Opposition

“ He who meets an Opponent half way, recedes from his own Principles, and embraces in part at least, those of his Antagonist. Now if your Principles were sound, and those of the old Standards unsound, as we must believe from your constant Opposition for the Time past; how can you depart from yours, without embracing unsound Principles? No, Sir, I protest against half-way Meetings between a Majority in Power, and a few, who, I’m afraid, grasp too eagerly at a Shred, or rather Shadow of that Power. ”

“ There will be, there must be, constant discussion, argument, contradiction,—for there are always conflicting opinions in every aspect of human affairs,—and it will be my work to put down all contradiction,—all opposition,—and to carry the People’s Cause with a firm hand. Yet—after all, if I succeed, it will be the King’s doing,—not mine! ”

“ That party and passion, and prepossession, are clamorous and tumultuous things, and so much the more clamorous and tumultuous by how much the more erroneous: that they domineer and tyrannise over the imaginations of persons who want judgment, and sometimes too of those who have it; and, like a fierce and outrageous torrent, bear down all opposition before them. ”

“ I have often and severely censured the faults of administration, but I have always condemned the system of opposition: and your judgment will allow that in public life, every man is reduced to the necessity of choosing the side which upon the whole appears to him the least reprehensible. ”

“ The one unvarying factor of the human mind,” he went on, “is the firm, unbiased conviction that I am right, and all opposition necessarily, consciously and wilfully wrong. This belief is the base and foundation of all human institutions, of sectionalism, caste, creeds, parties, states, of patriotism itself. ”

“ I am resolved not to throw myself into the hands of Opposition at all events, and shall certainly, if things go as they seem to lead, know what my conscience as well as honour dictates as the only way left for me. ”

“ Verily opposition will wax fierce upon thee and denial and unbelief will day by day increase. People will arise to oppression and people will torment thee for thou hast believed in God, art attracted to the fragrances of God and hath spoken His praise among the maid-servants. ”

“ So the highest truths have ever encountered the most violent opposition. The most salutary reforms have had to struggle the hardest to obtain a footing; in a word, the higher and holier the heaven from whence blessings descend to earth, the deeper and more malignant is the hell that rises in opposition. ”

“ A wily and well-conducted opposition on our part will fan and feed this flame. Some amongst us will assume the moderate tone: invoke the equality that pertains to every born Briton, and ask for the mere undisturbed exercise of our faith. ”

“ Political Parties—It has been told me from my youth up {559} that opposition is the life of business, especially in the political arena. It is opposition that has ruined our nation, and has been, is and will be the ruin of all nations. ”

“ We are fond of distinctions; we place ourselves in opposition, and quarrel under the denominations of faction and party, without any material subject of controversy. ”

“ Opposition is the real matrix out of which reason and tolerance are extracted. The government of the United States of America had a tolerant spirit stamped upon it because the makers of our institutions were many men of many minds. ”

“ Since this expedient, now invented or revived, to distress the government, and equally practicable, at all times, by all who shall be excluded from power and from profit, has produced so little effect, let us consider the opposition as no longer formidable. ”

“ Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party opposition, and many other motives, not more laudable than these, are apt to operate as well upon those who support, as upon those who oppose, the right side of a question. ”

“ you had all that combination and all that opposition of interests, you had that action and counteraction, which, in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers draws out the harmony of the universe. ”

“ Opposition is one of the accepted marks of greatness. The opposition which great men aroused during their lifetime lives after them, and crops out again on a given occasion. This is deplorable, but it is the ordinary course. ”

“ An opposition is formed against them, composed of all sorts, lovers of order and lovers of disorder, reasonable men and fanatics, business-like men and men of theory. The opposition succeeds; the government is overthrown; the victors divide into a moderate party and an advanced party. The advanced party go to the front, till they discredit themselves with crime or folly. ”

“ It is far more remarkable that he should achieve so much in spite of straitened means, and bitter official opposition, which he had, it must be admitted, brought upon himself by his vehement, combative and controversial spirit. ”

“ The art of opposition and of revolution is to unsettle established customs, sounding them even to their source, to point out their want of authority and justice. ”

“ Such an assumption rarely fails to react, or to operate reflectively upon those by whom it is essayed; never, indeed, except in instances in which it can be sustained by a power absolute and irresponsible enough to repress opposition, or to silence the expression of public sentiment. ”

“ Already the mutterings of that great trouble which was a few years later to separate a united country, had begun to spread; into the midst of these people had come a man from the centre of the opposition country, who had proclaimed his beliefs and fought for them, killing his opponent in the difficulty. The feeling of the masses centred against this stranger. ”

“ The heterogeneous character of the Opposition with which the Government was confronted, the conflicting groups and interests into which it was split up, offered large scope for the intriguing, contriving genius of the man. ”

“ I am not personally menaced with any opposition, but have a great dread of one, because the contentions among those who live in the country and have nothing else to do but to quarrel, are so great, that without intending to hurt me, they will stir up trouble and opposition, which will be both hazardous and expensive. ”

“ Much more serious practically was the opposition of honourable opponents, men of education, high character and honesty, who in some cases had openly given their names in favour of a principle and a measure which happily many of them learned to regard later with suspicion and abhorrence. ”

“ But great ideas sometimes now make their way in spite of the most obstinate opposition, and operating, particularly in republics, by insensible degrees, sow the seeds of those principles and true opinions, which, as they arrive to maturity, prove so efficacious in times of political contest and public commotion. ”

“ After all, my fellow-citizens, it is neither extraordinary nor unexpected, that the constitution offered to your consideration, should meet with opposition. It is the nature of man to pursue his own interest, in preference to the public good ”

“ Those who are in opposition must not expect to be attacked for what they really are or really want, but for what the party in power is pleased to think they are and want; and besides, power used upon the weaker must be misused—how can it be otherwise? ”

“ The opposition to it—as usually happens—consisted partly in the natural effort of partisans to baffle their opponents, and partly in an honorable protest of heart and conscience against a great wrong committed in the interest of a national sin. ”

“ The Party of Opposition, or what remains of it, has much to repent of; many humiliating reflections must pass through the minds of those who compose it, and they must learn the hard lesson to be thankful for them as a discipline indispensible to their amendment. Thus only can they furnish a sufficient nucleus for the formation of a new Body ”

“ But it will be urged:—"Such associations cannot be formed without self-sacrifice and money; besides, they will encounter opposition." Undoubtedly they will; and so much the better. Opposition and calumny are the rod which God uses to drive us onward. ... If there be opposition, then there will be courage too; and many other noble qualities will be elicited. Is it so, I ask, that we are called to "vulgarly follow the masses?" ”

“ Having taken upon ourselves to reform evils, rooted deep in old customs, and to abolish abuses older than our civilization, we have to meet with discouragement and opposition in various forms.
Even the enlightened and well-intentioned hold back incredulous. This form of opposition finally examines, being led thereto from motives of economy and the promptings of humanity ”

“ The violence of opposition, also, and their exultation on their triumphs may have had their effects on the minds of the more sober-thinking members of the house: they may have become convinced that the movements of the leaders of opposition, so far from being adopted from a love of their country, had their origin in that bad feeling of human nature—self-interest. ”

“ And when a successful stand has been made, and the brunt of the opposition has passed, that large amount of secret dislike to our observances which now pervades society, may manifest itself with sufficient power to effect the desired emancipation. ”

“ The men who were most conversant about the stability of human institutions, such as the lawyers, men of science, doctors, statesmen, painters, and the like, were just those who were most likely to be misled by their own fancied accomplishments, and to be made unduly suspicious by their licentious desire for greater present return, which was at the root of nine-tenths of the opposition ”

“ The opposition was absolute, the results catastrophic. The lack of competent leadership in every category of life finds a sufficient explanation in the two opposed forces, in their origin and nature, and in the fact of their opposition. ”

“ Such manifestations of the temper of the masses strengthen the hands of the Opposition by engendering a fear of resistance in the Government, and so making for the considerate treatment at which we aim. ”

“ However precipitate may be at any time the current of public opinion, bearing along the mass of men to the grosser agitations of life, and to such schemes of belief as make these the prominent objects, there will always be in reserve a force of antagonistic opinion, strengthened by opposition, and attesting the sanctity of those higher principles which are despised or forgotten by the majority. ”

“ Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly logical. If you have no doubt of your premises or your power and want a certain result with all your heart you naturally express your wishes in law and sweep away all opposition. ”

“ In the same way we can best understand the furies of war and politics by remembering that almost the whole of each party believes absolutely in its picture of the opposition, that it takes as fact, not what is, but what it supposes to be the fact. ”

“ Even in political life, hostility has now become more spiritual,—much more cautious, much more thoughtful, and much more moderate. Almost every party sees its self-preservative interests in preventing the Opposition from going to pieces ”

“ And one of the evils of this hasty and precipitate opposition is, that the passions and interests of the opposers become involved in the dispute: instead of investigators, they become partisans; having declared against it in the outset, it is important to their petty interests that the thing shall not be true ”

“ There are, unfortunately, many questions upon which the public hold different opinions so strongly that they are virtually divided into opposing classes, and it is impossible for any one prominently and publicly to advocate either side of any of these questions, without immediately raising a strong feeling of opposition (p. 128) in a considerable portion of the community, who take the opposite side. ”

“ Opposition may inflame the enthusiast, but never converts him. ”

“ And the opposition which he meets from other persons, from social forces or natural circumstances, must seem to be equally fateful—must be represented as issuing from a counter determination or law no less inescapable than the hero's will. ”

“ The men who oppose a strong and energetic government are in my opinion narrow-minded politicians, or are under the influence of local views. The apprehension expressed by them, that the people will not accede to the form proposed, is the ostensible, not the real, cause of the opposition ”

“ Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony. ”