Leadership Quote by William Cobbett

Cobbett’s sentence is a blunt little solvent poured over the social varnish of his age. “Never esteem men on account of their riches or their station” isn’t just moral advice; it’s a political refusal. In late Georgian and Regency Britain, “station” meant the whole architecture of deference: aristocratic entitlement, purchased influence, sinecures, and the quiet assumption that rank equals virtue. Cobbett, a ferocious critic of corruption and a champion (sometimes messy, sometimes reactionary) of the rural poor, is trying to untrain the reader’s instincts. He knows admiration is a form of power: who you “esteem” determines who gets listened to, forgiven, and obeyed.

The line works because it targets the psychology of hierarchy rather than merely denouncing hierarchy itself. Riches and rank are presented as optical tricks, signals that hijack human judgment. “Respect goodness” shifts the metric from public markers to private behavior, from what can be displayed to what must be demonstrated. The imperative tone matters too: Cobbett isn’t asking for enlightenment; he’s demanding a new habit of perception.

“Find it where you may” carries the radical payload. Goodness might show up in a laborer, a dissenter, a woman, a political opponent-anyone your culture trained you to overlook. It’s also a warning to populists: don’t romanticize “the common man” as automatically righteous. Cobbett’s egalitarian move is conditional, not sentimental: dignity is earned by conduct, not inherited by pedigree. In a society built on inherited legitimacy, that’s not etiquette. That’s insurgency.