"I wish that there was any chance of awakening England to the necessity or the duty of sustaining upon the Continent the position which she acquired and held in former times. Such a revival of feeling on her part would not only draw classes together in this country and purify our internal conflicts from the material element which is coming to be dominant in them; but it would prove an important guarantee for the maintenance of the present structure of Europe. ... [A]ny such revival of feeling in England is chimerical. ... The fault really lies in the change in the nature of spirit of the English nation. They do not wish, as they formerly did, for great national position, and they are glad to seclude themselves from European responsibilities by the protection which their insular position is supposed to give them. ... The great middle classes and the professional classes with whom power in this country really resides, have deliberately turned away from the ancient aims and policy of England in foreign affairs."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandAnglicans from the United KingdomUniversity of Oxford facultyConservative Party (UK) politicians
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Letter to Bille (18 April 1871), quoted in Marvin Swartz and Frank Herrmann, Politics of British Foreign Policy in the Era of Disraeli and Gladstone (1985), pp. 25-26
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Gascoyne-Cecil%2C_3rd_Marquess_of_Salisbury
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (3 February 1830 – 22 August 1903), styled Lord Robert Cecil before the death of his elder brother in 1865, and Viscount Cranborne from June 1865 until his father died in April 1868, was a three-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, during 1885–1886, 1886–1892 and 1895–1902.
223 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury →
Related Quotes
"On reflection, I am convinced that turbulence as well as every other evil temper of this evil age belongs not to the …"
"In an age when national greatness depends not on numbers or on territory, but on intelligence, the development of int…"
"The fact was, that articles of prime necessity, such as tea and sugar, were adulterated to such an extent as material…"
"A gram of experience is worth a ton of theory."
"Now if Conservative has any meaning at all, it means anti-Radical. The Radicals are the only inheritors of the revolu…"
"[T]he splitting up of mankind into a multitude of infinitesimal governments, in accordance with their actual differen…"
"[T]hough it is England's right to enforce the law of Europe [i.e. treaties] as between contending states, she has no …"
"Not the number of noses, but the magnitude of interests, should furnish the elements by which the proportion of repre…"
"The days and weeks of screwed-up smiles and laboured courtesy, the mock geniality, the hearty shake of the filthy han…"
"We are not the same people that we have been, either in our social characteristics, in our patriotic sentiments, or i…"