Quote#World
The longer I live the more certain I am that the great difference…
Quote byThomas Fowell Buxton · 1837–1915
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton (1849), Quoted in Benjamin West, his life and work, p. 20, also quote on the title page of Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, p. 1.
English (original)
The longer I live the more certain I am that the great difference between men, the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant, is energy and invincible determination – a purpose once fixed and then death or victory. That quality will do anything that can be done in this world, and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities will make a two-legged creature a man without it.
— Thomas Fowell Buxton
More from Thomas Fowell Buxton
No longer from Parliament with an easy mind, so we must be satisfied.
I should very much like to be a country gentleman. I would not have the best horses, or dogs, or farms, in the county; but I would exert myself to improve the people who were under my influence.
How wonderful are the ways of the Lord (God); how sweet his mercies, how terrible his judgements!
No man has a surplus of power: meaning by power— time, talents, money, influence.
I shall speak as well as I can for usefulness, but not for fame.
There are a great many poor people who are very sick, and yet have no money to buy food, or clothes, or physic; and there are many more so ignorant that they never heard of the Bible, and think they do very right, when they roast and eat …