Quote#Freedom
Governments are not at liberty to act solely from motives of generous…
Quote byHenry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston · 1784–1865
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letter to Viscount Granville on the Portuguese Civil War (10 August 1831), quoted in Jasper Ridley, Lord Palmerston (1970), p. 166.
English (original)
Governments are not at liberty to act solely from motives of generous sympathy for the sufferings of an oppressed people, they are bound by the severer rules of general principles, to respect rights which are inherent in other nations.
— Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
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