Quote of the week of 2/21/10

MAINESTATEGOP ^ | MAINESTATEGOP

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This is the first of a new trend I plan to start on My blog. TO post famous quotes. What inspired me was this quote from Winston Churchill.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more. WINSTON CHURCHILL My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Chapter 9 (Education At Bangalore)

Indeed, there is a lot we can learn from reading different quotes. I expect to quote often as possible, weekly at least. Twice a week perhaps if warrented.

I start with quotes from three people. Two non fictional one fiction. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Terrorist and warlord Khan Noonien Singh from Star Trek's Space Seed, Wrath of Khan and Eugenics wars series and General Robert E Lee.

CHURCHILL

Although always prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it should be postponed. My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930),

You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Chapter 4 (Sandhurst)

The ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year – and to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen. Newspaper interview (1902), when asked what qualities a politician required, in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 489

Will the shutting out of foreign goods increase the total amount of wealth in this country? Can foreign nations grow rich at our expense by selling us goods under cost price? Can a people tax themselves into prosperity? Can a man stand in a bucket and lift himself up by the handle? Speech at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England (1904) "For Free Trade", as cited in Churchill by Himself (2008),

For my own part I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities which he excites among his opponents. I have always set myself not merely to relish but to deserve thoroughly their censure. November 17, 1906, Institute of Journalists Dinner, London

KHAN NOONIEN SINGH

With all due respect to my heroic sikh ancestors, however I eventually came to the conclusion that I should not be bound by the traditions of the past. I am a new breed of human being after all... Khan Noonien Singh Eugenics wars volume 2 pg25

The problems of the world require bold and decisive action, not timid, cautious half-measures of the sort you and Gary Seven Specialize in. Khan Eugenics wars volume 2 pg 27

Ah! Lucifer! Child of the Morning! How thou art risen! Khan Eugenics wars volume 2 pg 31

I embrace these hapless imperfect beings, feeling a distinctly maganimous sense of inferiority obliged to all the worlds suffering. In the new world I will create there will be peace and plenty for ALL! Khan Eugenics wars voulme 2 (Speaking of ordinary humans who volunteer to serve Khan.

ROBERT E LEE

Duty is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less. Letter to his son, G. W. Custis Lee (5 April 1852);

In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral & political evil in any Country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it however a greater evil to the white man than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence. Letter to his wife, Mary Anne Lee

I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honour for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a resort to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labour, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It is intended for 'perpetual Union,' so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution, or the consent of all the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of secession: anarchy would have been established, and not a government, by Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and all the other patriots of the Revolution. ... Still, a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me. I shall mourn for my country and for the welfare and progress of mankind. If the Union is dissolved and the Government disrupted, I shall return to my native State and share the miseries of my people, and, save in defense will draw my sword on none. ROBERT E LEE Letter to his son, G. W. Custis Lee (23 January 1861)

What a cruel thing is war; to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbours, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world! I pray that, on this day when only peace and good-will are preached to mankind, better thoughts may fill the hearts of our enemies and turn them to peace. ... My heart bleeds at the death of every one of our gallant men. Letter to his wife on Christmas Day, two weeks after the Battle of Fredericksburg (25 December 1862)

True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another, and the motive which impels them — the desire to do right — is precisely the same. Letter to General P. G. T. Beauregard (3 October 1865)

We must forgive our enemies. I can truly say that not a day has passed since the war began that I have not prayed for them. As quoted in A Life of General Robert E. Lee (1871) by Joan Esten Cooke.

cannot consent to place the control of others one who cannot control himself. As quoted in Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee (1875) by John William Jones, p. 170

The education of a man is never completed until he dies. As quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1977) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 175

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When I had read the Eugenics wars I HAD to have some quotes. Way better than what they had in Wrath of Khan where he just quotes Herman Melville since people back then didn't know who he was. Think of it as a warning of who could be our future leaders. Almost reminded me of Obama a little.

[robomatik]

i like quotations as well. also, the devil's dictionary by ambrose pierce is a hoot as well, for me. :)