John Lothrop Motley (April 15, 1814 – May 29, 1877[citation needed]) was an American historian and diplomat. Read full biography of John Lothrop Motley →
The sword - the first, for a time the only force: the force of iron.
A terrible animal, indeed, is an unbridled woman.
A third force, developing itself more slowly, becomes even more potent than the rest: the power of gold.
The ferocious inroads of the Normans scared many weak and timid persons into servitude.
A new civilization was not to be improvised by a single mind.
Enthusiasm could not supply the place of experience.
In Gaul were two orders, the nobility and the priesthood, while the people, says Caesar, were all slaves.
In the tenth century the old Batavian and later Roman forms have faded away.
Thus the liberties of Holland and Flanders waxed, daily, stronger.
Thus the whole country was broken into many shreds and patches of sovereignty.
When did one man ever civilize a people?
With the Germans, the sovereignty resided in the great assembly of the people.
John Lothrop Motley (April 15, 1814 – May 29, 1877[citation needed]) was an American historian and diplomat.