Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury: Trending quotes (page 6)

“The truth is that the connection of Ireland with England has been full of trouble, and I fear there is no remedy. ... It is a chronic disease, and even if it is not to be cured we have proved in the past that we can get on with it and yet carry on our Empire to a vast pitch of prosperity. What has been done in the past can be done in the future. ... [D]o not let us attempt to cure it by a measure which will put this island into a condition which never during 700 years of our history has existed—which will hand over those who have had the courage to defend us to the maltreatment of their worst enemies, and which will establish at our very doors a post—a hostile post—which will be at the pleasure of any foreign power which may sometimes be hostile to us.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Speech to a banquet of the Merchant Taylors' Company, London (10 May 1886), quoted in The Times (11 May 1886), p. 12
1880s

Courage , Hostility , History , Past

“I believe that any repeal of the Union [with Ireland] or any substantial tampering with it is fraught with danger to this country. That has always been the opinion of the Conservative party and always will remain so. It is granting a separate government and separate executive. ... The result is that the [Protestant] minority will not only have laws passed of which they disapprove, but they will have to depend on the toleration and good will of their enemies for the common privileges of civilised life and securities.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Speech to a banquet of the Merchant Taylors' Company, London (10 May 1886), quoted in The Times (11 May 1886), p. 12
1880s

Life , Dependency , Law , Country

“Englishmen are moderate, careful to avoid unnecessary offence, slow to come to a dangerous and violent conclusion, and tenacious and resolute when the conclusion has once been arrived at.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1878/apr/08/message-from-the-queen-army-reserve#column_836 in the House of Lords (8 April 1878)
1870s

“War is righteous or unrighteous according as it is opportune or inopportune.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1878/jan/17/address-in-answer-to-her-majestys-most#column_54 in the House of Lords (17 January 1878)
1870s

War

“Mohammedanism has the only organization and pretty nearly the only ambition hostile to us that is left in India.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Letter to Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton (25 June 1877), quoted in David Steele, Lord Salisbury: A Political Biography (2001), p. 122 and Shih-tsung Wang, Lord Salisbury and Nationality in the East Viewing Imperialism in Its Proper Perspective (2019)
1870s

Hostility

“I am sure that no more certain method, not only of dechristianizing, but demoralizing the youth of the classes who send their children to the Universities could be found than subjecting them to the influence of tutors who would start with the idea that all beliefs should be submitted for free selection to the consciences and intelligences of their pupils.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Speech in the House of Lords (8 May 1871) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1871/may/08/committee#column_346
1870s

Intelligence , Children , Universe , Youth

“It is the place where Collectivist and Socialistic experiments are tried. It is the place where a new revolutionary spirit finds its instruments and collects its arms.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

On the London County Council; speech to the metropolitan division of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in the Queen's Hall, Langham Place (7 November 1894), quoted in The Times (8 November 1894), p. 4
1890s

“England is, I believe, the only country in which during a great war eminent men write and speak publicly as if they belonged to the enemy.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Letter to Miss Milner (11 November 1901), quoted in The Times (19 November 1901), p. 10
1900s

War , Country , Men

“We are a Teutonic people. We hold steadily to our opinions.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Speech to the Conference of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in Oxford (23 November 1887), quoted in The Times (24 November 1887), p. 6
1880s

People

“Diplomacy which does not rest on force is the most feeble and futile of weapons, and except for bare self-defence, we have not the force.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Letter to Lord Lytton (8 March 1877), quoted in David Steele, Lord Salisbury: A Political Biography (2001), p. 108
1870s

“In the real business of life no one troubles himself much about 'moral titles.'”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

No one would dream of surrendering any practical security, for the advantages of which he is actually in possession, in deference of the a priori jurisprudence of a whole Academy of philosophers.
'The House of Commons', Quarterly Review, vol. 116 (July & October 1864), p. 263
1860s

Business , Life

“We are in a state of bloodless civil war. No common principles, no respect for common institutions or traditions unite the various groups of politicians, who are struggling for power. To loot somebody or something is the common object under a thick varnish of pious phrases.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Letter to W. H. Smith (5 February 1889), quoted in Michael Bentley, Lord Salisbury's World: Conservative Environments in Late-Victorian Britain (2001), p. 65
1880s

War