His heart and his brain were utterly foreign to all vindictiveness or personal bitterness. He declared himself hotly and strongly against wrong causes, but never against men.

The remark praises a public figure’s moral temperament: he could oppose injustice with intensity while refusing to indulge in personal rancor. The contrast between being “hotly and strongly against wrong causes” and “never against men” frames principled conflict as impersonal—directed at ideas, policies, or systems rather than at individuals’ character. It implies a model of civic virtue in which moral clarity and firmness need not entail vindictiveness. The emphasis on both “heart” and “brain” suggests that this restraint was not merely strategic but rooted in emotional disposition and intellectual habit alike.