„Mein Plan ist es, mich zu beeilen, vergangen zu sein.“
Letzte Worte, 3. September 1658
Original engl.: "My design is to make what haste I can to be gone."
Zitate von Oliver Cromwell
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Oliver Cromwell
Geburtstag: 25. April 1599
Todesdatum: 3. September 1658
Oliver Cromwell war während der kurzen republikanischen Periode der englischen Geschichte Lordprotektor von England, Schottland und Irland. Ursprünglich ein einfacher Abgeordneter des englischen Unterhauses, stieg er im Bürgerkrieg des Parlaments gegen König Karl I. erst zum Organisator, dann zum entscheidenden Feldherrn des Parlamentsheeres auf. Mit der von ihm betriebenen Hinrichtung Karls endeten alle Versuche der Stuart-Könige, England in einen absolutistisch regierten Staat umzuwandeln. Allerdings scheiterten am Ende auch Cromwells Bestrebungen, England dauerhaft in eine Republik umzuwandeln.
In der Geschichte der Britischen Inseln ist Cromwell eine umstrittene Persönlichkeit. Manche Historiker bewerten ihn als Königsmörder und Diktator, während er anderen als Freiheitsheld gilt. In einer Umfrage der BBC von 2002 wurde er als Zehnter unter den 100 Greatest Britons gewählt. In Irland ist er wegen seiner brutalen Maßnahmen gegen die katholische Bevölkerungsmehrheit, die von manchen Historikern als „genozidal“ bezeichnet wurden, verhasst.
Zitate Oliver Cromwell
„No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going.“
Statement to Pomponne de Bellievre, as told to Cardinal de Retz in 1651; Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz (1717) http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3846/3846.txt
Variante: One never rises so high as when one does not know where one is going.
„It's a blessed thing to die daily.“
Letter to Sir Thomas Fairfax (7 March 1646)
Kontext: It's a blessed thing to die daily. For what is there in this world to be accounted of! The best men according to the flesh, and things, are lighter than vanity. I find this only good, to love the Lord and his poor despised people, to do for them and to be ready to suffer with them.... and he that is found worthy of this hath obtained great favour from the Lord; and he that is established in this shall ( being conformed to Christ and the rest of the Body) participate in the glory of a resurrection which will answer all.
„Necessity has no law.“
Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564)
„We declared our intentions to preserve monarchy, and they still are so, unless necessity enforce an alteration.“
Speech in the Commons during the debate which preceded the "Vote of No Addresses" (January 1648) as recorded in the diary of John Boys of Kent
Kontext: We declared our intentions to preserve monarchy, and they still are so, unless necessity enforce an alteration. It’s granted the king has broken his trust, yet you are fearful to declare you will make no further addresses... look on the people you represent, and break not your trust, and expose not the honest party of your kingdom, who have bled for you, and suffer not misery to fall upon them for want of courage and resolution in you, else the honest people may take such courses as nature dictates to them.
„That which brought me into the capacity I now stand in, was the Petition and Advice given me by you, who, in reference to the ancient Constitution, did draw me here to accept the place of Protector. There is not a man living can say I sought it, no not a man, nor woman, treading upon English ground.“
Speech to Parliament http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=36881 (4 February 1658), quoted in The Diary of Thomas Burton, esq., volume 2: April 1657 - February 1658 (1828), p. 465-466
„I need pity. I know what I feel. Great place and business in the world is not worth looking after.“
Letter to Richard Mayor (July 1650)
„Do not trust to that; for these very persons would shout as much if you and I were going to be hanged.“
Response to John Lambert's remarks that he "was glad to see we had the nation on our side" as they were cheered by a crowd in June 1650; as quoted by Gilbert Burnet in History of My Own Time http://books.google.com/books?id=-iswAAAAYAAJ&q="do+not+trust+to+that+for+these+very+persons+would+shout+as+much+if+you+and+I+were+going+to+be+hanged"&pg=PA145#v=onepage (1683); also in in God's Englishman by Christopher Hill (1970), Ch. VII, p. 188
„Mr. Lely, I desire you would use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me, otherwise I will never pay a farthing for it.“
As quoted in Anecdotes of Painting in England (1762-1771) by Horace Walpole often credited as being the origin of the phrase "warts and all".
Variant: Paint me as I am. If you leave out the scars and wrinkles, I will not pay you a shilling.
„God has brought us where we are, to consider the work we may do in the world, as well as at home.“
Speech to the Army Council (1654)
„Though peace be made, yet it's interest that keep peace.“
Quoted in a statement to Parliament as as "a maxim not to be despised" (4 September 1654)
„I would have been glad to have lived under my wood side, to have kept a flock of sheep, rather than undertook such a Government as this is.“
Statement to Parliament (4 February 1658) quoted in The Diary of Thomas Burton, esq., volume 2: April 1657 - February 1658 (1828), p. 466
„You have accounted yourselves happy on being environed with a great ditch from all the world beside.“
Speech to Parliament http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=36871 (25 January 1658), quoted in The Diary of Thomas Burton, esq., volume 2: April 1657 - February 1658 (1828), p. 361
„There are some things in this establishment that are fundamental… about which I shall deal plainly with you… the government by a single person and a parliament is a fundamental… and… though I may seem to plead for myself, yet I do not: no, nor can any reasonable man say it… I plead for this nation, and all the honest men therein.“
To the First Protectorate Parliament (12 September 1654)
„Necessity hath no law. Feigned necessities, imagined necessities… are the greatest cozenage that men can put upon the Providence of God, and make pretenses to break known rules by.“
Speech to the First Protectorate Parliament (12 September 1654)
„We study the glory of God, and the honour and liberty of parliament, for which we unanimously fight, without seeking our own interests… I profess I could never satisfy myself on the justness of this war, but from the authority of the parliament to maintain itself in its rights; and in this cause I hope to prove myself an honest man and single-hearted.“
Statement to Colonel Valentine Walton (5 or 6 September 1644)
„The dimensions of this mercy are above my thoughts. It is for aught I know, a crowning mercy.“
Letter to William Lenthall, Speaker of the House of Commons (4 September 1651)
„In every government there must be somewhat fundamental, somewhat like a Magna Charta, that should be standing and unalterable… that parliaments should not make themselves perpetual is a fundamental.“
Speech to the First Protectorate Parliament (12 September 1654)
„Take away that fool’s bauble, the mace.“
Speech dismissing the "Rump Parliament" (20 April 1653)
„Truly England and the church of God hath had a great favour from the Lord, in this great victory given us.“
Letter to Colonel Valentine Walton (5 July 1644)
