Lords Quotes
More Lords Quotes
— all these Dark Lords intent on creating wastelands packed with enslaved victims ... for what?
steven erikson— SF Site Interview
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.
Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,I see the Lords of humankind pass by.
Oliver Goldsmith— Line 327.
They do not ill, being Lords of ours, to slay Me; nay, they could not spare: but thee to slay, To spill thy strong young life for truth to me, In all men's eyes would mark them monstrous:;: thou Must live, and serve my slayers, and serving them Sustain my memory by the proof if God Shall give thee grace to prove it that thy name, Thy father's name and mine, in true men's ears Rings truth, and means not treason.
algernon charles swinburne— Faliero, Act V. Sc. 3.
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.
When we have a majority we will do it. I think the days of the Lords are quite genuinely numbered.
tony benn— As quoted in The Times (13 November 1976)
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).
Even, under such circumstances, a commoner of England, tried before a jury of Lords, would have far less cause to complain than should I, a woman, tried before a jury of men.
susan b. anthony— An Account of the Proceedings on the Trial of Susan B. Anthony on the Charge of Illegal Voting (1874)
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.
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
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 good men into a box.
— Lord Brougham (1828), Present State of the Law (Feb. 7).
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.
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey Where wealth accumulates and men decay: Princes and Lords may flourish or may fade; A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed, can never be supplied.
Oliver Goldsmith— 1770 The Deserted Village, l.51-6.
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.
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.
He only is advancing in life whose heart is getting softer, whose blood warmer, whose brain quicker, whose spirit is entering into living peace. And the men who have this life in them are the true Lords or kings of the earth they, and they only.
john ruskin— P. 563. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
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)
If my Lord Chief Justice do commit any person, and set his name to the warrant, he does not use to add to his name "Lord Chief Justice," but he is known to be so, without that addition. The Lords do not use to write themselves privy counsellors; they are known to be so, as well as a Judge, who only writes his name and does not use to make the addition of his office.
— Allybone, J., Trial of the Seven Bishops (1688), 12 How. St. Tr. 210. The Chief Justice of England is called in old Histories Capitalis Justicia et prima post Regem in Anglia Jnstieia. Lamb Eirenarcha, p. 4, Precedence, &C, of the Judges. Fortescue, 395.
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).
