Letter to Abigail Adams (3 July 1776)
1770s
Context: I am surprised at the suddenness as well as the greatness of this revolution... It is the will of Heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever. It may be the will of Heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting, and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case it will have this good effect at least. It will inspire us with many virtues which we have not, and correct many errors, follies, and vices which threaten to disturb, dishonor, and destroy us. The furnace of affliction produces refinement in states as well as individuals. And the new Governments we are assuming in every part will require a purification from our vices, and an augmentation of our virtues, or they will be no blessings. The people will have unbounded power, and the people are extremely addicted to corruption and venality, as well as the great. But I must submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe.
“Well, I learned a lot. … You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
Quoted by Lou Cannon in his article Latin [American] Trip an Eye-Opener for Reagan in The Washington Post (6 December 1982)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
BBC interview on "Face to Face" (1959); The Listener, Vol. 61 (1959), p. 503
1950s
“This is how sudden things happened that haunted forever.”
Daniel Woodrell (1953) Novelist
Source: Winter's Bone
“Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.”
Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor
Jakaya Kikwete (1950) Tanzanian politician and president
On China's engagement with the continent. <br class="br">Interviews, Interview with Financial Times, 2007-10-04 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d8a07e28-72a3-11dc-b7ff-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check1/
Daniel Morgan (1736–1802) American pioneer, soldier and politician
a Defensive war I think a righteous war to Defend my life & property & that of my family, in my own opinion, is right & justifiable in the sight of God.
An offensive war, I believe to be wrong and would therefore have nothing to do with it, having no right to meddle with another man's property, his ox or his ass, his man servant or his maid servant or anything that is his. Neither does he have a right to meddle with anything that is mine, if he does I have a right to defend it by force.
Letter to a Quaker (1798)
