Quote#Truth
I think, and every wise and honest man in generations yet unborn will…
Quote byHenry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke · 1678–1751
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Idea of a Patriot King (1738), pp. 68-69.
English (original)
I think, and every wise and honest man in generations yet unborn will think, if the history of [thi]s administration descends to blacken our annals, that the greatest iniquity of the minister [Robert Walpole], on whom the whole iniquity ought to be charged, since he has been so long in possession of the whole power, is the constant endeavour he has employed to corrupt the morals of men.
— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
More from Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
We are born too late to see the beginning, and we die too soon to see the end of many things.
Nations, like men, have their infancy.
A peace must be had; and all mankind sees plainly now, in how vile a manner former opportunities were neglected of making a better than at this hour we have reason to expect.
[I]t is a pretty shocking observation that the Queen is to be the guarantee for a loan of this extraordinary nature made by the Dutch, and especially at a time, when under pretence of disability they directly refuse to furnish their quotas …
Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense.
They (Thucydides and Xenophon) maintained the dignity of history.