Quote#War
When kings the sword of justice first lay down
Quote byDaniel Defoe · 1660–1731
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The True-Born Englishman (1701), Pt. II, l. 313..
English (original)
When kings the sword of justice first lay down, They are no kings, though they possess the crown. Titles are shadows, crowns are empty things, The good of subjects is the end of kings.
— Daniel Defoe
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Reason, it is true, is DICTATOR in the Society of Mankind; from her there ought to lie no Appeal; But here we want a Pope in our Philosophy, to be the infallible Judge of what is or is not Reason.
Hail, hieroglyphic State machine, Contrived to punish fancy in; Men that are men in thee can feel no pain, And all thy insignificance disdain!
We loved the doctrine for the teacher's sake.
Next, bring some lawyers to thy bar, By innuendo they might all stand there; There let them expiate that guilt, And pay for all that blood their tongues have spilt. These are the mountebanks of state, Who by the sleight of tongues can …
Alas the Church of England! What with Popery on one hand, and schismatics on the other, how has she been crucified between two thieves!
All men would be tyrants if they could.