1770

Explore 12 quotes from the year 1770

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

John Adams

More information about this quote

Topic

Facts

Speaker

John Adams

Medium

Speech

Genre

Courtroom speech

Language

English

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Adams, John. Spoken at the argument in defense of the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials. Boston Massacre Trials. 4 Dec. 1770, Queen Street courtroom, Boston, MA, USA.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition. But certainty is an absurd one.

Voltaire

More information about this quote

Topic

Doubt vs. certainty Doubt and skepticism Certainty

Author

Voltaire

Medium

Letter

Language

French

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Voltaire. Letter to Frederick William. 28 Nov. 1770.

We set ourselves to bite the hand that feeds us.

Edmund Burke

More information about this quote

Topic

Political agitation

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. London: J. Dodsley, 1770.

Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Thoughts on the Present Discontents." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009.

The law, in all vicissitudes of government, fluctuations of the passions, or flights of enthusiasm, will preserve a steady undeviating course; it will not bend to the uncertain wishes, imaginations, and wanton tempers of men... On the one hand it is inexorable to the cries and lamentations of the prisoners; on the other it is deaf, deaf as an adder to the clamours of the populace.

John Adams

More information about this quote

Topic

Rule of law

Speaker

John Adams

Medium

Courtroom speech Speech

Language

English

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Adams, John. Spoken at the argument in defense of the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials. Boston Massacre Trials. 4 Dec. 1770, Queen Street courtroom, Boston, MA, USA.

I see the rural virtues leave the land.

Oliver Goldsmith

Read The Deserted Village at Poetry Foundation

More information about this quote

Topic

Rural vs. urban Urbanization

Author

Oliver Goldsmith

Source

The Deserted Village

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Deserted Village. London: W. Griffin, 1770, I. 398.

To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.

Edmund Burke

More information about this quote

Topic

The good old days Human nature

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. London: J. Dodsley, 1770.

Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Thoughts on the Present Discontents." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009.

We must soften into a credulity below the milkiness of infancy, to think all men virtuous. We must be tainted with a malignity truly diabolical, to believe all the world to be equally wicked and corrupt.

Edmund Burke

More information about this quote

Topic

Human nature Original sin Virtue Perspective

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. London: J. Dodsley, 1770.

Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Thoughts on the Present Discontents." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009.

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay;
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made:
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied.

Oliver Goldsmith

Read The Deserted Village at Poetry Foundation

More information about this quote

Topic

Moral decline Morality Economic inequality Working class

Author

Oliver Goldsmith

Source

The Deserted Village

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Deserted Village. London: W. Griffin, 1770, l. 51.

The best is the enemy of the good.

Voltaire

More information about this quote

Topic

Perfection

Author

Voltaire

Medium

Poem

Language

French

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Voltaire. La Bégueule, Conte Moral. Lausanne: Chez François Grasset et Comp, 1772.

Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of power Absolute power Power

Speaker

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Pitt, William. Speech in the House of Lords on John Wilkes. 9 Jan. 1770, Palace of Westminster, Westminster, London, England, UK.

If ignorance of nature gave birth to the Gods, knowledge of nature is destined to destroy them.

Baron d'Holbach

More information about this quote

Topic

Existence of God Science and religion

Author

Baron d'Holbach

Source

The System of Nature

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

D'Holbach, Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron [published as Jean-Baptiste de Mirabaud]. Systeme de la Nature ou Des Loix due Mond Physique et du Monde Moral [The System of Nature or, the Laws of the Moral and Physical World]. 1770, pt. 2, ch. 1.

I am not one of those who think that the people are never in the wrong. They have been so, frequently and outrageously, both in other countries and in this. But I do say, that in all disputes between them and their rulers, the presumption is at least upon a par in favour of the people.

Edmund Burke

More information about this quote

Topic

Political theory Politics

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. London: J. Dodsley, 1770.

Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Thoughts on the Present Discontents." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009.