Famous Non English Quotes

Its subtext – that the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ English were chosen by God, that they were inherently superior to the native British people whom they displaced, that their Christianity elevated their morality, that their violence against others was justified by the providential ends it served – provided a template to excuse and even celebrate the brutal treatment of both ‘Celtic’ and non-Christian people and their cultures wherever they were encountered across the globe. E. A. Freeman, the famous nineteenth-century historian of the Norman Conquest whose assessment of Alfred’s character is quoted above, wrote of America that ‘This would be a grand land if only every Irishman would kill a negro, and be hanged for it’.