William Ewart Gladstone quotes

William Ewart Gladstone was a British statesman and four-time Prime Minister, known for his influential role in 19th-century politics. Prominent for his reforms and rivalry with Benjamin Disraeli, he championed liberal values and Irish Home Rule. He is remembered as a key figure in shaping modern British democracy. Here are 167 of his quotes:

Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home.

William Ewart Gladstone

Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race.

William Ewart Gladstone

The disease of an evil conscience is beyond the practice of all the physicians of all the countries in the world.

William Ewart Gladstone

Nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right.

William Ewart Gladstone

You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side.

William Ewart Gladstone

The idea of abolishing Income Tax is to me highly attractive, both on other grounds & because it tends to public economy.

William Ewart Gladstone

Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic.

William Ewart Gladstone

Justice delayed is justice denied.

William Ewart Gladstone

Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won't have to hunt for happiness.

William Ewart Gladstone

National injustice is the surest road to national downfall.

William Ewart Gladstone

All the world over, I will back the masses against the classes.

William Ewart Gladstone

If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you; If you are depressed, it will cheer you; If you are excited, it will calm you.

William Ewart Gladstone

To serve Armenia is to serve civilization.

William Ewart Gladstone

We are bound to lose Ireland in consequence of years of cruelty, stupidity and misgovernment and I would rather lose her as a friend than as a foe.

William Ewart Gladstone

Good laws make it easier to do right and harder to do wrong.

William Ewart Gladstone

No man ever became great or good except through many and great mistakes.

William Ewart Gladstone

Show me the manner in which a nation or a community cares for its dead. I will measure exactly the sympathies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land, and their loyalty to high ideals.

William Ewart Gladstone

I am inclined to say that the personal attendance and intervention of women in election proceedings, even apart from any suspicion of the wider objects of many of the promoters of the present movement, would be a practical evil not only of the gravest, but even of an intolerable character.

William Ewart Gladstone

Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books - even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome.

William Ewart Gladstone

The hopelessness of the Turkish Government should make me witness with delight its being swept out of the countries which it tortures. Next to the Ottoman Government nothing can be more deplorable and blameworthy than jealousies between Greek and Slav and plans by the States already existing for appropriating other territory. Why not Macedonia for the Macedonians as well as Bulgaria for the Bulgarians and Serbia for the Serbians?

William Ewart Gladstone

This is the negation of God erected into a system of Government.

William Ewart Gladstone

Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.

William Ewart Gladstone