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Quote#Politics & Power

He wanted to call this country out of that enervate state, that…

Quote byWilliam Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham · 1708–1778

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Speech in the House of Commons (5 December 1755), quoted in Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Second. Vol. II (2nd. edn. 1847), p. 89.

English (original)

He wanted to call this country out of that enervate state, that twenty thousand men from France could shake it. The maxims of our Government were degenerated, not our natives. He wished to see that breed restored, which under our old principles had carried our glory so high!

— William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

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