“The trodden worms, which had so long writhed under the iron heel of the oppressor, were turning at last. The smouldering fire of discontent was shooting out tongues of flame here and there. The sore stricken, who had brooded in sullen anger over their wrongs, were rising to strike in their turn.”

Source: The Story of his Life Told by Himself (1898), p. 62

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The trodden worms, which had so long writhed under the iron heel of the oppressor, were turning at last. The smoulderin…" by Joseph Arch?

Joseph Arch12

British politician 1826–1919

Related quotes

“The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on.”

William Shakespeare Henry VI (play) Part 1-3

Clifford, Act II, scene ii.
Henry VI, Part 3 (1592)

“The other, his brow heavy with threats, had long been muttering and smouldering with hidden fire.”
Talibus orantem vultu gravis ille minaci iamdudum premit et furiis ignescit opertis.

Gaius Valerius Flaccus book Argonautica

Source: Argonautica, Book V, Lines 519–520

“There are no wrong turnings. Only paths we had not known we were meant to walk.”

Guy Gavriel Kay book Tigana

Part 3 “Ember to Ember”, Chapter 10 (p. 317)
Source: Tigana (1990)

“Who Rebels? Who rises in arms? Rarely the slave, but almost always the oppressor turned slave.”

Emil M. Cioran book History and Utopia

History and Utopia (1960)

“If such were the will of God, what wonder that so many had turned to the devil?”

Marion L. Starkey (1901–1991) American historian & writer

Source: The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials (1949), Chapter 21, “Village Purge” (p. 248)

“When Bonaparte was to be dethroned, the Sovereigns of Europe called up their people to their aid; they invoked them in the sacred names of Freedom and National Independence; the cry went forth throughout Europe: and those, whom Subsidies had no power to buy, and Conscriptions no force to compel, roused by the magic sound of Constitutional Rights, started spontaneously into arms. The long-suffering Nations of Europe rose up as one man, and by an effort tremendous and wide spreading, like a great convulsion of nature, they hurled the conqueror from his throne. But promises made in days of distress, were forgotten in the hour of triumph…The rulers of mankind…had set free a gigantic spirit from its iron prison, but when that spirit had done their bidding, they shrunk back with alarm, from the vastness of that power, which they themselves had set into action, and modestly requested, it would go down again into its former dungeon. Hence, that gloomy discontent, that restless disquiet, that murmuring sullenness, which pervaded Europe after the overthrow of Bonaparte; and which were so unlike that joyful gladness, which might have been looked for, among men, who had just been released from the galling yoke of a foreign and a military tyrant. In 1820 the long brooding fire burst out into open flame; in Germany it was still kept down and smothered, but in Italy, in Spain, and in Portugal, it overpowered every resistance.”

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) British politician

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1830/mar/10/affairs-of-portugal in the House of Commons (10 March 1830). <br class="br">1830s

“High heels were invented by a woman who had been kissed on the forehead.”

Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet

“There is only one reason I did not go down in flames over the Angers, and that is because I knew I had Julie in the back. Would never have had the presence of mind to put that fire out if I hadn't been trying to save her life.”

Elizabeth Wein book Code Name Verity

Source: Code Name Verity

“Interesting nugget here as well. @tparsi had been informed by a Hill staffer in touch with the Pentagon that military strikes were imminent. Apparently everyone thought these strikes were really happening right up until the last moment. @esaagar ...”

Krystal Ball (1981) American journalist

Twitter Post, (24 June 2019)

“You are the weakest and the least, and the last to be redeemed…. You will be freed, when man will rise above the earthly, when human worms will turn into human eagles.”

Isaac Leib Peretz (1852–1915) Yiddish language author and playwright

The Day, 1906. Alle Verk, xii. 319.

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Joseph Arch12

Related quotes

Related topics