William Cobbett quotes

William Cobbett was an English journalist, pamphleteer, and social commentator known for his sharp criticism of political corruption. Famous for his writings like "Rural Rides," he championed the rights of the rural poor and opposed government abuses. He remains a significant figure in British history for his advocacy of social reform and press freedom. Here are 69 of his quotes:

Men of integrity are generally pretty obstinate, in adhering to an opinion once adopted. (William Cobbett)
Women are a sisterhood. They make common cause in behalf of the sex; and, indeed, this is natural enough, when we consider the vast power that the law gives us over them. View quote
William Cobbett
Another great evil arising from this desire to be thought rich; or rather, from the desire not to be thought poor, is the destructive thing which has been honored by the name of "speculation"; but which ought to be called Gambling. View quote
William Cobbett
Sit down to write what you have thought, and not to think about what you shall write. View quote
William Cobbett
The very hirelings of the press, whose trade it is to buoy up the spirits of the people. have uttered falsehoods so long, they have played off so many tricks, that their budget seems, at last, to be quite empty. View quote
William Cobbett
. . . for, however roguish a man may be, he always loves to deal with an honest man. View quote
William Cobbett
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada are the horns, the head, the neck, the shins, and the hoof of the ox, and the United States are the ribs, the sirloin, the kidneys, and the rest of the body. View quote
William Cobbett
Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and a great national debt. View quote
William Cobbett
Grammar, perfectly understood, enables us not only to express our meaning fully and clearly, but so to express it as to enable us to defy the ingenuity of man to give to our words any other meaning than that which we ourselves intend them to express. View quote
William Cobbett
To suppose such a thing possible as a society, in which men, who are able and willing to work, cannot support their families, and ought, with a great part of the women, to be compelled to lead a life of celibacy, for fear of having children to be starved to suppose such a thing possible is monstrous. View quote
William Cobbett
But what is to be the fate of the great wen of all? The monster, called, by the silly coxcombs of the press, "the metropolis of the empire?" (William Cobbett)
Men fail much oftener from want of perseverance than from want of talent. View quote
William Cobbett
The tendency of taxation is to create a class of persons who do not labor, to take from those who do labor the produce of that labor, and to give it to those who do not labor. View quote
William Cobbett
I was a countryman and a father before I was a writer on political subjects.... Born and bred up in the sweet air myself, I was resolved that [my children] should be bred up in it too. View quote
William Cobbett
But I do not remember ever having seen a newspaper in the house; and, most certainly, that privation did not render us less industrious, happy, or free. View quote
William Cobbett
Good government is known from bad government by this infallible test: that under the former the labouring people are well fed and well clothed, and under the latter, they are badly fed and badly clothed. View quote
William Cobbett
I set out as a sort of self-dependent politician. My opinions were my own. I dashed at all prejudices. I scorned to follow anybody in matter of opinion.... All were, therefore, offended at my presumption, as they deemed it. View quote
William Cobbett
I cannot...perceive any ground for hoping that any practical good would, while the funding system exists in its present extent, result from the adoption of any of those projects, which have professed to have in view what is called Parliamentary Reform...when the funding system, from whatever cause, shall cease to operate upon civil and political liberty, there will be no need of projects for parliamentary reform. The parliament will, as far as shall be necessary, then reform itself. View quote
William Cobbett
When, from the top of any high hill, one looks round the country, and sees the multitude of regularly distributed spires, one not only ceases to wonder that order and religion are maintained, but one is astonished that any such thing as disaffection or irreligion should prevail. View quote
William Cobbett
A full belly to the labourer was, in my opinion, the foundation of public morals and the only source of real public peace. View quote
William Cobbett
It is no small mischief to a boy, that many of the best years of his life should be devoted to the learning of what can never be of any real use to any human being. His mind is necessarily rendered frivolous and superficial by the long habit of attaching importance to words instead of things; to sound instead of sense. (William Cobbett)
All my plans in private life; all my pursuits; all my designs, wishes, and thoughts, have this one great object in view: the overthrow of the ruffian Boroughmongers. If I write grammars; if I write on agriculture; if I sow, plant, or deal in seeds; whatever I do has first in view the destruction of those infamous tyrants. View quote
William Cobbett
To be poor and independent is very nearly an impossibility. View quote
William Cobbett
The ancient nobility and gentry of the kingdom...have been thrust out of all public employment...a race of merchants, and manufacturers and bankers and loan-jobbers and contractors have usurped their place. View quote
William Cobbett
Nouns of number, or multitude, such as Mob, Parliament, Rabble, House of Commons, Regiment, Court of King's Bench, Den of Thieves, and the like. View quote
William Cobbett