified
Continuing to believe himself
invincible and infallible
Converting beneficent commerce into
baleful gambling
Could handle an argument as well as a sword
Could paint a character with the ruddy life-blood coloring
Could not be both judge and party in
the suit
Could do a little more than what was
possible
Country would bear his loss with
fortitude
Courage of despair inflamed the French
Courage and semblance of cheerfulness, with despair in his heart
Court fatigue, to scorn pleasure
Covered now with the satirical dust of centuries
Craft meaning, simply, strength
Created one child for damnation and
another for salvation
Crescents in their caps: Rather Turkish than Popish
Crimes and cruelties such as Christians only could imagine
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
Culpable audacity and exaggerated
prudence
Customary oaths, to be kept with the
customary conscientiousness
Daily widening schism between Lutherans and Calvinists
Deadliest of sins, the liberty of
conscience
Deadly hatred of Puritans in England
and Holland
Deal with his enemy as if sure to
become his friend
Death rather than life with a false
acknowledgment of guilt
Decline a bribe or interfere with the private sale of places
Decrees for burning, strangling, and
burying alive
Deeply criminal in the eyes of all
religious parties
Defeated garrison ever deserved more
respect from friend or foe
Defect of enjoying the flattery, of his inferiors in station
Delay often fights better than an army against a foreign invader
Demanding peace and bread at any price
Democratic instincts of the ancient
German savages
Denies the utility of prayers for the dead
Denounced as an obstacle to peace
Depths theological party spirit could descend
Depths of credulity men in all ages can sink
Despised those who were grateful
Despot by birth and inclination
(Charles V.)
Determined to bring the very name of
liberty into contempt
Devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife
Difference between liberties and
liberty
Difficult for one friend to advise
another in three matters
Diplomacy of Spain and Rome–meant
simply dissimulation
Diplomatic adroitness consists mainly in the power to deceive
Disciple of Simon Stevinus
Dismay of our friends and the
gratification of our enemies
Disordered, and unknit state needs no shaking, but propping
Disposed to throat-cutting by the
ministers of the Gospel
Dispute between Luther and Zwingli
concerning the real presence
Disputing the eternal damnation of
young children
Dissenters were as bigoted as the
orthodox
Dissimulation and delay
Distinguished for his courage, his
cruelty, and his corpulence
Divine right of kings
Divine right
Do you want peace or war? I am ready
for either
Doctrine of predestination in its
sternest and strictest sense
Don John of Austria
Don John was at liberty to be King of England and Scotland
Done nothing so long as aught remained to do
Drank of the water in which, he had
washed
Draw a profit out of the necessities of this state
During this, whole war, we have never seen the like
Dying at so very inconvenient a moment
Each in its turn becoming orthodox, and therefore persecuting
Eat their own children than to forego one high mass
Eight thousand human beings were
murdered
Elizabeth, though convicted, could
always confute
Elizabeth (had not) the faintest idea of religious freedom
Eloquence of the biggest guns
Emperor of Japan addressed him as his brother monarch
Emulation is not capability
Endure every hardship but hunger
Enemy of all compulsion of the human
conscience
England hated the Netherlands
English Puritans
Englishmen and Hollanders preparing to cut each other’s throats
Enmity between Lutherans and Calvinists
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
Epernon, the true murderer of Henry
Erasmus of Rotterdam
Erasmus encourages the bold friar
Establish not freedom for Calvinism,
but freedom for conscience
Estimating his character and judging
his judges
Even the virtues of James were his
worst enemies
Even to grant it slowly is to deny it utterly
Even for the rape of God’s mother, if that were possible
Ever met disaster with so cheerful a
smile
Ever-swarming nurseries of mercenary
warriors
Every one sees what you seem, few
perceive what you are
Everybody should mind his own business
Everything else may happen This alone must happen
Everything was conceded, but nothing
was secured
Evil is coming, the sooner it arrives the better
Evil has the advantage of rapidly
assuming many shapes
Excited with the appearance of a gem of true philosophy
Excused by their admirers for their
shortcomings
Excuses to disarm the criticism he had some reason to fear
Executions of Huss and Jerome of Prague
Exorcising the devil by murdering his supposed victims
Extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence
Fable of divine right is invented to
sanction the system
Faction has rarely worn a more
mischievous aspect
Famous fowl in every pot
Fanatics of the new religion denounced him as a godless man
Fate, free will, or absolute
foreknowledge
Father Cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets
Fear of the laugh of the world at its sincerity
Fed on bear’s liver, were nearly
poisoned to death
Felix Mants, the anabaptist, is drowned at Zurich
Fellow worms had been writhing for half a century in the dust
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
Find our destruction in our immoderate desire for peace
Fishermen and river raftsmen become
ocean adventurers
Fitted “To warn, to comfort, and
command”
Fitter to obey than to command
Five great rivers hold the Netherland territory in their coils
Flattery is a sweet and intoxicating
potion
Fled from the land of oppression to the land of liberty
Fool who useth not wit because he hath it not
For myself I am unworthy of the honor (of martyrdom)
For faithful service, evil recompense
For women to lament, for men to
remember
For us, looking back upon the Past,
which was then the Future
For his humanity towards the conquered garrisons (censured)
Forbidding the wearing of mourning at all
Forbids all private assemblies for
devotion
Force clerical–the power of clerks
Foremost to shake off the fetters of
superstition
Forget those who have done them good
service
Forgiving spirit on the part of the
malefactor
Fortune’s buffets and rewards can take with equal thanks
Four weeks’ holiday–the first in
eleven years
France was mourning Henry and waiting for Richelieu
French seem madmen, and are wise
Friendly advice still more intolerable
Full of precedents and declamatory
commonplaces
Furious fanaticism
Furious mob set upon the house of Rem Bischop
Furnished, in addition, with a force of two thousand prostitutes
Future world as laid down by rival
priesthoods
Gallant and ill-fated Lamoral Egmont
Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a
band of pigmies
German-Lutheran sixteenth-century idea of religious freedom
German finds himself sober–he believes himself ill
German Highland and the German
Netherland
Gigantic vices are proudly pointed to as the noblest
Give him advice if he asked it, and
money when he required
Glory could be put neither into pocket nor stomach
God has given absolute power to no
mortal man
God, whose cause it was, would be
pleased to give good weather
God alone can protect us against those whom we trust
God of wrath who had decreed the
extermination of all unbeliever
God of vengeance, of jealousy, and of injustice
God Save the King! It was the last
time
Gold was the only passkey to justice
Gomarites accused the Arminians of
being more lax than Papists
Govern under the appearance of obeying
Great transactions of a reign are
sometimes paltry things
Great science of political equilibrium
Great Privilege, the Magna Charta of
Holland
Great error of despising their enemy
Great war of religion and politics was postponed
Great battles often leave the world
where they found it
Guarantees of forgiveness for every
imaginable sin
Guilty of no other crime than adhesion to the Catholic faith
Habeas corpus
Had industry been honoured instead of being despised
Haereticis non servanda fides
Hair and beard unshorn, according to
ancient Batavian custom
Halcyon days of ban, book and candle
Hanged for having eaten meat-soup upon Friday
Hanging of Mary Dyer at Boston
Hangman is not the most appropriate
teacher of religion
Happy to glass themselves in so
brilliant a mirror
Hard at work, pouring sand through
their sieves
Hardly a distinguished family in Spain not placed in mourning
Hardly a sound Protestant policy
anywhere but in Holland
Hardly an inch of French soil that had not two possessors
Having conjugated his paradigm
conscientiously
He had omitted to execute heretics
He did his best to be friends with all the world
He was a sincere bigot
He that stands let him see that he does not fall
He was not always careful in the
construction of his sentences
He would have no persecution of the
opposite creed
He came as a conqueror not as a
mediator
He who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself
He who would have all may easily lose all
He knew men, especially he knew their weaknesses
He had never enjoyed social converse, except at long intervals
He would have no Calvinist inquisition set up in its place
He who confessed well was absolved well
He did his work, but he had not his
reward
He sat a great while at a time. He had a genius for sitting
He was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin
He often spoke of popular rights with contempt
He spent more time at table than the
Bearnese in sleep
Heidelberg Catechism were declared to be infallible
Henry the Huguenot as the champion of the Council of Trent
Her teeth black, her bosom white and
liberally exposed (Eliz.)
Heresy was a plant of early growth in the Netherlands
Heretics to the English Church were
persecuted
Hibernian mode of expressing himself
High officers were doing the work of
private, soldiers
Highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation
Highest were not necessarily the least slimy
His inordinate arrogance
His own past triumphs seemed now his
greatest enemies
His imagination may have assisted his memory in the task
His insolence intolerable
His learning was a reproach to the
ignorant
His invectives were, however, much
stronger than his arguments
His personal graces, for the moment,
took the rank of virtues
His dogged, continuous capacity for
work
Historical scepticism may shut its eyes to evidence
History is a continuous whole of which we see only fragments
History is but made up of a few
scattered fragments
History never forgets and never
forgives
History has not too many really
important and emblematic men
History shows how feeble are barriers of paper
Holland was afraid to give a part,
although offering the whole
Holland, England, and America, are all links of one chain
Holy Office condemned all the
inhabitants of the Netherlands
Holy institution called the Inquisition
Honor good patriots, and to support
them in venial errors
Hope delayed was but a cold and meagre consolation
Hope deferred, suddenly changing to
despair
How many more injured by becoming bad copies of a bad ideal
Hugo Grotius
Human nature in its meanness and shame
Human ingenuity to inflict human misery
Human fat esteemed the sovereignst
remedy (for wounds)
Humanizing effect of science upon the barbarism of war
Humble ignorance as the safest creed
Humility which was but the cloak to his pride
Hundred thousand men had laid down
their lives by her decree
I did never see any man behave himself as he did
I know how to console myself
I am a king that will be ever known not to fear any but God
I hope and I fear
I would carry the wood to burn my own son withal
I regard my country’s profit, not my
own
I will never live, to see the end of my poverty
Idea of freedom in commerce has dawned upon nations
Idiotic principle of sumptuary
legislation
Idle, listless, dice-playing, begging, filching vagabonds
If he had little, he could live upon
little
If to do be as grand as to imagine what it were good to do
If he has deserved it, let them strike off his head
Ignoble facts which strew the highways of political life
Ignorance is the real enslaver of
mankind
Imagined, and did the work of truth
Imagining that they held the world’s
destiny in their hands
Impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants
Implication there was much, of
assertion very little
Imposed upon the multitudes, with whom words were things
Impossible it is to practise arithmetic with disturbed brains
Impossible it was to invent terms of
adulation too gross
In revolutions the men who win are
those who are in earnest
In character and general talents he was beneath mediocrity
In times of civil war, to be neutral is to be nothing
In Holland, the clergy had neither
influence nor seats
In this he was much behind his age or before it
Incur the risk of being charged with
forwardness than neglect
Indecision did the work of indolence
Indignant that heretics had been
suffered to hang
Individuals walking in advance of their age
Indoor home life imprisons them in the domestic circle
Indulging them frequently with oracular advice
Inevitable fate of talking castles and listening ladies
Infamy of diplomacy, when diplomacy is unaccompanied by honesty
Infinite capacity for pecuniary
absorption
Informer, in case of conviction, should be entitled to one half
Inhabited by the savage tribes called Samoyedes
Innocent generation, to atone for the sins of their forefathers
Inquisition of the Netherlands is much more pitiless
Inquisition was not a fit subject for a compromise
Inquisitors enough; but there were no light vessels in The Armada
Insane cruelty, both in the cause of
the Wrong and the Right
Insensible to contumely, and incapable of accepting a rebuff
Insinuate that his orders had been
hitherto misunderstood
Insinuating suspicions when unable to furnish evidence
Intellectual dandyisms of Bulwer
Intelligence, science, and industry
were accounted degrading
Intense bigotry of conviction
Intentions of a government which did
not know its own intentions
International friendship, the
self-interest of each
Intolerable tendency to puns
Invaluable gift which no human being
can acquire, authority
Invented such Christian formulas as
these (a curse)
Inventing long speeches for historical characters
Invincible Armada had not only been
vanquished but annihilated
Irresistible force in collision with an insuperable resistance
It was the true religion, and there was none other
It is not desirable to disturb much of that learned dust
It had not yet occurred to him that he was married
It is n’t strategists that are wanted so much as believers
It is certain that the English hate us (Sully)
Its humility, seemed sufficiently
ironical
James of England, who admired, envied, and hated Henry
Jealousy, that potent principle
Jesuit Mariana–justifying the killing of excommunicated kings
John Castel, who had stabbed Henry IV.
John Wier, a physician of Grave
John Robinson
John Quincy Adams
Judas Maccabaeus
July 1st, two Augustine monks were
burned at Brussels
Justified themselves in a solemn
consumption of time
Kindly shadow of oblivion
King who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy
King had issued a general repudiation of his debts
King set a price upon his head as a
rebel
King of Zion to be pinched to death
with red-hot tongs
King was often to be something much
less or much worse
King’s definite and final intentions, varied from day to day
Labored under the disadvantage of never having existed
Labour was esteemed dishonourable
Language which is ever living because it is dead
Languor of fatigue, rather than any
sincere desire for peace
Leading motive with all was supposed to be religion
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
Life of nations and which we call the Past
Like a man holding a wolf by the ears
Little army of Maurice was becoming the model for Europe
Little grievances would sometimes
inflame more than vast
Local self-government which is the
life-blood of liberty
Logic of the largest battalions
Logic is rarely the quality on which
kings pride themselves
Logical and historical argument of
unmerciful length
Long succession of so many illustrious obscure
Longer they delay it, the less easy
will they find it
Look through the cloud of dissimulation
Look for a sharp war, or a miserable
peace
Looking down upon her struggle with
benevolent indifference
Lord was better pleased with adverbs
than nouns
Loud, nasal, dictatorial tone, not at all agreeable
Louis XIII.
Loving only the persons who flattered him
Ludicrous gravity
Luther’s axiom, that thoughts are
toll-free
Lutheran princes of Germany, detested the doctrines of Geneva
Luxury had blunted the fine instincts of patriotism
Made peace–and had been at war ever
since
Made no breach in royal and Roman
infallibility
Made to swing to and fro over a slow
fire
Magistracy at that moment seemed to
mean the sword
Magnificent hopefulness
Maintaining the attitude of an injured but forgiving Christian
Make sheep of yourselves, and the wolf will eat you
Make the very name of man a term of
reproach
Man is never so convinced of his own
wisdom
Man who cannot dissemble is unfit to
reign
Man had only natural wrongs (No natural rights)
Man had no rights at all He was
property
Mankind were naturally inclined to
calumny
Manner in which an insult shall be
dealt with
Many greedy priests, of lower rank, had turned shop-keepers
Maritime heretics
Matter that men may rather pray for
than hope for
Matters little by what name a
government is called
Meantime the second civil war in France had broken out
Mediocrity is at a premium
Meet around a green table except as
fencers in the field
Men were loud in reproof, who had been silent
Men fought as if war was the normal
condition of humanity
Men who meant what they said and said what they meant
Mendacity may always obtain over
innocence and credulity
Military virtue in the support of an
infamous cause
Misanthropical, sceptical philosopher
Misery had come not from their being
enemies
Mistake to stumble a second time over the same stone
Mistakes might occur from occasional
deviations into sincerity
Mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated
Modern statesmanship, even while it
practises, condemns
Monasteries, burned their invaluable
libraries
Mondragon was now ninety-two years old
Moral nature, undergoes less change
than might be hoped
More accustomed to do well than to
speak well
More easily, as he had no intention of keeping the promise
More catholic than the pope
More fiercely opposed to each other
than to Papists
More apprehension of fraud than of
force
Most detestable verses that even he had ever composed
Most entirely truthful child he had
ever seen
Motley was twice sacrificed to personal feelings
Much as the blind or the deaf towards colour or music
Myself seeing of it methinketh that I dream
Names history has often found it
convenient to mark its epochs
National character, not the work of a few individuals
Nations tied to the pinafores of
children in the nursery
Natural to judge only by the result
Natural tendency to suspicion of a
timid man
Nearsighted liberalism
Necessary to make a virtue of necessity
Necessity of extirpating heresy, root and branch
Necessity of deferring to powerful
sovereigns
Necessity of kingship
Negotiated as if they were all immortal
Neighbour’s blazing roof was likely
soon to fire their own
Neither kings nor governments are apt to value logic
Neither wished the convocation, while both affected an eagerness
Neither ambitious nor greedy
Never peace well made, he observed,
without a mighty war
Never did statesmen know better how not to do
Never lack of fishers in troubled
waters
New Years Day in England, 11th January by the New Style
Night brings counsel
Nine syllables that which could be more forcibly expressed in on
No one can testify but a householder
No man can be neutral in civil
contentions
No law but the law of the longest purse
No two books, as he said, ever injured each other
No retrenchments in his pleasures of
women, dogs, and buildings
No great man can reach the highest
position in our government
No man is safe (from news reporters)
No man could reveal secrets which he
did not know
No authority over an army which they
did not pay
No man pretended to think of the State
No synod had a right to claim
Netherlanders as slaves
No qualities whatever but birth and
audacity to recommend him
No generation is long-lived enough to reap the harvest
No man ever understood the art of
bribery more thoroughly
No calumny was too senseless to be
invented
None but God to compel me to say more than I choose to say
Nor is the spirit of the age to be
pleaded in defence
Not a friend of giving details larger than my ascertained facts
Not distinguished for their docility
Not to let the grass grow under their feet
Not a single acquaintance in the place, and we glory in the fact
Not safe for politicians to call each other hard names
Not his custom nor that of his
councillors to go to bed
Not of the genus Reptilia, and could
neither creep nor crouch
Not strong enough to sustain many more such victories
Not to fall asleep in the shade of a
peace negotiation
Not many more than two hundred
Catholics were executed
Not upon words but upon actions
Not for a new doctrine, but for liberty of conscience
Not of the stuff of which martyrs are made (Erasmus)
Not so successful as he was picturesque
Nothing could equal Alexander’s
fidelity, but his perfidy
Nothing cheap, said a citizen bitterly, but sermons
Nothing was so powerful as religious
difference
Notre Dame at Antwerp
Nowhere was the persecution of heretics more relentless
Nowhere were so few unproductive
consumers
O God! what does man come to!
Obscure were thought capable of dying natural deaths
Obstinate, of both sexes, to be burned
Octogenarian was past work and past
mischief
Of high rank but of lamentably low
capacity
Often much tyranny in democracy
Often necessary to be blind and deaf
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-third of Philip’s effective navy
was thus destroyed
One golden grain of wit into a sheet of infinite platitude
One could neither cry nor laugh within the Spanish dominions
One of the most contemptible and
mischievous of kings (James I)
Only healthy existence of the French
was in a state of war
Only true religion
Only citadel against a tyrant and a
conqueror was distrust
Only kept alive by milk, which he drank from a woman’s breast
Only foundation fit for history,–
original contemporary document
Opening an abyss between government and people
Opposed the subjection of the
magistracy by the priesthood
Oration, fertile in rhetoric and barren in facts
Orator was, however, delighted with his own performance
Others that do nothing, do all, and
have all the thanks
Others go to battle, says the
historian, these go to war
Our pot had not gone to the fire as
often
Our mortal life is but a string of
guesses at the future
Outdoing himself in dogmatism and
inconsistency
Over excited, when his prejudices were roughly handled
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
Partisans wanted not accommodation but victory
Party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk
Passion is a bad schoolmistress for the memory
Past was once the Present, and once the Future
Pathetic dying words of Anne Boleyn
Patriotism seemed an unimaginable idea
Pauper client who dreamed of justice at the hands of law
Paving the way towards atheism (by
toleration)
Paying their passage through, purgatory
Peace founded on the only secure basis, equality of strength
Peace was desirable, it might be more dangerous than war
Peace seemed only a process for
arriving at war
Peace and quietness is brought into a most dangerous estate
Peace-at-any-price party
Peace, in reality, was war in its worst shape
Peace was unattainable, war was
impossible, truce was inevitable
Peace would be destruction
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 II. gave the world work enough
Philip of Macedon, who considered no
city impregnable
Philip IV.
Philip, who did not often say a great deal in a few words