William Pitt the Younger Quotes

William Pitt the Younger was a prominent British Tory statesman of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1783 at the age of 24 and the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as of January 1801. He left office in March 1801, but served as Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806. He was also Chancellor of the Exchequer for all of his time as Prime Minister. He is known as "the Younger" to distinguish him from his father, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, who is customarily referred to as "William Pitt the Elder" and had previously served as Prime Minister.

Pitt's prime ministerial tenure, which came during the reign of King George III, was dominated by major political events in Europe, including the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Pitt, although often referred to as a Tory, or "new Tory", called himself an "independent Whig" and was generally opposed to the development of a strict partisan political system.

Pitt was an outstanding administrator who worked for efficiency and reform, bringing in a new generation of outstanding administrators. He increased taxes to pay for the great war against France and cracked down on radicalism. To engage the threat of Irish support for France, he engineered the Acts of Union 1800 and tried to secure Catholic emancipation as part of the Union. He created the "new Toryism", which revived the Tory Party and enabled it to stay in power for the next quarter-century.

The historian Asa Briggs argues that his personality did not endear itself to the British mind, for Pitt was too solitary and too colourless, and too often exuded an attitude of superiority. His greatness came in the war with France. Pitt reacted to become what Lord Minto called "the Atlas of our reeling globe". His integrity and industry and his role as defender of a threatened nation allowed him to inspire and access all national reserves of strength. William Wilberforce said, "For personal purity, disinterestedness and love of this country, I have never known his equal." Historian Charles Petrie concludes that he was one of the greatest Prime Ministers "if on no other ground than that he enabled the country to pass from the old order to the new without any violent upheaval ... He understood the new Britain." For this he is ranked highly amongst all British Prime Ministers in multiple surveys. Wikipedia  

✵ 28. May 1759 – 23. January 1806
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William Pitt the Younger: 19   quotes 4   likes

Famous William Pitt the Younger Quotes

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”

Speech in the House of Commons (18 November, 1783). Compare: "And with necessity, / The tyrant's plea, / excus'd his devilish deeds", John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book iv, line 393.

“I return you many thanks for the honour you have done me; but Europe is not to be saved by any single man. England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example.”

"The War Speeches of William Pitt", Oxford University Press, 1915, p. 351
Speech at the Guildhall, City of London, 9 November 1805. This was Pitt's last speech in public.

“Pitt: Never fear, Mr. Burke: depend on it we shall go on as we are, until the day of judgment.
Edmund Burke: Very likely, Sir. It is the day of no judgment that I am afraid of.”

Conversation at a dinner in 10 Downing Street (24 September 1791), quoted in George Pellew, The Life and Correspondence of the Right Hon. Henry Addington, First Viscount Sidmouth, Volume I (London: John Murray, 1847), p. 72.

“Most accursed, wicked, barbarous, cruel, unnatural, unjust and diabolical.”

Speech in Parliament on the American Revolutionary War (February 26, 1781), reported in Hansard (Vol. 22), p. 487, Debate on Mr. Fox's Motion for a Committee.

William Pitt the Younger Quotes about homeland

“What I have now offered is meant merely for the sake of my country, for the simple question is: will you change your Ministers and keep the Empire, or keep your Ministers and lose the Kingdom?”

William Cobbett, "Parliamentary History".
Speech in the House of Commons, supporting a motion of censure on the government of Lord North, 15 March 1782.

“Oh my country! How I love my country!”

Last words.
Lord Stanhope, Life of the Right Honourable William Pitt https://archive.org/stream/liferighthonour04stangoog/liferighthonour04stangoog_djvu.txt
Lord Rosebery reports it as "my country! how I leave my country!" in Pitt https://archive.org/stream/pittrose00roseuoft/pittrose00roseuoft_djvu.txt (London: Macmillan, 1891), and attributes "O my country! How I love my country!" to Benjamin Disraeli.
See also Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, pg 456.

“The amount of our danger, therefore, it would be impolitic to conceal from the people. It was the first duty of ministers to make it known, and after doing so, it should have been their study to provide against it, and to point out the means to the country by which it might be averted.”

"The War Speeches of William Pitt", Oxford University Press, 1915, p. 314
Speech in the House of Commons, 18 July 1803, opposing a vote of censure on his successor Henry Addington.

William Pitt the Younger Quotes about happiness

“You may take from me, Sir, the privileges and emoluments of place, but you cannot, and you shall not, take from me those habitual and warm regards for the prosperity of Great Britain which constitute the honour, the happiness, the pride of my life, and which, I trust, death alone can extinguish.”

"The War Speeches of William Pitt", Oxford University Press, 1915, p. 7
Speech in the House of Commons, 21 February 1783, on the peace treaty with the United States. Pitt, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer, knew the government would lose the vote and he would have to resign.

“We owe our present happiness and prosperity, which has never been equalled in the annals of mankind, to a mixture of monarchical government.”

"The War Speeches of William Pitt", Oxford University Press, 1915, p. 29
Speech in the House of Commons, 1 February 1793.

William Pitt the Younger Quotes

“Roll up that map; it will not be wanted these ten years.”

Upon seeing a map of Europe in January 1806 after hearing of the Battle of Austerlitz. Quoted in Stanhope, Life of the Right Honourable William Pitt https://archive.org/stream/lifeofwilliampit03stan/lifeofwilliampit03stan_djvu.txt. See also the Yale Book of Quotations.
Attributed

“Not merely a chip of the old 'block', but the old block itself.”

Nathaniel Wraxall, "Historical Memoirs of My Own Time", part 2.
Edmund Burke's reaction to Pitt's maiden speech in Parliament. The 'old block' was William Pitt the Elder.
About

“Prostrate the beauteous ruin lies; and all
That shared its shelter perish in its fall.”

The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, No. xxxvi, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“I think I could eat one of Bellamy's mutton pies.”

Also "I think I could eat one of Bellamy's meat pies." Both in Rosebery, Pitt https://archive.org/stream/pittrose00roseuoft/pittrose00roseuoft_djvu.txt. Rosebery wrote that this story was related to him by Disraeli, who heard it as a young member of Parliament by a "grim old waiter of prehistoric reputation, who was supposed to possess a secret treasure of political tradition." According to Rosebery, "Disraeli mentioned the meat -- veal or pork I think, but I have forgotten." Reported in Rosebery, Pitt https://archive.org/stream/pittrose00roseuoft/pittrose00roseuoft_djvu.txt.

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