Lords Quotes
More Lords Quotes
The true simple question of the present dispute is, whether the House of Lords and Court Influence shall predominate over the House of Commons, and annihilate its existence, or whether the House of Commons...shall have power to....regulate the prerogative of the Crown, which was ever ready to seize upon the freedom of the Electors of this country.
charles james fox— Speech to his constituents in Westminster (1784), quoted in W. T. Laprade, 'William Pitt and the Westminster Election', American Historical Review, 23 (1912), p. 263.
Vastly inferior as this Court is to the House of Commons, considered as a body in the State, and amenable as its members may be for illconduct in their office to its animadversions and certainly are to its impeachment before the Lords, yet, as a Court of law, we know no superior but those Courts which may revise our judgments for error; and in this respect there is no common term of comparison between this Court and the House.
— Coleridge, J., Stockdale v. Hansard (1837), 3 St. Tr. (N. S.) 931. "I have yet to learn that this Court is to be restrained by the dignity or the power of anybody, however exalted, from fearlessly, though respectfully, examining their reasonableness and justice, where the rights of third parties, in litigation before us, depend upon their validity". Coleridge, J., id.
The House of Lords is a model of how to care for the elderly.
— 1981 In the Observer, 24 May.
The Law is the true embodiment Of everything that's excellent. It has no kind of fault or flaw, And I, my Lords, embody the Law.
Sir W(illiam) S(chwenck) Gilbert— 1882 Iolanthe, act1.
This man I thought had been a Lord among wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords.
— 1754 Of Lord Chesterfield. Quoted in James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.1.
Every man has a House of Lords in his own head. Fears, prejudices, misconceptionsthose are the peers, and theyare hereditary.
Lloyd George (of Dwyfor), David, 1st Earl— 1927 Speech, Cambridge.
Anyone from abroad will tell you that it is the class system that really lies at the root of our problems, economic and industrial. The House of Lords symbolises that.
tony benn— As quoted in Yorkshire Post (22 November 1976)
We have been in recess since July, and during that time there have been a fuel crisis, a Danish no vote, the collapse of the Euro and a war in the middle east, but what is our business tomorrow? The Insolvency Bill [Lords]. It ought be called the Bankruptcy Bill [Commons], because we play no role.
tony benn— HC Deb, 23 October 2000, Col 12, cited in Adam Tomkins, "What is Parliament for?" in Bamforth N. and Leyland P. (eds.), Public Law in a Multi-Layered Constitution, Oxford, Hart (2003, p. 53).
In my mind, he was guilty of no error he — was chargeable with no exaggeration — he was betrayed by his fancy into no metaphor, who once said that all we see about us, Kings, Lords, and Commons, the whole machinery of the State, all the apparatus of the system, and its varied workings, end in simply bringing twelve men into a box.
brougham, henry, 1st baron brougham and vaux— Present State of the Law (February 7, 1828).
I should be judged as a captain who went from Spain to the Indies to conquer a people numerous and warlike, whose manners and religion are very different from ours, who live in sierras and mountains, without fixed settlements, and where by divine will I have placed under the sovereignty of the King and Queen our Lords, an Other World, whereby Spain, which was reckoned poor, is become the richest of countries.
christopher columbus— Letter to Doña Juana de Torres, October 1500
It is quite clear from what has been said and written that, time after time after time, there has been a conspiracy between the Conservative Front Bench in this House and the inbuilt Conservative majority in the House of Lords to defeat legislation that has passed through the House of Commons...I warn the House of Lords of the consequences...it is our strong view that the House of Lords should recall that its role is not that of a wrecking chamber, but of a revising chamber. In recent weeks, it has been wrecking legislation passed by this House.
james callaghan— Hansard, House of Commons, 5th Series, vol. 919, col. 211.Speech in the House of Commons, 9 November, 1976.
During the last 100 years, the House of Lords has never contributed one iota to popular liberties or popular freedom, or done anything to advance the common weal; but during that time it has protected every abuse and sheltered every privilege.
joseph chamberlain— Speech at Birmingham, 4th August 1884. Cited in "The House of Lords: A handbook for Liberal speakers, writers and workers" (Liberal Publication Department, 1910), p. 96.
I have always said, that, without commerce...this island could not possibly continue to be great...but, it is the system of rendering every thing commercial; of making merchants and bankers into Lords; of making a set of fund-dealers the distributors of honours and rewards...it is this system that I reprobate.
william cobbett— Political Register (11 January 1806), quoted in Karl W. Schweizer and John W. Osborne, Cobbett and His Times (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1990), p. 15.
Lords and Commons of England, consider what Nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governors: a Nation not slow and dull, but of quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent, suttle and sinewy to discours, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that humane capacity can soar to.
john milton— John Milton, Aeropagitica, 1644.
Our godly Stadtholder has come to the communion, and therein has broken the Lord’s bread, and has submitted to discipline, which is no small event.
— A minister writing to London shortly after William publicly professed the Calvinist faith, as quoted in William the Silent (1902) by Frederic Harrison, p. 74
This Court (Lords House of Parliament), which ought to be an example to all other Courts, will ever hold in the highest reverence the indulgent character of British justice.
— Lord Erskine, L.C., Trial of Lord Viscount Melville (1806), 29 How. St. Tr. 1249.
The decisions of the House of Lords are binding on me and upon all the Courts except itself.
— Sir John Romilly, M.R., Att.-Gen. v. The Dean and Canons of Windsor (1858), 24 Beav. 715.
Two of far nobler shape erect and tall, God-like erect, with native honor clad In naked majesty seemed Lords of all.
john milton— 1665 Of Adam and Eve. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.4, l.288-90.
Now possess, As Lords, a spacious world, to our native heaven Little inferior, by myadventure hard With peril great achieved.
john milton— 1665 Satan, returning triumphantly from Earth to Hell after tempting Eve. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.10, l.466-9.
ButOh! ye Lords of ladies intellectual, Inform us truly, have they not hen-pecked you all?.
Rochdale— 1819-24 Don Juan, canto1, stanza 22.
In the first daysOf my distracting grief, I found myselfAs women wish to be who love their Lords.
john home— Act i, scene 1.
In all climes we pitch out tents,Cronies of the elements,With the secret Lords of birthIntimate and free.
richard hovey— The Wander-lovers.
Men of England, wherefore plough For the Lords who lay ye low?
Percy Bysshe Shelley— Song to the Men of England, st. 1 (1819).
As things stand now the feudal Lords are content to look on while the shogunate carries on in a highhanded manner. Neither the Lords nor the shogun can be depended upon, and so our only hope lies in grass-roots heroes.
yoshida shoin— Vol. V (Yoshida Shoin Zenshu)
My Lords, I have heard of those who have expressed more wishes for popularity than ever I felt. I have heard it said, and I think it was in this Court, that they 'would have popularity: but it should be that popularity which follows, not that which is sought after.' My Lords, I am proud enough to despise them both. If popularity should offer itself to me, I would speedily take care to kick it away.
— In reference to Lord Mansfield's judgment quoted above. See Horne's Address in the Court of King's Bench, 20 How. St. Tr. 785.
This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords.
— Samuel Johnson Boswell's Life, vol. ii, ch. i, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
I know about your [British] system of democracy, but in that system the workers 'hold keys of straw', as an expression of ours puts it. It is democracy for the capitalists, for the Lords, but not for the workers. When we win we shall establish democracy, but not like that democracy of yours.
— Enver Hoxha (1986) The Artful Albanian, (Chatto & Windus, London), ISBN 0701129700
