“True to our traditions, we have avoided all extremes.”
Newsreel appearance after the general election (November 1935)
Variant: We, true to our traditions, avoided all extremes, have steered clear of fascism, communism, dictatorship, and have shown the world that democratic government, constitutional methods and ordered liberty are not inconsistent with progress and prosperity.
As quoted in Cinema, Literature & Society : Elite and Mass Culture in Interwar Britain (1987) by Peter Miles and Malcolm Smith, p. 22
1935
Context: True to our traditions, we have avoided all extremes. We have steered clear of fascism, communism, dictatorship, and we have shown the world that democratic government, constitutional methods and ordered liberty are not inconsistent with progress and prosperity.
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Stanley Baldwin225
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1867–1947Related quotes
Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN
Speech to the United Parents Association, as quoted in The New York Times (6 April 1958)
Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)
Presidency (1977–1981), The Crisis of Confidence (1979)
Context: We know the strength of America. We are strong. We can regain our unity. We can regain our confidence. We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now. Our fathers and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depression, who fought world wars, and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world.
We ourselves are the same Americans who just 10 years ago put a man on the Moon. We are the generation that dedicated our society to the pursuit of human rights and equality. And we are the generation that will win the war on the energy problem and in that process rebuild the unity and confidence of America.
We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self- interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure.
All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our Nation and ourselves. We can take the first steps down that path as we begin to solve our energy problem.
Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this Nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our Nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.
“All our traditions will be obliterated. We won't know ourselves anymore”
Alexander H. Stephens (1812–1883) Vice President of the Confederate States (in office from 1861 to 1865)
Lincoln (2012)
In fiction
Context: Which now extinguishes slavery. And with it our economy. All our laws will be determined by a Congress of vengeful Yankees, all our rights will be subject to a Supreme Court benched by bloody Republican radicals. All our traditions will be obliterated. We won't know ourselves anymore.
“Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries as much as you think they deserve.”
Thomas Jackson (1824–1863) Confederate general
Misattributed, Jackson's personal book of maxims
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2015, Remarks to the People of Africa (July 2015)
Koila Nailatikau (1953) Fijian politician
On her boycott of the "Fiji Week" reconciliation ceremonies, Senate Speech, 28 October 2004 (excerpts) http://www.parliament.gov.fj/hansard/viewhansard.aspx?hansardID271&viewtypefull
Gerald Ford (1913–2006) American politician, 38th President of the United States (in office from 1974 to 1977)
Memorial Day address, Arlington National Cemetery (31 May 1976) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=6071 <br class="br">1970s <br class="br">Context: The founding of our Nation was more than a political event; it was an act of faith, a promise to Americans and to the entire world. The Declaration of Independence declared that people can govern themselves, that they can live in freedom with equal rights, that they can respect the rights of others.<br>In the two centuries that have passed since 1776, millions upon millions of Americans have worked and taken up arms when necessary to make that dream a reality. We can be extremely proud of what they have accomplished. Today, we are the world's oldest republic. We are at peace. Our Nation and our way of life endure. We are free.