William the Silent (1533–1584) stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, leader of the Dutch Revolt
To his first wife while she was dying (1558), as quoted William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 28
Source: Letter to Henry VIII whilst imprisoned in the Tower of London. (Merriman, ii. p. 266.)
William the Silent (1533–1584) stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, leader of the Dutch Revolt
To his first wife while she was dying (1558), as quoted William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 28
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, Reply to an Emancipation Memorial (1862)
Gerald Ford (1913–2006) American politician, 38th President of the United States (in office from 1974 to 1977)
1970s, First Presidential address (1974)
Context: I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your President with your prayers. And I hope that such prayers will also be the first of many.
If you have not chosen me by secret ballot, neither have I gained office by any secret promises. I have not campaigned either for the Presidency or the Vice Presidency. I have not subscribed to any partisan platform. I am indebted to no man, and only to one woman — my dear wife — as I begin this very difficult job.
“If I must recompense your evil, I must recompense it with good, for I am and have no other.”
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), IV : The Essence of Catholicism
Context: And yet Catholicism does not abandon ethics. No! No modern religion can leave ethics on one side. But our religion — although its doctors may protest against this — is fundamentally and for the most part a compromise between eschatology and ethics; it is eschatology pressed into the service of ethics. What else but this is that atrocity of the eternal pains of hell, which agrees so ill with the Pauline apocatastasis? Let us bear in mind these words which the Theologica Germanica, the manual of mysticism that Luther read, puts into the mouth of God: "If I must recompense your evil, I must recompense it with good, for I am and have no other." And Christ said: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," and there is no man who perhaps knows what he does.
William Lenthall (1591–1662) English politician, died 1662
Response to King Charles I on being asked the whereabouts of five fugitive members of the House of Commons (4 January 1642), from the journal of Sir Simonds d'Ewes, quoted in Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England : From the Norman conquest, in 1066. To the year, 1803 (1807), p. 1010.
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
Ch. VII, Social Problems in the Forest, p. 130 https://archive.org/stream/ontheedgeofthepr007259mbp#page/n163/mode/2up (1924 translation by Ch. Th. Campion); Schweitzer later repudiated such statements, saying "The time for speaking of older and younger brothers has passed.", as quoted in [Forrow, Lachlan, Foreword, Russell, C.E.B., African Notebook, Syracuse University Press, Albert Schweitzer library, 2002, 978-0-8156-0743-4, http://books.google.com/books?id=qa-TVXEkY3sC&pg=PR13, 23 June 2017, xiii] <br class="br">Variant: <br class="br">The African is my brother — but he is my younger brother by several centuries. <br class="br">As quoted in The Observer (23 October 1955) <br class="br">On the Edge of the Primeval Forest (1922)
Tony Benn (1925–2014) British Labour Party politician
Speech in the House of Commons (13 March 1989) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1989/mar/13/adjournment-easter-and-monday-1-may on the Factortame case <br class="br">1980s
Luboš Motl (1973) Czech physicist and translator
http://motls.blogspot.com/2017/03/czechs-vow-defiance-after-irrational-eu.html#more <br class="br"> The Reference Frame http://motls.blogspot.com/