No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going.
Sir, what can be said of these things? Is it the arm of the flesh that hath done these things? Is it the wisdom and counsel, or strength of man? It is the Lord only. God will curse that man and his house that dares to think otherwise. Sir, you see the work is done by a Divine leading. God gets into the hearts of men, and persuades them to come under you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that divine influence, rather than human strength or wisdom, is responsible for significant achievements.
In this quote, Oliver Cromwell reflects on the notion that what humans achieve is not solely a result of their own strength or wisdom, but rather an influence from a higher divine power. He suggests that to attribute such accomplishments to mere human endeavor is misguided and that true success comes from divine guidance that moves people to action. This perspective invites humility in acknowledging the limitations of human capability and recognizing the role of the divine in shaping events.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about teamwork, you might say this quote to highlight the importance of divine guidance.
More from Oliver Cromwell
All quotes →On becoming soldiers we have not ceased to be citizens.
A few honest men are better than numbers.
Keep your faith in God, but keep your powder dry.
A man-of-war is the best ambassador.
Not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking.
Similar quotes
Theories that go counter to the facts of human nature are foredoomed.
To say that truth is not out there is simply to say that where there are no sentences there is no truth, that sentences are elements of human languages, and that languages are human creations.~ The suggestion that truth~ is out there is a legacy of an age in which the world was seen as the creation of a being who had a language his own.
Distance lends enchantment to the view.
The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self.
The white man is not inherently evil, but America's racist society influences him to act evilly. The society has produced and nourishes a psychology which brings out the lowest, most base part of human beings.
And what we students of history always learn is that the human being is a very complicated contraption and that they are not good or bad but are good and bad and the good comes out of the bad and the bad out of the good, and the devil take the hindmost.