british-ambassadors-to-france

"He...was highly favoured by nature, and his address exceeded even his figure. At every period of his life queens, duchesses, and countesses have showered on him their regard. The Duke of Dorset, recently sent ambassador to France, being an intimate friend of Mr. Whitworth, made him known to the queen, who not only distinguished him by flattering marks of her attention, but interested herself in promoting his fortune, which then stood greatly in need of such patronage."

"The Czar, who had been absolute enough to civilize savages, had no idea, could conceive none, of the privileges of a nation civilized in the only rational manner, by laws and liberties."

"[I]n the ten campaigns he made against [the French]; during all which time it cannot be said that he ever slipped an opportunity of fighting, when there was any probability of coming at his enemy: and upon all occasions he concerted matters with so much judgement and forecast, that he never fought a battle which he did not gain, nor laid siege to a town which he did not take."

"The Duke of Marlborough talking over some Point of English History once with Bishop Burnet, and advancing some Anachronisms and strange Matters of Fact, his Lordship, in a great Astonishment at this new History, enquired of His Grace where He had met with it. The Duke, equally surprised on His side to be ask’d That Question by so knowing a Man in History as the Bishop, replied, Why dont you remember? It is in the only English History of those Times that ever I red, in Shakespear's Plays."

"His splendid military genius was united with an almost unparalleled evenness of temper, and a regard for, and sympathy with, his troops, which earned for him a devotion scarcely less than that which the Tenth Legion felt for Caesar, or the Old Guard for Napoleon. From a moralist's point of view, Marlborough's character was not faultless, but as a General he had few equals and no superior. He never fought a battle which he did not win, never besieged a city which he did not take, and, in spite of obstructive allies and jealous continental rivals, he curbed the aggression of France, and restored the balance of power in Europe."

"I have not time to say more but to beg you will give my duty to the Queen, and let her know Her army has had a Glorious Victory."

"What gave to this country the advantage in the war of the Spanish Succession was the genius and the overwhelming personal ascendency of Marlborough. ... It is due to him that England became one of the great Powers of the world, and next to France, the first of Powers."

"Marlborough's talents had no flaw. As a strategist he saw clearly and simply the great issues – the relationship of war and policy, the interdependence between one theatre and another, the inter-relation between sea-power and land war. He constantly outwitted his enemies, one success paving the way for the next. As an organizer, he made a nonsensical military system work. His care for his troops, his understanding of them, led to his nickname of ‘Corporal John’. On the battlefield his grasp of confused tactical situations was uncannily clear and accurate; he kept cool and thought fast. To all these qualities he added unflexing will and resolution, and unflagging energy."

"He completed William's work in converting Britain from a peripheral and quasi-isolationist kingdom of little influence into a great power. He defeated the French bid to establish hegemony. ... [I]t can be claimed that he and his achievement lived on in the career of Winston Churchill...by studying his career and the reasons for his success Winston Churchill equipped himself for the supreme tests which he was to have to endure after 10 May 1940."

"I take with pleasure this opportunity of doing justice to that great man, whose faults I knew, whose virtues I admired; and whose memory, as the greatest general and as the greatest minister that our country or perhaps any other has produced, I honor."

"If he had been suffered to end the war which he so gloriously carried on, we should not have had the wars we have had since."

"The ages roll Forward; and, forward with them, draw my soul Into Time’s infinite sea. And to be glad or sad I care no more: But to have done, and to have been, before I cease to do and be!"

"Words, however, are things: and the man who accords To his language the license to outrage his soul Is controll'd by the words he disdains to control."

"The man who seeks one thing in life and but one May hope to achieve it before life is done; But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes Only reaps from the hopes which around him he sows A harvest of barren regrets."

"Let any man show the world that he feels Afraid of its bark and ’t will fly at his heels: Let him fearlessly face it, ’t will leave him alone: But ’t will fawn at his feet if he flings it a bone."

"Whene'er I hear French spoken as I approve, I feel myself quietly falling in love."

"We may live without poetry, music and art; We may live without conscience and live without heart; We may live without friends; we may live without books; But civilized man can not live without cooks. He may live without books,—what is knowledge but grieving? He may live without hope—what is hope but deceiving? He may live without love,—what is passion but pining? But where is the man that can live without dining?"

"The world is a nettle; disturb it, it stings. Grasp it firmly, it stings not."

"We gain Justice, judgment, with years, or else years are in vain."

"'Twas a hand White, delicate, dimpled, warm, languid, and bland. The hand of a woman is often, in youth, Somewhat rough, somewhat red, somewhat graceless in truth; Does its beauty refine, as its pulses grow calm, Or as sorrow has cross'd the life-line in its palm."

"We are what we must, And not what we would be. I know that one hour Forestalls not another. The will and the power Are diverse."

"Rest is sweet after strife."

"When life leaps in the veins, when it beats in the heart, When it thrills as it fills every animate part, Where lurks it? How works it?.. we scarcely detect it."

"There's no weapon that slays Its victim so surely (if well aim'd) as praise."

"You know There are moments when silence, prolong'd and unbroken, More expressive may be than all words ever spoken."

"No true love can be without Its dread penalty—jealousy."

"Those true eyes Too pure and too honest in aught to disguise The sweet soul shining through them."

"Do not think that years leave us and find us the same!"

"Alas! must it be ever so? Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go, And fight our own shadows forever?"

"In life there are meetings which seem Like a fate."

"To all facts there are laws. The effect has its cause, and I mount to the cause."

"We are our own fates. Our deeds Are our doomsmen. Man's life was made not for men's creeds, But men's actions."

"There is purpose in pain, Otherwise it were devilish."

"Life hath set No landmarks before us."

"Thought alone is eternal."

"As pure as a pearl, And as perfect: a noble and innocent girl."

"That's best Which God sends. 'Twas His will: it is mine."

"No star ever rose And set, without influence somewhere."

"No life Can be pure in its purpose and strong in its strife And all life not be purer and stronger thereby."

"Life is good; but not life in itself."

"Who seeks for aid Must show how service sought can be repaid."

"But, however we pass Time, he passes still, Passing away whatever the pastime, And, whether we use him well or ill, Some day he gives us the slip for the last time."

"Unseen hands delay The coming of what seems close in ken, And, contrary, the moment when we say "'Twill never come!" comes on us even then."

"O be very sure That no man will learn anything at all, Unless he first will learn humility."

"I loved you ere I knew you: know you now, And, having known you, love you better still."

"Genius does what it must, and Talent does what it can."

"That man is great, and he alone, Who serves a greatness not his own."

"Who knows nothing base Fears nothing known."

"'Tis more brave To live, than to die."

"Then did I feel as one who, much perplext, Led by strange legends and the light of stars Over long regions of the midnight sand Beyond the red tract of the Pyramids, Is suddenly drawn to look upon the sky From sense of unfamiliar light, and sees Reveal'd against the constellated cope The great cross of the South."