Source: Thief of Time
“The genius of the English has always been their ability to adapt.”
“Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.”
Semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum.
Book I, epistle xviii, line 71
Epistles (c. 20 BC and 14 BC)
“A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.”
December 21, 1762
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I
“The eye of genius has always a plaintive expression, and its natural language is pathos.”
1840s, Letters from New York (1843)
Source: Letters from New York http://www.bartleby.com/66/62/12262.html, vol. 1, letter 39
huffingtonpost.com http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/25/marissa-mayer-davos_n_2550753.html.
“America has never been united by blood or birth or soil.”
2000s, 2001, First inaugural address (January 2001)
Context: America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American. Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion, and character. America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility. A civil society demands from each of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness. Some seem to believe that our politics can afford to be petty because, in a time of peace, the stakes of our debates appear small.
Debate with Barry Goldwater, University of Arizona campus, Tucson, Arizona, November 1961
Source: Labour Defended against the Claims of Capital (1825), p. 66
