Quote#Speech
I am a Scotsman addressing Scotsmen, and I feel, therefore,…
Quote byArthur Balfour · 1848–1930
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Lord President of the Council, Speech to the University of Edinburgh (26 January 1927), quoted in The Times (27 January 1927), p. 14.
English (original)
I am a Scotsman addressing Scotsmen, and I feel, therefore, peculiarly qualified to speak on this subject. I absolutely refuse to allow any man, be he English or be he Scottish, to rob me of my share in Magna Charta, or Shakespeare, because of Bannockburn or Flodden.
— Arthur Balfour
More from Arthur Balfour
It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth.
I have never had to go back beyond the year 1885 to prove that the Irish leaders desired to obtain what they call the freedom of their country by illegal and anarchic means.
I shall offer uncompromising resistance to any measure which may throw obstacles in the way of the teaching of religion in elementary schools. I will not consent in the name of religious freedom, to banish religion from education; or, in …
He did not believe that any such transaction could be quoted from the annals of our political or Parliamentary history. It stood alone—he did not wish to use strong language, but he was going to say—it stood alone in its infamy.
There are those who talk as if Irishmen were justified in disobeying the law because the law comes to them in a foreign garb. I see no reason why any local colour should be given to the Ten Commandments.
Those who look forward to a period of continuous and, so to speak, inevitable progress, are bound to assign some more solid reason for their convictions than a merely empirical survey of the surface lessons of history. ...Humanity, …