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A politician weakly and amiably in the right is no match for a politician tenaciously and pugnaciously in the wrong. You cannot, by tying an opinion, to a man’s tongue, make him the representative of that opinion; and at the close of any battle for principles, his name will be found neither among the dead nor among the wounded, but among the missing.

— Edwin Percy Whipple Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

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More quotes by Edwin Percy Whipple

A Thought embodied and embrained in fit words, walks the earth a living being.

Essays and Reviews (1848)

Irony is an insult conveyed in the form of a compliment.

The wise men of old have sent most of their morality down the stream of time in the light skiff of apothegm or epigram.

Even in social life, it is persistency which attracts confidence more than talents and accomplishments.

Character and Characteristic Men (1866)

Cheerfulness, in most cheerful people, is the rich and satisfying result of strenuous discipline.

Success and Its Conditions (1871)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edwin Percy Whipple (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.