Great men are the guide-posts and landmarks in the state. The credit of such men at court, or in the nation, is the sole cause of all the public measures.—American Taxation (II. 141).
Most men, especially great men, do not always know their well-wishers. I come to rescue that noble lord [Lord North] out of the hands of those he calls his friends, and even out of his own.— American Taxation. (II. 96).
The men of England—the men, I mean, of light and leading in England—whose wisdom (if they have any) is open and direct, would be ashamed, as of a silly, deceitful trick, to profess any religion in name, which, by their proceedings, they appear to contemn.—Reflections (IV. III).
In a mass we cannot be left to ourselves. We must have leaders. If none will undertake to lead us right, we shall find guides who will contrive to conduct us to shame and ruin.—Regicide Peace (VI. 99).
He (Lord Keppel) considered it as a sort of cure for selfishness and a narrow mind: conceiving that a man born in an elevated place in himself was nothing, but everything in what went before and what was to come after him—Noble Lord (VI. 77).
It is wisely provided in the constitution of our heart that we should interest ourselves in the fate of great personages. They are therefore made everywhere the objects of tragedy, which addresses itself directly to our passions and feelings. And why? Because men of great place, men of great rank, men of great hereditary authority, cannot fall without a horrible crash upon all about them. Such towers cannot tumble without ruining their dependent cottages.—Warren Hastings. Reply, 3rd day.