“The business of finding a nation's soul is a long and slow one at the best and a great many prophets must be slain in the course of it. Perhaps when we have slain enough prophets future generations will begin to build their tombs.”
National Music (1934) p. 129.
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Ralph Vaughan Williams13
English composer 1872–1958Related quotes
“The best of prophets of the future is the past.”
George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement
Journal (28 January 1821).
“He who has slain one, will he abstain from slaying many?”
Avram Davidson book Masters of the Maze
Source: Masters of the Maze (1965), Chapter 5 (p. 68)
Kirby Page (1890–1957) American clergyman
Source: Something More, A Consideration of the Vast, Undeveloped Resources of Life (1920), p. 26
Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Source: 1850s, Attack upon Christendom (1855), p. 121
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
Letter from the commissioners (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson) to John Jay, 28 March 1786, in Thomas Jefferson Travels: Selected Writings, 1784-1789, by Anthony Brandt, pp. 104-105 http://books.google.com/books?id=SY_3VKP0SEkC&pg=PA104&dq=%22Ambassador+Answered%22 <br class="br">1780s <br class="br">Context: We took the liberty to make some enquiries concerning the ground of their pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. The Ambassador [of Tripoli] answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.
“The best Qualification of a Prophet is to have a good Memory.”
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–1695) English politician
Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections
Ursula K. Le Guin Hainish Cycle
Introduction (p. xii)
Hainish Cycle, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) United States Baptist theologian
Source: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Ch.2 The Social Aims of Jesus, p. 53