1910s, The New Nationalism (1910)
Context: The right to regulate the use of wealth in the public interest is universally admitted. Let us admit also the right to regulate the terms and conditions of labor, which is the chief element of wealth, directly in the interest of the common good. The fundamental thing to do for every man is to give him a chance to reach a place in which he will make the greatest possible contribution to the public welfare. Understand what I say there. Give him a chance, not push him up if he will not be pushed. Help any man who stumbles; if he lies down, it is a poor job to try to carry him; but if he is a worthy man, try your best to see that he gets a chance to show the worth that is in him.
“There's no chance of cheering him up, sir. He likes being miserable, so he does, and the bastard will get over it.”
Sergeant Patrick Harper to Lieutenant Robert Knowles, regarding Captain Sharpe's grumpy attitude, p. 9
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Gold (1981)
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Bernard Cornwell 175
British writer 1944Related quotes
"The Contest in America," Fraser’s Magazine (February 1862); later published in Dissertations and Discussions (1868), vol.1 p. 26
Context: War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice, — is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.
About Adolf Hitler as quoted in "Diary of a Man in Despair", Fritz Percy Reck-Malleczewen - History (1970) p. 95.
Michael Odell, "This much I know: Griff Rhys Jones", The Guardian, November 5 2006.
Talking about Mel Smith
Adamson, "Witty Birds and Well-Drawn Cats", 53.
“Greek, sir, is like lace; every man gets as much of it as he can.”
1780
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV
“I just… I just miss him. And hate being so alone. Does he miss me? He must”
Variant: I just... I just miss him. And I hate being so alone.
Source: The Hunger Games
Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 15 (p. 151)