William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham quotes

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, was a prominent British statesman and orator known for his leadership during the Seven Years’ War. His policies greatly expanded the British Empire and strengthened its global influence. He is remembered as one of Britain’s greatest wartime leaders and a defender of liberty. Here are 35 of his quotes:

We retain nothing, although we have conquered everything...France is chiefly, if not solely, to be dreaded by us in the light of a maritime and commercial power; and therefore by restoring to her all the valuable West India islands, and by our concessions in the Newfoundland fishery, we have given her the means of recovering her prodigious losses and of becoming once more formidable to us at sea...all the Spanish treasures and riches in America, lay at our mercy.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

I rejoice to hear that you have begun Homer's Iliad; and have made so great a progress in Virgil. I hope you taste and love those authors particularly. You cannot read them too much: they are not only the two greatest poets, but they contain the finest lessons for your age to imbibe: lessons of honour, courage, disinterestedness, love of truth, command of temper, gentleness of behaviour, humanity, and in one word, virtue in its true significance.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

As Germany was formerly managed it was a millstone about our necks; as managed now, it is a millstone about the neck of France. When I came in, I found the subsidy to Prussia dictated by Hanover, not by Great Britain. I insisted that national defence and America must stand first, nor would I agree to the German war until every other service had been provided for. I acceded to the plan of a Ministry that wanted vigour and borrowed their majority to carry on their own plan. But I carried it on in my own way, and, though that may have been the wrong way, I offer myself confitentem reum, if I have not thereby annihilated French power in the East and West Indies.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

A difference of opinion with regard to measures to be taken against Spain, of the highest importance to the honour of the crown, and to the most essential national interests, and this founded on what Spain had already done, not on what that court may further intend to do, was the cause of my resigning the seals.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

Without having ever asked any one single employment in my life, I was called by my Sovereign and by the Voice of the People to assist the State when others had abdicated the service of it. That being so no one can be surprised that I will go on no longer since my advice is not taken. Being responsible I will direct, and will be responsible for nothing that I do not direct.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

Pitt complained that we lay inactive, while the French pushed on their conquests.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

A gloomy scene for this distressed, disgraced country.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

We are now to examine whether it is probable that we shall preserve our commerce and our independence, or whether we are sinking into subjection to a foreign power.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

When the people condemn me I shall tremble but I shall set my face against the proudest connection in the country.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

The only way to have peace is to prepare for war.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

Confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

It must cut up Liberty by the root and poison the Fountain of Publick Security; and who that has an English heart can ever be weary of asserting Liberty?

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

We have a Calvinistic creed, a Popish liturgy, and an Arminian clergy.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

Our seamen have always been famous for a matchless alacrity and intrepidity in time of danger; this has saved many a British ship, when other seamen would have run below deck, and left the ship to the mercy of the waves, or, perhaps, of a more cruel enemy, a pirate.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

While we had France for an enemy, Germany was the scene to employ and baffle her arms.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

Reparation for our rights at home, and security against the like future violations.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail - its roof may shake - the wind may blow through it - the storm may enter - the rain may enter - but the King of England cannot enter - all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement!

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

A long train of these practices has at length unwillingly convinced me that there is something behind the throne greater than the King himself.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

When trade is at stake, it is your last entrenchment; you must defend it, or perish...Sir, Spain knows the consequence of a war in America; whoever gains, it must prove fatal to her...is this any longer a nation? Is this any longer an English Parliament, if with more ships in your harbours than in all the navies of Europe; with above two millions of people in your American colonies, you will bear to hear of the expediency of receiving from Spain an insecure, unsatisfactory, dishonourable Convention?

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

There are many things a parliament cannot do. It cannot make itself executive, nor dispose of offices which belong to the crown. It cannot take any man's property, even that of the meanest cottager, as in the case of enclosures, without his being heard.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

The memory of that great and glorious minister, who, to all succeeding ages, will be quoted as an illustrious example, how one great man, by his superior ability, could raise his drooping country from the abyss of despair to the highest pinnacle of glory, and render her honoured, respected, revered, and dreaded by the whole universe.

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

Our toast in general is,-Magna Charta, the British Constitution,-PITT and Liberty forever!

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham