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The island will only know efficient government if the vendetta can be stamped out.

— Pasquale Paoli

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: Statement shortly after he had been proclaimed General (c. July 1755), quoted in Peter Adam Thrasher, Pasquale Paoli: An Enlightened Hero, 1725–1807 (1970), p. 59
Source quality: Secondhand citation Quoted from another book or article rather than from the original.

More by Pasquale Paoli

Religion is an essential part of public order. Without a belief in God we would soon loose our confidence in victory.

It's not because I am proud, gentlemen, that I refuse your generous offer. But the state of our public finances forbids you to be so free with your money. The public good always comes before private interest.

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Government

More quotes by Pasquale Paoli

Every Corsican should be a soldier enlisted in the Militia, ready to defend his country: but outside these duties he ought to cultivate the land.

I am determined that the "other side of the mountains" must form part of the Corsican State, all Corsica must be free.

Letter to his father shortly before his return to Corsica (1755)

The Corsican people cannot be reconciled to despotism.

Though the Altar should nourish its ministers, the tithes of those who fail to serve that Altar are the property of the poor.

Statement after the Pope deprived Corsican bishops of their sees and left them vacant (1760)

The vendetta is finished. The old, happy, carefree festivals of the villages which have been abandoned for so long can now be resumed.

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There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

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Attribution

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