Source: 'Democracy on its Trial', Quarterly Review, 110, 1861, p. 281
“Men of repute, including the staunchest patriots such as Samuel Adams and Jonathan Mayhew, expressed their abhorrence of mobs and of all licentious proceedings in general; but many were nevertheless disposed to think, with good Deacon Tudor, that in this particular instance "the universal Obhorrance of the Stamp Act was the cause of the Mob's riseing." It would be well to punish the mob, but punishing the mob would not cure the evil which was the cause of the mob…”
The Eve of the Revolution (1918)
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Carl L. Becker 25
American historian 1873–1945Related quotes
“A hungry mob is an angry mob.”
Them Belly Full (But We Hungry), from the album Natty Dread (1974)
Song lyrics
“A mob is still a mob, even if it's on your side.”
Adams as portrayed in the HBO Miniseries John Adams (2008); this has sometimes been cited as having been actually said or written by the historical John Adams.
Misattributed
“There can be no free speech in a mob: free speech is one thing a mob can't stand.”
"Quotes", The Educated Imagination (1963), Talk 6: The Vocation of Eloquence
Introduction to the Critical Journal of Philosophy, cited in W. Kaufmann, Hegel (1966), p. 56
Source: The Ginger Star (1974), Chapter 7 (p. 45)
Quoted in ""A portion of the journal kept by Thomas Raikes, esq., from 1831 to 1847 ; comprising reminiscences of social and political life in London and Paris during that period."", volume 2. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, 1858.
Also attributed to Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie by Thomas Carlyle
“The best university that can be recommended to a man of ideas is the gauntlet of the mobs.”
Eloquence
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870)