“Of all evil-doers, the American is most to be feared. He uses more ingenuity in the planning of his projects and will take greater risks in carrying them out than any other malefactor on earth.”

— Robert Barr (writer)

"The Mystery of the Five Hundred Diamonds," from The Triumphs of Euguene Valmont (1906)

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Robert Barr (writer) 3

Scottish-Canadian novelist 1849–1912

Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) American children's writer

Source: The Arkadians

“Every time a good child dies, an angel of God comes down to earth. He takes the child in his arms, spreads out his great white wings, and flies with it all over the places the child loved on earth. The angel plucks a large handful of flowers, and they carry it with them up to God, where the flowers bloom more brightly than they ever did on earth.”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Angel

The Angel
Fairy Tales (1835)

“Fear of evil is greater than the evil itself.”

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, Writer and Author

Sono maggiori li spaventi ch'e mali.
Act III, scene xi
The Mandrake (1524)

“There are greater and better things in us all, than the world takes account of, or than we take note of; if we would but find them out.”

Albert Pike book Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry

Source: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), Ch. XXII : Grand Master Architect, p. 191
Context: We all not only have better intimations, but are capable of better things than we know. The pressure of some great emergency would develop in us powers, beyond the worldly bias of our spirits; and Heaven so deals with us, from time to time, as to call forth those better things. There is hardly a family so selfish in the world, but that, if one in it were doomed to die—one, to be selected by the others,—it would be utterly impossible for its members, parents and children, to choose out that victim; but that each would say, "I will die; but I cannot choose." And in how many, if that dire extremity had come, would not one and another step forth, freed from the vile meshes of ordinary selfishness, and say, like the Roman father and son, "Let the blow fall on me!" There are greater and better things in us all, than the world takes account of, or than we take note of; if we would but find them out.

“Religiosity distinguishes America from most other Western societies. Americans are also overwhelmingly Christian, which distinguishes them from many non-Western peoples. Their religiosity leads Americans to see the world in terms of good and evil to a much greater extent than most other peoples.”

Samuel P. Huntington (1927–2008) American political scientist

"Dead Souls: The Denationalization of the American Elite," The National Interest (November 2002), p. 16

“I may have had many projects, but I never was free to carry out any of them.”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

Conversation with Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases (11 November 1816), Mémorial de Sainte Hélène, v. 4, p. 133 http://books.google.com/books?id=945jAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA133.
Context: I may have had many projects, but I never was free to carry out any of them. It did me little good to be holding the helm; no matter how strong my hands, the sudden and numerous waves were stronger still, and I was wise enough to yield to them rather than resist them obstinately and make the ship founder. Thus I never was truly my own master but was always ruled by circumstances.

“No American has carried greater fame out of the White House than this silent man who leaves it today.”

James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)

Regarding Ulysses S. Grant (4 March 1877), as quoted in Grant: A Biography https://books.google.com/books?id=cv5IbR5f9oMC&pg=PA449&lpg=PA449&dq=%22No+American+has+carried+greater+fame+out+of+the+White+House+than+this+silent+man+who+leaves+it+today%22&source=bl&ots=HoaHfwjqo6&sig=uaEqRbH27mRCUcR_OZatQlYcFK0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=owv8VPGnIIHsgwSyioC4AQ&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22No%20American%20has%20carried%20greater%20fame%20out%20of%20the%20White%20House%20than%20this%20silent%20man%20who%20leaves%20it%20today%22&f=false (1981), by William S. McFeely, p. 449
1870s

“Because there is no greater evil than ignorance and the destruction of genius. Ignorance has been responsible for more death, more bigotry, and more sin than any other force. It is the destroyer of mankind.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Shadows

“More than any other American, Lincoln's name has gone into history. He gave all Americans, indeed all people everywhere, reason to remember that he had lived.”

James M. McPherson (1936) American historian

James M. McPherson. Abraham Lincoln, (2009) p. 65
2000s

“The human soul has need of security and also of risk. The fear of violence or of hunger or of any other extreme evil is a sickness of the soul. The boredom produced by a complete absence of risk is also a sickness of the soul.”

Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist

Draft for a Statement of Human Obligation (1943), Statement Of Obligations
Context: The human soul has need of disciplined participation in a common task of public value, and it has need of personal initiative within this participation.
The human soul has need of security and also of risk. The fear of violence or of hunger or of any other extreme evil is a sickness of the soul. The boredom produced by a complete absence of risk is also a sickness of the soul.

“Of all evil-doers, the American is most to be feared. He uses more ingenuity in the planning of his projects and will take greater risks in carrying them out than any other malefactor on earth.”

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Robert Barr (writer) 3

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