Sir Arthur Pearson, 1st Baronet

"The policy primarily won the confidence of the British through the personal ability, the honesty, and the noble idealism of the men who created it—, , and . It was nourished by prosperity and grew strong with age. ... novelists drew pictures of a starving people saved by the reforms of Cobden. ... There is a sadness in the study of the promises which Cobden made to the people. ... All nations, he said, would follow Great Britain's example if she adopted free trade. Each country would then produce things which her soil, climate and people could produce to greatest advantage. War would cease, because under this system of free exchange a nation could never afford to quarrel with neighbors upon whom she depended for certain necessaries. ... No nation has followed the example of Great Britain in adopting a free trade policy. There has been no perceptible diminution in the number of wars. America has refused to remain a purely agricultural country because Great Britain had the start of her in manufactures."

"The main idea that animated me in establishing this Hostel for the blinded soldiers was that the sightless men, after being discharged from hospital, might come into a little world where the things that blind men cannot do were forgotten and where every one was concerned with what blind men can do."

"It is far too soon to estimate the importance of the service rendered to his fellows by Arthur Pearson at . He took the men who in the heyday of their youth had lost their sight fighting for their country, inspired them with courage, filled them with hope, taught them how to overcome their handicap, and contrived to make their lives happy and useful. But he did far more than this. He revolutionised the attitude of mind of the sighted towards the blind. Before Arthur Pearson ceased to be able to see, the typical blind man tapped his way along the street with a stick, an object of pity, a solicitor of alms. Except for those lucky persons with assured unearned incomes, the blind man was regarded as hopelessly handicapped and unable, except in rare cases, to fight the battle of life for himself."