John Smith Quotes

One of the reasons that New York became great was that it's serviced by many, many different rivers and waterways. You have the Atlantic Ocean connected virtually right to it, and it's serviced by the East River and the Hudson River and lots of tributaries.

The object of all the former voyages to the South Seas undertaken by the command of his present majesty, has been the advancement of science and the increase of knowledge.

This land was our land; it was taken from us illegally …. John Smith did not bring a civilization here. There was already civilization here…. We should have burned the boat and killed them. all.

Thou deputy of Pleimont and Boston, paint our words on paper and send them to those on whom thou art dependant; and say to them that all the allied Savages dwelling on the river Kenebek hate firewater…; and that if the English have any more of it brought hither to sell to the Savages, the latter will believe the English wish to exterminate them.

I’m sure if I quite openly charged Stanley with the task of taking possession in my name of some parts of Africa, the English will stop me. If I ask their advice they will stop me just the same. So I think I’ll just give Stanley some job of exploration which would offend no one, and will give us the bases and headquarters we can take over later.

What my country needs is a safety valve for her surplus energies …. Establishing a Belgian colony in Africa will not only develop our country’s commercial interests but to raise the morale of the army and raise the merchant navy which we lack …. It is time that Belgium takes her part in the great work of civilization, following in the footsteps of England.

To bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the heathens. .... It was the Lord who put into my mind ... that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies

If France does not seize this most beautiful part of America and set up a colony, [...] the English colony which is becoming quite large, will increase to such a degree that, in less than one hundred years, it will be strong enough to take over all of America and chase away all other nations.

let it be considered that the plantations employ many hundreds of shipping and many thousands of seamen, which must be in diverse respects an advantage to England, being an island, and by nature fitted for navigation above any country in Europe

And cheerfully at sea, Success you still entice, To get the pearl and gold, And ours to hold Virginia,, Earth's only paradise

Since the discovery of Columbus, there has been no event of equal importance to the human race.

I shall yet live to see it an English nation.

… as fair a land as was ever trodden by the foot of man.

Good God what a fine sight. I had no conception that there was such a scene in the world, and to find it in my own dominions.

When America was first made known to Europe, the part assumed by France on the borders of that new world was peculiar, and is little recognized. While the Spaniard roamed sea and land, burning for achievement, red-hot with bigotry and avarice, and while England, with soberer steps and a less dazzling result, followed in the path of discovery and gold-hunting, it was from France that those barbarous shores first learned to serve the ends of peaceful commercial industry.

Let America add Mexico to Texas, and pile Cuba upon Canada; let the English overswarm all India, and hang out their blazing banner from the sun; two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer's. For the sea is his; he owns it.

The American Colonies need waste people…. they are ready to eat up one another

Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement, established in 1607. The first permanent settlement was St. Augustine, established in 1565, by -- you know it – Spain.

When was America emancipated? This kingdom has the sovereign, the supreme legislative power over America; this is granted; it cannot be denied: taxation is a part of that sovereign power, is one branch of the legislative; it is, and it has been, exercised over those who are not, and who never were represented: the Indian company; the merchants of London; the proprietors of stock, and men of great manufacturing towns; the palatinate of Chester; the bishopric of Durham, before they ever sent any representatives to parliament. Great Britain protects America; America is bound to yield obedience; if not, tell me when the Americans were emancipated The nation has run itself into an immense debt to give them protection; and now, when called upon to contribute to the public expense, an expense arising from themselves, they renounce your authority, insult your officers, and almost break out into open rebellion. The seditious spirit of the colonies owes its birth to the factions in this house. Gentlemen are careless of the consequences of what they say, provided it answers the purposes of opposition I have been abused as an enemy to the trade of America; I discouraged no trade but what was illicit, and what was prohibited by act of parliament.

The gentleman asks, When were the colonies emancipated? I desire to know when they were made slaves? The profit to Great Britain from the trade of her colonies, through all its branches, is two millions a year. This is the price that America pays you for your protection;

The ministers and people of England might neither mean to be, nor be, the tyrants and oppressors which they were thought by the people of America, but whether they were as reasonable and prudent, or even as well justified in their measures of taxation, much less of coercion, as they supposed, is quite another question.

There was a general notion in the English people that their cause was just. The sovereignty was supposed to be in the parent state; in the rights of sovereignty were included the rights of taxation: England, too, was considered as having protected the Americans from the French in the war that had been lately concluded. The Americans, therefore, when they resisted the mother country in her attempt to tax them, were considered on the first account as rebellious, and on the second as ungrateful

These ministers will destroy the empire they were called upon to save, before the indignation of a great and suffering people can fall upon their heads, in the punishment which they deserve. I affirm the war to have been a most accursed, wicked, barbarous, cruel, unnatural, unjust, and diabolical-war.

This country is little obliged to the framers and supporters of the tea tax. The Americans had almost forgot in their excess of gratitude for the repeal of the Stamp Act, any interest but that of the mother country. This temper would have continued, if not interrupted by your fruitless endeavors to tax them without their consent. I am an old man, and would advise the noble lords in office to adopt a more gentle method of governing America; proceedings like these will never meet with the wished-for success. Instead of these, pass an amnesty on all their youthful errors, clasp them once more to your fond and affectionate arms, and I will venture to affirm you will find them children worthy of their sire.

The whole of your political conduct has been one continued series of weakness, temerity, despotism, ignorance, futility, negligence, blundering, and the most notorious senility, incapacity, and corruption.