Guy Fawkes was an English soldier and a member of a group of Roman Catholic conspirators who attempted to carry out the Gunpowder Plot to assassinate King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) and the members of both houses of the Parliament of England with a huge explosion, which was prevented by his arrest on 5 November 1605.

Sourced

• A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy.
  • Remark (6 November 1605) as quoted in The Dictionary of National Biography Vol. 6 (1917); He is here invoking a version of a famous statement of Hippocrates, also translated as "Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases."

Quotes about Fawkes

• Remember, remember, the 5th of November
  The Gunpowder Treason and plot;
  I see of no reason why Gunpowder Treason
  Should ever be forgot.

  Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,
  'Twas his intent.
  To blow up the King and the Parliament.
  Three score barrels of powder below.
  Poor old England to overthrow.

  • Traditional rhyme recited on Guy Fawkes Night, the 5th of November, when effigies of him are traditionally burned.
  • Variants:
    Remember, remember, the 5th of November
    The Gunpowder Treason and plot;
    I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason
    Should ever be forgot. QOTD 2007·11·05 Sound file
  • Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
    The Gunpowder Treason and plot.
    I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason
    Should ever be forgot.
    • As quoted by Alan Moore in V for Vendetta.

• Of all the plots and conspiracies that ever entered into the mind of man, the Gunpowder plot stands pre-eminent in horror and wickedness. The singular perseverance of the conspirators is shown by the fact, that so early as in Lent of the year 1603, Robert Catesby, who appears to have been the prime mover of the plot, in a conversation with Thomas Wintour and John Wright, first broke with them about a design for delivering England from her bondage, and to replant the Catholic religion.
  • "'A Brief History of "The Gunpowder Plot" from The Amulet (1828)

• Guy Fawkes was a man of desperate character. In his person he was tall and athletic, his countenance was manly, and the determined expression of his features was not a little heightened by a profusion of brown hair, and an auburn-coloured beard. He was descended from a respectable family in Yorkshire, and having soon squandered the property he inherited at the decease of his father, his restless spirit associated itself with the discontented and factious of his age.
  • "'A Brief History of "The Gunpowder Plot" from The Amulet (1828)

• Vote Guy Fawkes — The Only Man Ever To Enter Parliament With Honest Intentions
  • Poster placed on the door of one of the Holyrood offices of the Scottish Socialist Party, as reported in The Evening Times (7 November 2003)