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Oliver Cromwell

46 quotes

“If the remonstrance had been rejected I would have sold all I had the next morning and never have seen England more, and I know there are many other modest men of the same resolution.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1609 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the passing of the revolutionary Grand Remonstrance of November 1641 listing Parliament's grievances against King Charles I, as quoted in A History of the Rebellion (first published 1702–1704) by Edward Hyde, Earl of…
“I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that you call a Gentleman and is nothing else.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1643 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Sir William Spring (September 1643)
“A few honest men are better than numbers.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1643 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Sir William Spring (September 1643)
“The State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions; if they be willing faithfully to serve it – that satisfies. I advised you formerly to bear with men of different minds from yourself.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1643 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Lawrence Crawford (10 March 1643)
“God made them as stubble to our swords.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1644 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Colonel Valentine Walton (5 July 1644), following the Battle of Marston Moor.
“Truly England and the church of God hath had a great favour from the Lord, in this great victory given us.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1644 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Colonel Valentine Walton (5 July 1644)
“We study the glory of God, and the honour and liberty of parliament, for which we unanimously fight, without seeking our own interests... I profess I could never satisfy myself on the justness of this war, but from the authority of the parliament to maintain itself in its rights; and in this cause I hope to prove myself an honest man and single-hearted.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1644 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement to Colonel Valentine Walton (5 or 6 September 1644)
“I could not riding out alone about my business, but smile out to God in praises, in assurance of victory because God would, by things that are not, bring to naught things that are.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1645 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Before the Battle of Naseby (14 June 1645)
“It's a blessed thing to die daily. For what is there in this world to be accounted of! The best men according to the flesh, and things, are lighter than vanity. I find this only good, to love the Lord and his poor despised people, to do for them and to be ready to suffer with them....and he that is found worthy of this hath obtained great favour from the Lord; and he that is established in this shall (being conformed to Christ and the rest of the Body) participate in the glory of a resurrection which will answer all.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1646 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Sir Thomas Fairfax (7 March 1646)
“This is our comfort, God is in heaven, and He doth what pleaseth Him; His, and only His counsel shall stand, whatsoever the designs of men, and the fury of the people be.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1646 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Sir Thomas Fairfax (21 December 1646)
“We declared our intentions to preserve monarchy, and they still are so, unless necessity enforce an alteration. It’s granted the king has broken his trust, yet you are fearful to declare you will make no further addresses... look on the people you represent, and break not your trust, and expose not the honest party of your kingdom, who have bled for you, and suffer not misery to fall upon them for want of courage and resolution in you, else the honest people may take such courses as nature dictates to them.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1648 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the Commons during the debate which preceded the "Vote of No Addresses" (January 1648) as recorded in the diary of John Boys of Kent
“Since providence and necessity has cast them upon it, he should pray God to bless their counsels.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1648 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the trial of Charles I (December 1648)
“I tell you we will cut off his head with the crown upon it.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1648 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Algernon Sidney, one of the judges at the trial of Charles I (December 1648)
“If we do not depart from God, and disunite by that departure, and fall into disunion among ourselves, I am confident, we doing our duty and waiting upon the Lord, we shall find He will be as a wall of brass round about us till we have finished that work which he has for us to do.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1649 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to his army officers (23 March 1649)
“This is a righteous judgement of God upon these barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1649 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: After the Siege of Drogheda, where Cromwell had forbidden his soldiers "to spare any that were in arms in the town" (1649)
“Do not trust to that; for these very persons would shout as much if you and I were going to be hanged.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1650 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response to John Lambert's remarks that he "was glad to see we had the nation on our side" as they were cheered by a crowd in June 1650; as quoted by Gilbert Burnet in History of My Own Time (1683); also in in God's Eng…
“I need pity. I know what I feel. Great place and business in the world is not worth looking after.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1650 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Richard Mayor (July 1650)
“I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1650 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland (3 August 1650)
“Your pretended fear lest error should step in, is like the man that would keep all the wine out of the country lest men should be drunk. It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy, to deny a man the liberty he hath by nature upon a supposition that he may abuse it.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1650 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Walter Dundas (12 September 1650)
“No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1651 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement to Pomponne de Bellievre, as told to Cardinal de Retz in 1651; Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz (1717), p.75; p.286
“I am neither heir nor executor to Charles Stuart.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1651 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Repudiating a royal debt (August 1651)
“The dimensions of this mercy are above my thoughts. It is for aught I know, a crowning mercy.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1651 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to William Lenthall, Speaker of the House of Commons (4 September 1651)
“Shall we seek for the root of our comforts within us; what God hath done, what he is to us in Christ, is the root of our comfort. In this is stability; in us is weakness. Acts of obedience are not perfect, and therefore yield not perfect peace. Faith, as an act, yields it not, but as it carries us into him, who is our perfect rest and peace; in whom we are accounted of, and received by, the Father, even as Christ himself. This is our high calling. Rest we here, and here only.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1652 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Charles Fleetwood (1652)
“When I went there, I did not think to have done this. But perceiving the spirit of God so strong upon me, I would not consult flesh and blood.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1653 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his forcible dissolution of parliament (April 1653) quoted in Flagellum: or the Life and Death Birth and Burial of Oliver Cromwell the Late Usurper (1663) by James Heath
“You are as like the forming of God as ever people were... you are at the edge of promises and prophecies.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1653 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the "Barebones Parliament" (July 1653)
“God has brought us where we are, to consider the work we may do in the world, as well as at home.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1654 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Army Council (1654)
“Though peace be made, yet it's interest that keep peace.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1654 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in a statement to Parliament as as "a maxim not to be despised" (4 September 1654)
“There are some things in this establishment that are fundamental... about which I shall deal plainly with you... the government by a single person and a parliament is a fundamental... and... though I may seem to plead for myself, yet I do not: no, nor can any reasonable man say it... I plead for this nation, and all the honest men therein.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1654 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To the First Protectorate Parliament (12 September 1654)
“In every government there must be somewhat fundamental, somewhat like a Magna Charta, that should be standing and unalterable... that parliaments should not make themselves perpetual is a fundamental.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1654 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the First Protectorate Parliament (12 September 1654)
“Necessity hath no law. Feigned necessities, imagined necessities... are the greatest cozenage that men can put upon the Providence of God, and make pretenses to break known rules by.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1654 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the First Protectorate Parliament (12 September 1654)
“I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height, nor yet in obscurity. I have been called to several employments in the nation — to serve in parliaments, — and ( because I would not be over tedious ) I did endeavour to discharge the duty of an honest man in those services, to God, and his people’s interest, and of the commonwealth; having, when time was, a competent acceptation in the hearts of men, and some evidence thereof.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1654 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the First Protectorate Parliament (12 September 1654)
“I desire not to keep my place in this government an hour longer than I may preserve England in its just rights, and may protect the people of God in such a just liberty of their consciences...”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1655 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech dissolving the First Protectorate Parliament (22 January 1655)
“Weeds and nettles, briars and thorns, have thriven under your shadow, dissettlement and division, discontentment and dissatisfaction, together with real dangers to the whole.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1655 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech dissolving the First Protectorate Parliament (22 January 1655)
“I have not the particular shining bauble or feather in my cap for crowds to gaze at, or kneel to, but I have power and resolution for foes to tremble at.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1655 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter of 28 July 1655, in Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches by Thomas Carlyle. See The Works of Thomas Carlyle
“We are Englishmen; that is one good fact.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1655 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Parliament (1655)
“And let God be judge between you and me.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1658 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: When dissolving the second Parliament of the Protectorate, 4 February 1658, also quote in Famous Sayings and their Authors, p. 6
“Men have been led in dark paths, through the providence and dispensation of God. Why, surely it is not to be objected to a man, for who can love to walk in the dark? But providence doth often so dispose.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1657 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Answer to the Conference at the Committee at Whitehall, Second Protectorate Parliament (13 April 1657), quoted in The Diary of Thomas Burton, esq., volume 2: April 1657 - February 1658 (1828), p. 504
“You have accounted yourselves happy on being environed with a great ditch from all the world beside.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1657 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Parliament (25 January 1658), quoted in The Diary of Thomas Burton, esq., volume 2: April 1657 - February 1658 (1828), p. 361
“That which brought me into the capacity I now stand in, was the Petition and Advice given me by you, who, in reference to the ancient Constitution, did draw me here to accept the place of Protector. There is not a man living can say I sought it, no not a man, nor woman, treading upon English ground.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1657 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Parliament (4 February 1658), quoted in The Diary of Thomas Burton, esq., volume 2: April 1657 - February 1658 (1828), p. 465-466
“I would have been glad to have lived under my wood side, to have kept a flock of sheep, rather than undertook such a Government as this is.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1657 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement to Parliament (4 February 1658) quoted in The Diary of Thomas Burton, esq., volume 2: April 1657 - February 1658 (1828), p. 466
“I would be willing to live and be farther serviceable to God and his people; but my work is done. Yet God will be with his people.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) said by 1658 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not my design to drink or to sleep, but my design is to make what haste I can to be gone.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1658 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Words that Cromwell spoke as he was dying and was offered a drink (3 September 1658)
“Now I see there is a people risen that I cannot win with gifts or honours, offices or places; but all other sects and people I can.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) said by 1658 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Quakers, after meeting with George Fox, as quoted in Autobiography of George Fox (1694)
“Mr. Lely, I desire you would use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me, otherwise I will never pay a farthing for it.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) said by 1658 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Anecdotes of Painting in England (1762-1771) by Horace Walpole often credited as being the origin of the phrase "warts and all". Variant: Paint me as I am. If you leave out the scars and wrinkles, I will no…
“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money. Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter'd your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth? Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil'd this sacred place, and turn'd the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress'd, are yourselves gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. In the name of God, go!”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1653 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech on the dissolution of the Rump of the Long Parliament (20 April 1653)
“Truly, though kingship be not a title but a name of office that runs through the law, yet it is not so ratione nominis, but from what is signified. It is a name of office, plainly implying a Supreme Authority. Is it more, or can it be stretched to more? I say, it is a name of office, plainly implying the Supreme Authority, and if it be so, why then I would suppose, (I am not peremptory in any thing that is matter of deduction or inference of my own,) why then I should suppose that whatsoever name hath been or shall be the name, in which the Supreme Authority shall act; why, (I say) if it had been those four or five letters, or whatsoever else it had been, that signification goes to the thing. Certainly it does, and not to the name. Why then, there can be no more said, but this, why this hath been fixt, so it may have been unfixt.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) first seen 1657 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Answer to the Conference at the Committee at Whitehall, Second Protectorate Parliament (13 April 1657), quoted in The Diary of Thomas Burton, esq., volume 2: April 1657 - February 1658 (1828), pp. 496-497