John Lothrop Motley

thumb|John Lothrop Motley John Lothrop Motley (April 15, 1814 – May 29, 1877) was an American historian, novelist and diplomat. Quotes Local self-government…is the life-blood of liberty. The Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856; New York: Harper, 1861) vol. 3, part 6, ch. 1, p. 416. As long as he lived, he was the guiding-star of a whole brave nation, and when he died the little children cried in the street. The Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856; New York: Harper, 1861) vol. 3, part 6, ch. 7, p. 627. Of William the Silent. In a footnote Motley cites the original of his last phrase in an official report made by the Greffier Corneille Aertsens: "dont par toute la ville l'on est en si grand duil tellement que les petits enfans en pleurent par les rues." Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessaries. Quoted from Motley's conversation by his friend Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (Boston: Phillips, Sampson, 1858), ch. 6, p. 143. External links Category:Historians from the United States Category:United States Ambassadors to Great Britain and the United Kingdom Category:United States Ambassadors to Austria and Austria-Hungary Category:Diplomats of the United States Category:Novelists from Boston Category:1814 births Category:1877 deaths