Heads Of State

"There is no greater wealth than wisdom, no greater poverty than ignorance; no greater heritage than culture and no greater support than consultation."

"Generosity is to help a deserving person without his request, and if you help him after his request, then it is either out of self-respect or to avoid rebuke."

"Only he who has the power to punish can pardon."

"So long as fortune is favouring you, your defects will remain covered."

"Hearts of people are like wild beasts. They attach themselves to those who love and train them."

"Often your utterances and expressions of your face leak out the secrets of your hidden thoughts."

"One who rushes madly after inordinate desire, runs the risk of encountering destruction and death."

"He who is deserted by friends and relatives will often find help and sympathy from strangers."

"When some blessings come to you, do not drive them away through thanklessness."

"Unfortunate is he who cannot gain a few sincere friends during his life and more unfortunate is the one who has gained them and then lost them (through his deeds)."

"If you overpower your enemy, then pardon him by way of thankfulness to Allah, for being able to subdue him."

"A conceited and self-admiring person is disliked by others; charity and alms are the best remedy for ailments and calamities; one has to account in the next world for the deeds that he has done in this world."

"The mind of a wise man is the safest custody of secrets; cheerfulness is the key to friendship; patience and forbearance will conceal many defects."

"Submission to Allah's Will is the best companion; wisdom is the noblest heritage; theoretical and practical knowledge are the best signs of distinction; deep thinking will present the clearest picture of every problem."

"Allah, the Exalted, gave the angels intellect without desires, He gave the animals desires without intellect, and He gave both to the sons of Adam. So a man whose intellect prevails over his desires is better than the angels, whilst a man whose desire prevails over his intellect is worse than the animals."

"Recitation of the Qur'an without contemplation and thought is futile."

"The one from among the Muslims who recites the Qur'an but in the end finds his way to hell, is considerd to be among those that have taken the word of Allah in jest."

"When wisdom reaches the pinnacle of perfection, it will suppress the vicious instincts and injurious desires."

"There are three signs of a knowledgeable person: knowledge, forbearance and silence."

"An alert and learned man will take advice from any event."

"Associating with the wise and the knowledgeable people adds to the prestige of a person."

"There is no knowledge and science like pondering and thought; and there is no prosperity and advancement like knowledge and science."

"Two things cause people to be destroyed: fear of poverty and seeking superiority through pride."

"There are so many highly esteemed ones who became miserable and humiliated just because of their bad temper and morals; and humble people who have attained eminence and the highest honors because of good temper and morals."

"The best companion and helper is admirable morals."

"He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, while he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere."

"The weakest man is the one who is able to correct his moral defects, but doesn't take action."

"A moment of patience in the moment of anger prevents thousands of moments of regret."

"Do not let your difficulties fill you with anxiety. It is only in the darkest nights that the stars shine more brilliantly."

"The wealth of a miser is as useless as a pebble."

"The Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and of the Dominions thereunto belonging, shall be and reside in one person, and the people assembled in parliament; the style of which person shall be "The Lord Protector of the Commonwealth"… That Oliver Cromwell, Captain General of the forces of England, Scotland and Ireland, shall be, and is hereby declared to be, Lord Protector...for his life."

"The mettle and superiour genius of Cromwell subdued faction and rebellion, by the very power they had put into their hands against the lawful sovereign. He supported his state and terrified all Europe, as well as the three nations, by the grandeur of his courage, and the spirit of his army; which he made, in effect, his parliament."

"The English monster, the center of mischief, a shame to the British Chronicle, a pattern for tyranny, murder and hypocrisie, whose bloody Tyranny will quite drown the name of Nero, Caligula, Domitian, having at last attained the height of his Ambition, for Five years space he wallowed in the blood of many Gallant and Heroick Persons."

"In short, every beast hath some evil properties; but Cromwell hath the properties of all evil beasts."

"He would sometimes be very cheerful with us, and laying aside his greatness he would be exceeding familiar with us, and by way of diversion would make verses with us, and everyone must try his fancy. He commonly called for tobacco, pipes, and a candle, and would now and then take tobacco himself; then he would fall again to his serious and great business."

"As to your own person the title of King would be of no advantage, because you have the full Kingly power in you already... I apprehend indeed, less envy and danger, and pomp, but not less power, and real opportunities of doing good in your being General than would be if you had assumed the title of King."

"I came into the House one morning, well clad, and perceived a gentleman speaking whom I knew not, very ordinarily apparelled, for it was a plain cloth suit, which seemed to have been made by an ill country tailor. His linen was plain, and not very clean; and I remember a speck or two of blood upon his little band which was not much larger than his collar. His hat was without a hat-band. His stature was of a good size; his sword stuck close to his side; his countenance swoln and reddish; his voice sharp and untuneable, and his eloquence full of fervor."

"I... had occasion to converse with Mr Cromwell’s physician, Dr Simcott, who assured me that for many years his patient was a most splenetick man and had phansies about the cross in that town; and that he had been called up to him at midnight, and such unseasonable hours very many times, upon a strong phansy, which made him belive he was then dying; and there went a story of him, that in the day-time, lying melancholy in his bed, he belived the spirit appeared to him, and told him he should be the greatest man, (not mentioning the word King) in this Kingdom. Which his uncle, Sir Thomas Steward, who left him all the little estate Cromwell had, told him was traiterous to relate."

"Whilst he was curious of his own words, (not putting forth too many lest they should betray his thoughts) he made others talk until he had, as it were, sifted them, and known their most intimate designs."

"Our dying-Hero, from the Continent, Ravish't whole Towns; and Forts, from Spaniards rest, As his last Legacy, to Brittain lest. The Ocean which so long our hopes confin'd Could give no limits to His vaster mind; Our Bounds inlargment was his latest toyle; Nor hath he left us Prisoners to our Isle; Under the Tropick is our language spoke, And part of Flanders hath receiv'd our yoke. From Civill Broyls he did us disingage, Found nobler objects for our Martiall rage; And with wise Conduct to his Country show'd Their ancient way of conquering abroad: Ungratefull then, if we no Tears allow To Him that gave us Peace, and Empire too."

"As for that famous and magnanimous commander, Lieutenant-General Cromwell, whose prowess and prudence, as they have rendered him most renowned for many former successful deeds of chivalry, so in this fight they have crowned him with the never withering laurels of fame and honour, who with so lion-like courage and impregnable animosity, charged his proudest adversaries again and again, like a Roman Marcellus indeed....and at last came off, as with some wounds, so with honour and triumph inferior to none."

"Stalin: The Communists base themselves on rich historical experience which teaches that obsolete classes do not voluntarily abandon the stage of history. Recall the history of England in the seventeenth century. Did not many say that the old social system had decayed? But did it not, nevertheless, require a Cromwell to crush it by force? Wells: Cromwell acted on the basis of the constitution and in the name of constitutional order. Stalin: In the name of the constitution he resorted to violence, beheaded the king, dispersed Parliament, arrested some and beheaded others!"

"Lieutenant-General Cromwell...a member of the House of Commons, long famous for godliness and zeal to his country, of great note for his service in the House, accepted of a commission at the very beginning of this war, wherein he served his country faithfully, and it was observed God was with him, and he began to be renowned."

"Cromwell has never had justice done him. Hume and almost all the historians have seized upon some prominent circumstances of his character, as painters and actors lay hold of the caricature to ensure a likeness. He was not always a hypocrite. Mr. Hume does not do justice to Cromwell's character in supposing him incapable of truth and simplicity on every occasion. His speeches to his Parliament give, I am persuaded, a very true picture of the times... It must be allowed that, while he had power, short as the moment was, he did set more things forward than all the Kings who reigned during the century, King William included. England was never so much respected abroad; while at home, though Cromwell could not settle the Government, talents of every kind began to show themselves, which were immediately crushed or put to sleep at the Restoration. The best and most unexceptional regulations of different kinds are to be found in his ordinances and proclamations remaining to this day unexecuted; and during his life he not only planned but enforced and executed the greatest measures of which the country was then susceptible."

"Under Cromwell the union of the three kingdoms was for the moment realised, and as the country chanced to have not only a powerful fleet but also a disciplined army and a habit of war, the new Britain took the lead of all states, and seemed on the point of succeeding to the ascendency so recently forfeited by Spain. At this moment Cromwell died, and forthwith the prospects of Britain were altered."

"The beady-eyed, hard-headed men of state business wanted him to be a king they could trust. They needed a Chief Executive Officer to run Britannia Inc, the most ferocious, most heavily capitalised enterprise the world had ever seen. Then suddenly Cromwell saw the people who wanted him to do this, and saw that they were godless. When he dissolved the Rump Parliament he looked at one of its members and called him a whoremaster and drunken libertine. He was appalled that the people who were supposed to embody the sovereignty of parliament were these low-lifes, appalled to think political intelligence could be tied up with moral wretchedness. He thought he was accountable to God for having a clean England as well. But you can't have a clean England and be the CEO. It was just never going to happen."

"Move forward to Oliver Cromwell and you encounter an extraordinarily complex man driven by absolutely warring impulses – you could say with some truth that there was a civil war going on inside him. Here was someone to whom people were prepared to deliver power, but who obviously hated the idea of accepting office. He clearly never felt he was worthy of God's appointment. On the other hand, he was so good at doing what he did, at being a general. One half of him is a country gentleman, a political pragmatist who understands the machinery of state in a clear, Peter Mandelson-like way. But he's also – if not quite Ian Paisley – someone who at least listens to voices in his head."

"He was a practical mystic, the most formidable and terrible of all combinations, uniting an aspiration derived from the celestial and supernatural with the energy of a mighty man of action; a great captain, but off the field seeming, like a thunderbolt, the agent of greater forces than himself; no hypocrite, but a defender of the faith; the raiser and maintainer of the Empire of England."

"It is Cromwell's chief merit to have ruled the British kingdoms for a succession of years on a uniform principle, and to have united their forces in common efforts. It is true that this was not the final award of history: things were yet to arrange themselves in a very different fashion. But it was necessary perhaps that the main outlines should be shaped by the absolute authority of a single will, in order that in the future a free life might develop within them."

"[E]very body do now-a-days reflect upon Oliver, and commend him, what brave things he did, and made all the neighbour princes fear him."