I have no idea of submitting tamely to injustice inflicted either on me or on the slave. I will oppose it with all the moral powers with which I am endowed. I am no advocate of passivity.
We would rather see London laid in ruins and ashes than that it should be tamely and abjectly enslaved.
We have many times led Europe in the fight for freedom. It would be an ignoble end to our long history if we tamely accepted to perish by degrees.
Nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny of his cruel ministry we will not tamely submit - appealing to Heaven for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free. . . .
We shall defend every village, every town and every city. The vast mass of London itself, fought street by street, could easily devour an entire hostile army; and we would rather see London laid in ruins and ashes than that it should be tamely and abjectly enslaved.
People who make war in order to escape slavery may possibly win. . . . This will doubtless bring death and suffering to thousands. . . . But people who tamely allow slavery to be imposed on them without resorting to a defensive war are inevitably doomed to years of death and suffering-and far more of each than any war would bring to them. . . . The army doesn't exist that can annihilate men in their own land-not if they love it sufficiently.
If we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.
Some have the temperament and tastes of genius, without its creative power. They feel acutely, but express tamely.
