John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn Quotes

John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn, , was a British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor.

Initially a journalist in the North of England and then editor of the newly Liberal-leaning Pall Mall Gazette from 1880 to 1883, he was elected a Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party in 1883. He was Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1886 and between 1892 and 1895; Secretary of State for India between 1905 and 1910 and again in 1911; and Lord President of the Council between 1910 and 1914. Morley was a distinguished political commentator, and biographer of his hero, William Gladstone. Morley is best known for his writings and for his "reputation as the last of the great nineteenth-century Liberals". He opposed imperialism and the Second Boer War. He supported Home Rule for Ireland. His opposition to British entry into the First World War as an ally of Russia led him to leave the government in August 1914. Wikipedia  

✵ 24. December 1838 – 23. September 1923
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn photo
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn: 37   quotes 0   likes

Famous John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn Quotes

“You cannot demonstrate an emotion or prove an aspiration.”

Rousseau http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14052/14052-h/14052-h.htm (1876)

“Some think that we are approaching a critical moment in the history of Liberalism…We hear of a divergence of old Liberalism and new…The terrible new school, we hear, are for beginning operations by dethroning Gladstonian finance. They are for laying hands on the sacred ark. But did any one suppose that the fiscal structure which was reared in 1853 was to last for ever, incapable of improvement, and guaranteed to need no repair? We can all of us recall, at any rate, one very memorable admission that the great system of Gladstonian finance had not reached perfection. That admission was made by no other person than Mr. Gladstone himself in his famous manifesto of 1874, when he promised the most extraordinary reduction of which our taxation is capable. Surely there is as much room for improvement in taxation as in every other work of fallible man, provided that we always cherish the just and sacred principle of taxation that it is equality of private sacrifice for public good. Another heresy is imputed to this new school which fixes a deep gulf between the wicked new Liberals and the virtuous old. We are adjured to try freedom first before we try interference of the State. That is a captivating formula, but it puzzles me to find that the eminent statesman who urges us to lay this lesson to heart is strongly in favour of maintaining the control of the State over the Church? But is State interference an innovation? I thought that for 30 years past Liberals had been as much in favour as other people of this protective legislation. Are to we assume that it has all been wrong? Is my right hon. friend going to propose its repeal or the repeal of any of it; or has all past interference been wise, and we have now come to the exact point where not another step can be taken without mischief? …other countries have tried freedom and it is just because we have decided that freedom in such a case is only a fine name for neglect, and have tried State supervision, that we have saved our industrial population from the waste, destruction, destitution, and degradation that would otherwise have overtaken them…In short, gentlemen, I am not prepared to allow that the Liberty and the Property Defence League are the only people with a real grasp of Liberal principles, that Lord Bramwell and the Earl of Wemyss are the only Abdiels of the Liberal Party.”

Annual presidential address to the Junior Liberal Association of Glasgow (10 February 1885), quoted in 'Mr. John Morley At Glasgow', The Times (11 February 1885), p. 10.

“Where it is a duty to worship the sun it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat.”

Voltaire http://books.google.com/books?id=bGFBAAAAYAAJ&q="Where+it+is+a+duty+to+worship+the+sun+it+is+pretty+sure+to+be+a+crime+to+examine+the+laws+of+heat"&pg=PA14#v=onepage (1871).

John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn Quotes about people

“Some think that we are approaching a critical moment in the history of Liberalism. ... We hear of a divergence of old Liberalism and new. ... The terrible new school, we hear, are for beginning operations by dethroning Gladstonian finance. They are for laying hands on the sacred ark. But did any one suppose that the fiscal structure which was reared in 1853 was to last for ever, incapable of improvement, and guaranteed to need no repair? ... Another heresy is imputed to this new school which fixes a deep gulf between the wicked new Liberals and the virtuous old. We are adjured to try freedom first before we try interference of the State. That is a captivating formula, but it puzzles me to find that the eminent statesman who urges us to lay this lesson to heart is strongly in favour of maintaining the control of the State over the Church? But is State interference an innovation? I thought that for 30 years past Liberals had been as much in favour as other people of this protective legislation. ... [O]ther countries have tried freedom and it is just because we have decided that freedom in such a case is only a fine name for neglect, and have tried State supervision, that we have saved our industrial population from the waste, destruction, destitution, and degradation that would otherwise have overtaken them. ... In short, gentlemen, I am not prepared to allow that the Liberty and the Property Defence League are the only people with a real grasp of Liberal principles, that Lord Bramwell and the Earl of Wemyss are the only Abdiels of the Liberal Party.”

Annual presidential address to the Junior Liberal Association of Glasgow (10 February 1885), quoted in 'Mr. John Morley At Glasgow', The Times (11 February 1885), p. 10
1880s

John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn Quotes

“There is a loud cry in these days for clues that shall guide the plain man through the vast bewildering labyrinth of printed volumes.”

Mr. Morley at Edinburgh: Aphorisms: an address delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, November 11 1887, p. 3 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044079640421;view=1up;seq=11 (Macmillan, 1887)

“Evolution is not a force but a process; not a cause but a law.”

On Compromise http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11557/11557-h/11557-h.htm (1874).

“It is not enough to do good; one must do it the right way.”

Rousseau http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14052/14052-h/14052-h.htm (1876)

“Those who would treat politics and morality apart will never understand the one or the other.”

Rousseau http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14052/14052-h/14052-h.htm (1876)

“You have not converted a man, because you have silenced him.”

On Compromise http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11557/11557-h/11557-h.htm (1874).

“I am, and always have been, a pretty strong individualist.”

Speech in the House of Lords (29 November 1909), quoted in The Times (30 November 1909), p. 6
1900s

“I have often thought that Strafford was an ideal type, both for governor of Ireland in the 17th century, and governor of India in the 20th century.”

Letter to Lord Minto (19 September 1907), quoted in D. A. Hamer, Lord Morley: Liberal Intellectual in Politics (1968), p. 56
1900s

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