26 quotes
One need not hope in order to undertake, nor succeed in order to persevere.
O Canada: An American's Notes on Canadian Culture (1963)
I cannot approve of monarchs who want to rule over the conscience of the people, and take away their freedom of choice and religion.
Our friends and allies are all turned cold.
I am in the hands of God, my worldly goods and my life have long since been dedicated to his service.
We must have patience and not lose heart, submitting to the will of God, and striving incessantly, as I have resolved to do, come what may.
They stormed Oudewater, and delivered it over to all imaginable cruelties, sparing neither sex nor age.
This mercy will be your ruin; you will be at the bridge across which the Spaniards will enter this land.
I will say no more, than that I will act as I shall answer hereafter to God and to man.
I am resolved, to go and plant myself in Holland or in Zeeland, and there await the issue which it shall please Him to ordain.
Now, we shall see the beginning of a great tragedy.
The end will show the whole truth.
My God, my God, have mercy on me, and on my poor people!
I have come to make my grave in this land.
William as he led his army into the Netherlands (1572)
Do not kill him! I forgive him my death.
I have heard that tomorrow they are to execute the two prisoners, the accomplices of him who shot me. For my part, I most willingly pardon them.
All in the world I have is yours; Next to God, you are the one I love best, and if I did not know that your love for me is the same, I could not be so happy as I am: May God give us both the grace to live always in this affection without any guile.
To his first wife while she was dying (1558)
In all things there must be order, but it must of such a kind as is possible to observe … to see a man burnt for doing as he thought right, harms the people, for this is a matter of conscience.
William at a meeting about Philips actions (1566)
’”Farewell count without a head”’
We may see how miraculously God defends our people, and makes us hope that, in spite of the malice of our enemies, He will bring our cause to a good and happy end, to the advancement of His glory and the deliverance of so many Christians from unjust oppression.
It is not possible for me to bear alone such labours and the burden of such weighty cares as press on me from hour to hour, without one man at my side to help me. I have not a soul to aid me in all my anxieties and toils.
William the Silent (1897)