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Resistance is folly or heroism—a virtue or a vice—in most cases, according to the probabilities there are of its being successful. The perils of change are so great the promise of the most hopeful theories is so often deceptive, that it is frequently the wiser part to uphold the existing state of things, if it can be done, even though, in point of argument, it should be utterly indefensible.

— Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

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More quotes by Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

A gram of experience is worth a ton of theory.

First-rate men will not canvass mobs; and if they did, the mobs would not elect the first-rate men.

Conflict in free states is the law of life.

You may roughly divide the nations of the world as the living and the dying.

War is righteous or unrighteous according as it is opportune or inopportune.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.