65 Quotes by William Ewart Gladstone

Censure and criticism never hurt anybody. If false, they can’t hurt you unless you are wanting in manly character; and if true, they show a man his weak points, and forewarn him against failure and trouble.

Thrift of time will repay you in after-life with a thousandfold of profit beyond your most sanguine dreams.

Be thorough in all you do; and remember that although ignorance often may be innocent, pretension is always despicable.

I think that the principle of the Conservative Party is jealousy of liberty and of the people, only qualified by fear ; but I think the principle of the Liberal Party is trust in the people, only qualified by prudence .

From the time I took office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, I began to learn that the State held, in the face of the Bank and the City, an essentially false position as to finance. The Government itself was not to be a substantive power, but was to leave the Money Power supreme and unquestioned.

No one ever became great except through many and great mistakes.

The American Revolution was a vindication of liberties inherited and possessed. It was a conservative revolution.

To be engaged in opposing wrong affords but a slender guarantee for being right.

There should be a sympathy with freedom, a desire to give it scope, founded not upon visionary ideas, but upon the long experience of many generations within the shores of this happy isle, that in freedom you lay the firmest foundations both of loyalty and order.