Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by John Bartholomew Gough (American Temperance Orator)

John Bartholomew Gough (1817–86) was an Anglo-American temperance orator, and drunkard-turned-teetotal celebrity. He was one of the most popular itinerant lecturers of the Victorian era.

Born at Sandgate, Kent, England, Gough immigrated to America at twelve. He lived for two years with family friends on a farm in New York State, apprenticed at New York City bookbindery, and became a confirmed drunkard in his late teens. He struggled to keep jobs and even failed at supporting himself as a ballad singer and storyteller at a traveling diorama.

In 1842, Gough signed a temperance pledge in Worcester, Massachusetts. Many lapses later, he vowed to devote his life to lecturing on behalf of temperance reform. He became a prominent temperance orator, and his dramatic lectures were much sought after across America, England, and its Canadian provinces. His lectures were so popular that imitators in Australia and New Zealand delivered them.

Gough’s works include Autobiography (1846,) Orations (1854,) Temperance Addresses (1870,) Temperance Lectures (1879,) and Sunlight and Shadow, or Gleanings from My Life Work (1880.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by John Bartholomew Gough

Eloquence is the transference of thought and emotion from one heart to another, no matter how it is done.
—John Bartholomew Gough
Topics: Eloquence

If you want to succeed in the world you must make your own opportunities as you go on. The man who waits for some seventh wave to toss him on dry land will find that the seventh wave is a long time coming.
—John Bartholomew Gough
Topics: Self-reliance, Opportunities, Confidence, Success, Opportunity

If you want to succeed in the world you must make your own opportunities as you go on. The man who waits for some seventh wave to toss him on dry land will find that the seventh wave is a long time coming. You can commit no greater folly than to sit by the road side until someone comes along and invites you to ride with him to wealth or influence.
—John Bartholomew Gough
Topics: Opportunity, Success

What is a minority? The chosen heroes of this earth have been in a minority. There is not a social, political, or religious privilege that you enjoy today that was not bought for you by the blood and tears and patient suffering of the minority. It is the minority that have stood in the van of every moral conflict, and achieved all that is noble in the history of the world.
—John Bartholomew Gough
Topics: Courage, Character

Every moderate drinker could abandon the intoxicating cup, if he would; every inebriate would if he could.
—John Bartholomew Gough
Topics: Drinking

Temperance is the lawful gratification of a natural and healthy appetite.
—John Bartholomew Gough

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