John Lothrop Motley Quotes

With the Germans, the sovereignty resided in the great assembly of the people.

Wealth brings strength, strength confidence.

Thus the whole country was broken into many shreds and patches of sovereignty.

Thus the liberties of Holland and Flanders waxed, daily, stronger.

Thus again the Netherlands, for the first time since the fall of Rome, were united under one crown imperial. They had already been once united, in their slavery to Rome.

The whole territory of the Netherlands was girt with forests.

The sword – the first, for a time the only force: the force of iron.

The splendid empire of Charles the Fifth was erected upon the grave of liberty.

The rise of the Dutch Republic must ever be regarded as one of the leading events of modern times.

The history of the Franks becomes, therefore, the history of the Netherlands.

The gigantic Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band of pigmies.

The ferocious inroads of the Normans scared many weak and timid persons into servitude.

The crusades made great improvement in the condition of the serfs

In the tenth century the old Batavian and later Roman forms have faded away.

In Gaul were two orders, the nobility and the priesthood, while the people, says Caesar, were all slaves.

History shows how feeble are barriers of paper.

Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessaries.

For a century longer, Rome still retains its outward form, but the swarming nations are now in full career.