WIST Quotations

Montesquieu -- Persian Letters [Lettres Persanes], Letter 29, Rica to Ibben (1721) [tr. Mauldon (2008)]

Dave — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 17:05:32 +0000

I can consequently assure you that no kingdom has ever existed with as many civil wars as occur in the kingdom of Christ.

[Aussi puis-je t’assurer qu’il n’y a jamais eu de royaume où il y ait eu tant de guerres civiles que dans celui de Christ.]

Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Persian Letters [Lettres Persanes], Letter 29, Rica to Ibben (1721) [tr. Mauldon (2008)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

And accordingly I can assure thee there never was a Kingdom that had so many Civil Wars in it, as that of Christ.
[tr. Ozell (1736), Letter 27]

I can also affirm to thee that there never was a kingdom where there has been so many civil wars as in that of Christ.
[tr. Floyd (1762)]

I can also assure you that there never was a realm in which so many civil wars have broken out, as in the kingdom of Christ.
[tr. Davidson (1891)]

Consequently, I am able to assure you that there never has been a kingdom in which there have been so many civil wars as in that of Christ.
[tr. Betts (1897)]

I can also assure you that there has never been a realm so prone to civil wars as that of Christ.
[tr. Healy (1964)]

I assure you that no countries have had as many civil wars as those in the realm of Christ.
[tr. MacKenzie (2014)]

Blunt, Wilfred -- My Diaries, 1888-1914, 22 Dec 1900 (1921)

Dave — Thu, 26 May 2016 14:01:51 +0000

The old century is very nearly out, and leaves the world in a pretty pass, and the British Empire is playing the devil in it as never an empire before on so large a scale. We may live to see its fall. All the nations of Europe are making the same hell upon earth in China, massacring and pillaging and raping in the captured cities as outrageously as in the Middle Ages. The Emperor of Germany gives the word for slaughter and the Pope looks on and approves. In South Africa our troops are burning farms under Kitchener’s command, and the Queen and the two houses of Parliament, and the bench of bishops thank God publicly and vote money for the work. The Americans are spending fifty millions a year on slaughtering the Filipinos; the King of the Belgians has invested his whole fortune on the Congo, where he is brutalizing the Negroes to fill his pockets. The French and Italians for the moment are playing a less prominent part in the slaughter, but their inactivity grieves them. The whole white race is reveling openly in violence, as though it had never pretended to be Christian. God’s equal curse be on them all! So ends the famous nineteenth century into which we were so proud to have been born.

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840-1922) English poet, critic, horse breeder
My Diaries, 1888-1914, 22 Dec 1900 (1921)
(Source)

Leland, John -- A Chronicle of His Time in Virginia (1845)

Dave — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:01:02 +0000

The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever. … Government should protect every man in thinking and speaking freely, and see that one does not abuse another. The liberty I contend for is more than toleration. The very idea of toleration is despicable; it supposes that some have a pre-eminence above the rest to grant indulgence, whereas all should be equally free, Jews, Turks, Pagans and Christians.

John Leland (1754-1841) American Baptist minister, civil libertarian
A Chronicle of His Time in Virginia (1845)