Oliver Cromwell Quotes Proverbs, and Aphorisms

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Oliver Cromwell Quotes Proverbs, and Aphorisms(Fictional image. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.)
  • April 25, 1599 – September 3, 1658
  • English
  • Military and Political Leader, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who played a key role in the English Civil War and the temporary overthrow of the monarchy. As commander of the Parliamentarian New Model Army, he helped defeat Royalist forces and later supported the execution of King Charles I in 1649. Cromwell then led the Commonwealth of England and served as Lord Protector from 1653 to 1658, ruling as a de facto head of state in a republican regime. He implemented religious tolerance for some groups and centralized government authority but was also criticized for authoritarian rule and harsh military campaigns in Ireland. Cromwell remains a deeply controversial figure—seen as both a champion of liberty and a military dictator.

  1. “He who stops being better stops being good.”
  2. “No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going.”
  3. “What is all our histories, but God showing himself, shaking and trampling on everything that he has not planted.”
  4. “Not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking.”
  5. “Necessity has no law.”
  6. “Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.”
  7. “Nature can do more than physicians.”
  8. “I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a Gentle-man and is nothing else.”
  9. “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.”
  10. “Do not trust the cheering, for those persons would shout as much if you or I were going to be hanged.”
  11. “The State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions. If they be willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies.”
  12. “I would have been glad to have lived under my wood side, and to have kept a flock of sheep, rather than to have undertaken this government.”
  13. “Keep your faith in God, but keep your powder dry.”
  14. “A few honest men are better than numbers.”
  15. “Who can love to walk in the dark? But providence doth often so dispose.”
  16. “God made them as stubble to our swords.”
  17. “We are Englishmen; that is one good fact.”
  18. “Put your trust in God; but be sure to keep your powder dry.”