Lajos Kossuth Quotes

#1. You must be a power on earth, and must therefore accept all the consequences of this position.

Lajos Kossuth

#2. I came not to your glorious shores to enjoy a happy rest - I came not to gather triumphs of personal distinction, but as a humble petitioner, in my country's name, as its freely chosen constitutional leader, to entreat your generous aid.

Lajos Kossuth

#3. History is the revelation of Providence.

Lajos Kossuth

#4. Liberty is a principle; its community is its security; exclusiveness is its doom.

Lajos Kossuth

#5. It is chiefly in New York that I feel induced to urge this, because New York is, by innumerable ties, connected with Europe - more connected than several parts of Europe itself.

Lajos Kossuth

#6. Nationality is the aggregated individuality of the greatest men of the nation.

Lajos Kossuth

#7. Judgment of the people is often wiser than the wisest men.

Lajos Kossuth

#8. The policy of the house of Austria, which aimed at destroying the independence of Hungary as a state, has been pursued unaltered for three hundred years.

Lajos Kossuth

#9. Ethics may be defined as the obligations of morality.

Lajos Kossuth

#10. Even in political considerations, now-a-days, you have stronger motives to feel interested in the fate of Europe than in the fate of the Central or Southern parts of America.

Lajos Kossuth

#11. No man can force the harp of his own individuality into the people's heart; but every man may play upon the chords of the people's heart, who draws his inspiration from the people's instinct.

Lajos Kossuth

#12. Your generous part in my liberation is taken by the world for the revelation of the fact, that the United States are resolved not to allow the despots of the world to trample on oppressed humanity.

Lajos Kossuth

#13. The era of Christianity peace, brotherhood, the Golden Rule as applied to governmental matters is. yet to come, and when it comes, then, and then only, will the future of nations be sure.

Lajos Kossuth

#14. I believe that the confidence of Hungary in me is not shaken by misfortune nor broken by my calumniators.

Lajos Kossuth

#15. Argument is not always truth.

Lajos Kossuth

#16. In my opinion, the form of Government may be different in different countries, according to their circumstances, their wishes, their wants. England loves her Queen, and has full motive to do so.

Lajos Kossuth

#17. To know a people's character, we must see it at its homes, and look chiefly to the humbler abodes where that portion of the people dwells which makes the broad basis of the national prosperity.

Lajos Kossuth

#18. Yet my humble capacity has not preserved me from calumnies.

Lajos Kossuth

#19. Let him who looks for a monument to Washington look around the United States. Your freedom, your independence, your national power, your prosperity, and your prodigious growth are a monument to him.

Lajos Kossuth

#20. The time draws near, when a radical change must take place for the whole world in the management of diplomacy.

Lajos Kossuth

#21. Neutrality, as a lasting principle, is an evidence of weakness.

Lajos Kossuth

#22. Light has spread, and even bayonets think.

Lajos Kossuth

#23. It is the surmounting of difficulties that makes heroes.

Lajos Kossuth

#24. The unspoken word never does harm.

Lajos Kossuth

#25. I have to thank the People, the Congress, and the Government of the United States for my liberation.

Lajos Kossuth

#26. I consider no man honest who does not observe towards other nations the principles which he desires to be observed towards his own: and therefore I will not interfere in your domestic questions.

Lajos Kossuth

#27. The principle of evil in Europe is the enervating spirit of Russian absolutism.

Lajos Kossuth

#28. Now that I am a deputy, I will cease to be an agitator.

Lajos Kossuth

#29. The brave are parsimonious of threats.

Lajos Kossuth

#30. I am a man of peace, God knows how I love peace; but I hope I shall never be such a coward as to mistake oppression for peace.

Lajos Kossuth

#31. Hungary is, in a word, in a state of WAR against the Hapsburg dynasty, a war of legitimate defence, by which alone it can ever regain independence and freedom.

Lajos Kossuth

#32. The Hungarian ministry begged the king earnestly to issue orders to all troops and commanders of fortresses in Hungary, enjoining fidelity to the Constitution, and obedience to the ministers of Hungary.

Lajos Kossuth

#33. Men like me, who merely wish to establish political freedom, will in such circumstances lose all their influence, and others will get influence who may become dangerous to all established interests whatsoever.

Lajos Kossuth

#34. And if you cannot remain indifferent, you must resolve to throw your weight into that balance in which the fate and condition of man is weighed.

Lajos Kossuth

#35. Bravery is often too sharp a spur.

Lajos Kossuth

#36. I consider that it is on instruction and education that the future security and direction of the destiny of every nation chiefly and fundamentally rests.

Lajos Kossuth

#37. I will not become a Napoleon nor an Alexander, and labour for my own ambition; but I will labour for freedom and for the moral well-being of man.

Lajos Kossuth

#38. The tongue of man is powerful enough to render the ideas which the human intellect conceives; but in the realm of true and deep sentiments it is but a weak interpreter. These are inexpressible, like the endless glory of the Omnipotent.

Lajos Kossuth

#39. In exile, I have tried to profit by the past and prepare for the future.

Lajos Kossuth

#40. The house of Austria has publicly used every effort to deprive the country of its legitimate Independence and Constitution, designing to reduce it to a level with the other provinces long since deprived of all freedom, and to unite all in a common sink of slavery.

Lajos Kossuth

#41. I am a straightforward man.

Lajos Kossuth

#42. My nomination to be Governor was not to gratify ambition.

Lajos Kossuth

#43. If I had undertaken the practical direction of military operations, and anything went amiss, I feared that my conscience would torture me, as guilty of the fall of my country, as I had not been familiar with military tactics.

Lajos Kossuth

#44. Humility is the part of wisdom, and is most becoming in men. But let no one discourage self-reliance; it is, of all the rest, the greatest quality of true manliness.

Lajos Kossuth

#45. Now since France has three times in sixty years failed to obtain practical results from Political revolutions, all Europe is apt to press forward into new Social doctrine to regulate the future.

Lajos Kossuth

#46. The protection of God cannot, without sacrilege, be invoked but in behalf of justice and right.

Lajos Kossuth

#47. The cause of freedom is identified with the destinies of humanity, and in whatever part of the world it gains ground by and by, it will be a common gain to all those who desire it.

Lajos Kossuth

#48. Upon this the Hungarian ministers resigned, but the names submitted by the president of the council, at the demand of the king, were not approved of for successors.

Lajos Kossuth

#49. The power that is supported by force alone will have cause often to tremble.

Lajos Kossuth

#50. I must therefore implore your indulgence for a pretty long and plain development of my views concerning that cause which the citizens of New York, and you particularly, gentlemen, honour with generous interest.

Lajos Kossuth

#51. I can understand Communism, but not Socialism.

Lajos Kossuth

#52. It is well to be independent also well not to be neutral.

Lajos Kossuth

#53. My principles in respect of religious interest are two,
one is, that the Church shall not meddle with politics, and the government shall not meddle with religion.

Lajos Kossuth