Guizot Quotes & Sayings

The world belongs to optimists; the pessimists are only spectators. — Francois Guizot

Common sense is the genius of mankind. — Francois Guizot

Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head. — Francois Guizot

If I had not smoked I should have been dead ten years ago. — Francois Guizot

There is mingled good and evil in all the events and governments of this world, and good often arises side by side with or in the wake of evil, but it is never from the evil that the good comes; injustice and tyranny have never produced good fruits. Be assured that whenever they have the dominion, whenever the moral rights and personal liberties of men are trodden under foot by material force, be it barbaric or be it scientific, there can result only prolonged evils and deplorable obstacles to the return of moral right and moral force, which, God be thanked, can never he obliterated from the nature and the history of man. — Francois Guizot

A spectre is haunting Europe-the spectre of Communism. All the Powers of old Europe have entered into holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies. Where is the Party in opposition that has not been decried as Communistic by its opponents in power? Where the Opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of Communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries? — Karl Marx

Do not be afraid of enthusiasm. You need it. You can do nothing effectively without it. — Francois Guizot

The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty — Francois Guizot

Modesty is a shining light; it prepares the mind to receive knowledge, and the heart for truth. — Francois Guizot

The man who is fond of complaining likes to remain amid the objects of his vexation. He will most strongly revolt against every means proposed for his deliverance. This is what suits him. He asks nothing better than to sigh over his position and to remain in it. — Francois Guizot

A specter is haunting Europe - the specter of Communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter; Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French radicals and German police spies.
Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as Communistic by its opponents in power? Where the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of Communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries?
Two things result from this fact.
I. Communism is already acknowledged by all European powers to be in itself a power.
II. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the Specter of Communism with a Manifesto of the party itself. — Karl Marx

Democracy is a cry of war; it is the flag of the party of numbers placed below raised against those above. A flag sometimes raised in the name of the rights of men, but sometimes in the name of crude passions; sometimes raised against the most iniquitous usurpations but also sometimes against legitimate superiority. — Francois Guizot

Voltaire," says M. Guizot, "was the first person in France who spoke of Shakespeare's genius; and although he spoke of him merely as a barbarian genius, the French public were of the opinion that he had said too much in his favor. Indeed, they thought it nothing less than profanation to apply the words genius and glory to dramas which they considered as crude as they were coarse. — William Shakespeare

Nothing falsifies history more than logic. — Francois Guizot

The world belongs to optimists. Pessimists are only spectators. — Francois Guizot

The effect of great and inevitable misfortune is to elevate those souls which it does not deprive of all virtue. — Francois Guizot

It is only after an unknown number of unrecorded labors, after a host of noble hearts have succumbed in discouragement, convinced that their cause is lost; it is only then that cause triumphs. — Francois Guizot