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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell

Not who you're looking for? Others named John Russell, 1st Earl Russell: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1846–1852 and 1865–186

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Overview

Portrait of Lord John Russell is an 1853 portrait painting by the British artist Francis Grant. It depicts the politician Lord John Russell, a Whig who twice served as Prime Minister from 1846 to 1852 and 1865 to 1866.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“What a pity that he who steals a penny loaf should be hung, whilst he who steals thousands of the public money should be acquitted!”
— 1806 journal entry on the acquittal of Lord Melville for misappropriation of public funds, as quoted in Stuart J. Reid, Lord John Russell (1895), p.9
“[A proverb is] one man's wit, and all men's wisdom.”
— Variant: [A proverb is] the wisdom of many and the wit of one.
“I wish I knew what to do to help your country. But, as I do not, it is of no use giving her smooth words, as O’Connell told me, and I must be silent.”
— Letter to Thomas Moore, December 1832, quoted in Spencer Walpole, The Life of Lord John Russell. Vol. 1 (1889), p. 180
“If peace cannot be maintained with honour, it is no longer peace.”
— Greenock, 19 September 1853
“I have seemed cold to my friends, but it was not in my heart.”
— Comment during final illness, as recalled by his nephew George W. E. Russell in Prime Ministers and Some Others, 1918, p. 24
“What courage! There is not a man on the Tory benches around him but doesn't disapprove of every word he says.”
— On a speech by Benjamin Disraeli in support of Jewish rights, quoted in J. H. Morgan, John Viscount Morley An Appreciation and Some Reminiscences, 1924, p. 88

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

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