Adequate Brevity, page 50 (January 1, 1924).
1920s
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)
As quoted in Manuscripts: speeches and messages of Calvin Coolidge, 1895–1924, the Massachusetts State Library, George Fingold Library, Boston.
1920s, Speech to the the Republican Commercial Travelers' Club (1920)
George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general
Speech to the Third Army (1944)
Context: Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight.
Patrick Henry (1736–1799) attorney, planter, politician and Founding Father of the United States
Speech on the Federal Constitution, Virginia Ratifying Convention (Thursday, 5 June 1788), as contained in The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: Volume 3, ed. Jonathan Elliot, published by the editor (1836), p. 65
1780s
“Sky, not spirit, do they change, those who cross the sea.”
Caelum, non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt.
Book I, epistle xi, line 27
Epistles (c. 20 BC and 14 BC)
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)
1920s, The Genius of America (1924)
Context: But in cherishing all that is best in the land of your origin, and in desiring the highest welfare of the people of the old home, the question arises as to how that result can best be secured. I know that there is no better American spirit than that which is exhibited by many of those who have recently come to our shores.
Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist
Source: Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast
Adolf Hitler book Mein Kampf
Variant: He who would live must fight. He who doesn't wish to fight in this world, where permanent struggle is the law of life, has not the right to exist.
Source: Mein Kampf
Prem Rawat (1957) controversial spiritual leader
Tokyo, Japan, October 3, 1972 (And it is Divine, July 1973)
1970s
“Those who drown out the good singing –
there's many more of them
than those who want to hear it.”
Walther von der Vogelweide (1170–1230) Middle High German lyric poet
Die daz rehte singen stoerent,
der ist ungelîche mêre
danne die ez gerne hoerent.
"Owê, hovelîchez singen", line 17; translation from Frederick Goldin German and Italian Lyrics of the Middle Ages (New York: Anchor, 1973) p. 127.
“What on earth do you want? The question is settled. There are no more Armenians.”
Mehmed Talat (1874–1921) Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire and Minister of the Interior
After the German Ambassador persistently brought up the Armenian question in 1918. Quoted in The History of the Armenian Genocide (2003) by Vahakn N. Dadrian, p. 211
