“Mr Pitt, on entering upon administration, had found the nation at the lowest ebb in point of power and reputation. His predecessors, now his coadjutors, wanted genius, spirit and system…France, who meant to be feared, was feared heartily…They were willing to trust that France would be so good as to ruin us by inches. Pitt had roused us from this ignoble lethargy.”

Horace Walpole, Memoirs of King George II: Volume III (Yale University Press, 1985), p. 51.
About William Pitt

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William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham36

British politician 1708–1778

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“The admirers of Mr Pitt extol the reverberation he gave to our councils, the despondence he banished, the spirit he infused, the conquests he made, the security he affixed to our trade and plantations, the humiliation of France, the glory of Britain carried under his administration to a pitch at which it never had arrived—and all this is exactly true.”

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708–1778) British politician

Horace Walpole, Memoirs of King George II: Volume III (Yale University Press, 1985), p. 53.
About William Pitt

“This minister is, as you know, the idol of the people, who regard him as the sole author of their success, and they do not have the same confidence in the other members of the council…Pitt joins to a reputation of superior spirit and talent, that of most exact honesty…with simple manners and dignity, he seeks neither display nor ostentation…He is very eloquent, specious, wheedling, and with all the chicanery of an experienced lawyer. He is courageous to the point of rashness, he supports his ideas in an impassioned fashion and with an invincible determination, seeking to have no other ambition than to elevate Britain to the highest point of glory and to abase France to the lowest degree of humiliation.”

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708–1778) British politician

François de Bussy to Étienne François, duc de Choiseul (30 August, 1761).
Jeremy Black, Pitt the Elder (Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 215.
About William Pitt

“By God you are the only great man, except George Pitt, that I care a farthing for, or would wear out a pair of shoes in seeking after. Long-headed cunning people and rich fools are so plentiful in our country that I don’t fear getting now and then a face to paint for bread, but a man of genius with truth and simplicity, sense and good nature, I think worth his weight in gold - [signed:] 'Your Likeness Man”

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) English portrait and landscape painter

Quote in Gainsborough's letter to Hon. Constantine Phipps, undated; as cited in 'My Dear Maggoty Sir – The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough' http://thedabbler.co.uk/2011/10/my-dear-maggoty-sir-the-letters-of-thomas-gainsborough/, review by Roger Hudson, in Slightly Foxed, 18 Oct, 2011 <br class="br">undated

“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.”

William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806) British politician

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.