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Oliver Cromwell Quotes

You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!

You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!

Remarks to Rump Parliament, 20 Apr. 1653. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations describes this as "oral tradition." BulstrodeWhitlocke, Memorials of the English Affairs (1682), describes Cromwell as telling the House that "they has sate long enough, unles they had done more good."

I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.

Letter to General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, 3 Aug. 1650 See Hand 10

A few honest men are better than numbers.

Letter to Sir William Spring, September 1643, in Thomas Carlyle 'Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches' (2nd ed., 1846)

Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.

Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Carlyle (1845). “Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches: with Elucidations”, p.129, New York, Wiley & Putnam

Necessity has no law.

Law
Christopher Columbus, Robert Venables, Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Modyford (Sir.), Nevil (of Jamaica.) (1800). “Interesting tracts, relating to the island of Jamaica: consisting of curious state-papers, councils of war, letters, petitions, narratives, &c. &c., which throw great light on the history of that island, from its conquest down to the year 1702”, p.44

I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a Gentle-man and is nothing else.

Letter to Sir William Spring, September 1643, in Thomas Carlyle 'Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches' (2nd ed., 1846)