"No clap of thunder in a fair frosty day could astonish the world more than declaration of war against Holland in 1672."

Sir William Temple Politics See all quotes by Sir William Temple →

React to this quote

More by Sir William Temple

“All the precepts of Christianity agree to teach and command us to moderate our passions, to temper our affections towards all things below; to be thankful for the possession, and patient under the loss whenever he that gave it shall see fit to take away.”

“Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed.”

“When all is done, human life is, at the greatest, and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over.”

“Whoever converses much among the old books, will be something hard to please among the new.”

Resonant Thoughts

"The bipolar world is over, but it not going to be replaced by a unipolar world empire that the United States controls alone. The world is already economically multipolar, and there will be a diffusion…"

— Joseph Nye

Science1937–2025

#change

"Don't ask the world to change — you change first. Then you'll get a good enough look at the world so that you'll be able to change whatever you think ought to be changed. Take the obstruction out of y…"

— Anthony de Mello

Literature1931–1987

#change

"America must unite the whole civilized world in the fight against Islamic terrorism. Pretty much like we did with communism during the Cold War. We tried it President Obama's way, doesn't work. He gav…"

— Donald Trump

Politics1945

#war

"And what is going on is that the SPD has lost the trust of working class German voters, is overwhelmingly a party of the public sector, social science graduates and ethnic minorities and won barely mo…"

— Maurice Glasman

Politics1961

#justice