Benjamin Wade Quotes

Prudence and compromise are necessary means, but every man should have an impudent end which he will not compromise.

I will be as harsh as truth, and uncompromising as justice... I am in earnest, I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard.

I can’t accept it. It may cost me the election, but I’m still not going to sign it.

I would fight God Almighty Himself if He didn't play square with me.

He who refuses to stoop, who cannot be bribed by the promise of success or the fear of failure - who walks the highway of the right, and in disaster stands erect, is the only victor.

No virtue is safe that is not enthusiastic.

I think that what I'm doing is right. And election-year politics, which intensifies everything, is not going to drive me off that course.

What we want, above all things on earth in our public men, is independence. It is one great defect in the character of the public men of America that there is that real want of independence; and, in this respect, a most marked contrast exists between public men in this country and in Great Britain.

My prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot; for I owe my conscience to no mortal man.

I am ready to rot in jail for the rest of my life rather than admit that my small-minded enemies are right.

You need the commitment of people that aren't worried about that next election, who are going to do the right thing and worry about the next generation. It's called political courage. And I can tell you, with me, you don't have to ask whether I have political courage.

Be careful in dealing with a man who cares nothing for comfort or promotion, but is simply determined to do what he believes to be right. He is a dangerous uncomfortable enemy, because his body, which you can always conquer, gives you little purchase upon his soul.

Politics is only worthwhile if you are doing what you believe, regardless of the slings and arrows.

I often say of George Washington that he was one of the few in the whole history of the world who was not carried away by power.

But on the big things, I'm not going to trim in order to win public opinion. Because I really don't want to serve in the Senate if I arrive there without permission to do the things I think need to be done.

Of what worth are convictions that bring not suffering?

But we can hold our spirits and our bodies so pure and high, we may cherish such thoughts and such ideals, and dream such dreams of lofty purpose, that we can determine and know what manner of men we will be, whenever and wherever the hour strikes and calls to noble action.

I cannot surrender my principles, though the whole world besides should vote them down - I can make no compromise between truth and error, even though my life be the alternative.

It doesn't require any particular bravery to stand on the floor of the Senate and urge our boys in Vietnam to fight harder, and if this war mushrooms into a major conflict and a hundred thousand young Americans are killed, it won't be US Senators who die. It will be American soldiers who are too young to qualify for the senate.

The Republic never retreats. Its flag is the only flag that has never known defeat. Where that flag leads we follow, for we know that the hand that bears it onward is the unseen hand of God.

[He was] Resolved to die in the last dyke of prevarication.

The children will not leave unless I do. I shall not leave unless their father does, and the King will not leave the country in any circumstances whatever.

Political courage reads well in editorials, but it doesn't translate into political reality.

Only he has the calling for politics who is sure that he will not crumble when the world from his point of view is too stupid or base for what he wants to offer. Only he who in the face of all this can say "In spite of all!" has the calling for politics.

I stand up for what is right even if it puts me in a political conundrum. Supporting Senator Sanders was one of those moments when the status quo said 'Uh uh, bad girl.'