Introduction
Adventures in the Nearest East (1957)
Context: While Ugarit is revolutionizing the problem of Old Testament origins, the Dead Sea scrolls are doing the same for the New Testament. How fortunate is this generation to live at a time when the sources of our culture—sacred and profane—are illuminated in a brighter light of history than our forefathers imagined possible!
“It seems idolatry with some excuse,
When our forefather Druids in their oaks
Imagined sanctity.”
Source: The Yardley Oak (1791), Lines 9-11
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William Cowper 174
(1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist 1731–1800Related quotes

“Forever; ’t is a single word!
Our rude forefathers deemed it two:
Can you imagine so absurd
A view?”
Forever; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Heart of oak are our ships,
Heart of oak are our men;
We always are ready.”
Hearts of Oak. Compare: "Our ships were British oak, And hearts of oak our men", S. J. Arnold, Death of Nelson.

Variant: A self -idea of this sort seems to have three principal elements: the imagination of our appearance to the other person; the imagination of his judgment of that appearance, and some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification.
Source: Human Nature and the Social Order, 1902, p. 182 (1922)

No. 191
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

“Consider also our approach to the sanctity and value of human life.”
Nobel lecture (2005)
Context: Consider also our approach to the sanctity and value of human life. In the aftermath of the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, we all grieved deeply, and expressed outrage at this heinous crime — and rightly so. But many people today are unaware that, as the result of civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 3.8 million people have lost their lives since 1998.
Are we to conclude that our priorities are skewed, and our approaches uneven?