Source: Why We Fail as Christians (1919), p. 53
Context: There is a world of difference between the one who would imitate the conduct of the successful merchant, who sits in the front pew of his church, and him who would follow literally the teachings of Jesus Christ. To attain perfectly the one ideal—if it be an ideal—is a comparatively simple task. To attain the other, is perhaps an impossibility.
“The French soldier follows his officers eagerly and willingly into battle, but only so long as these officers are in front of him, and literally lead him on.”
Quoted by Friedrich Engels in Waldersee über die französische Armee, 1861
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Friedrich von Waldersee 2
Prussian general (1795-1864) 1795–1864Related quotes
Letter to George Washington (September 1778)
Source: Becoming Hitler: The Making of a Nazi (2017), p. 70
Source: Thinking and Destiny (1946), Ch. 5, Physical Destiny, p. 138
Context: Therefore public officials in monarchies, oligarchies and democracies, are as bad as they are. They are the representatives of the people; in them the thoughts of the people have taken form. Those who are not in office would do as the present officials do, or even worse, if they had the opportunity. Corrupt officials can hold office and sinecures only so long as the thoughts of the people are depraved.
2010s, Update on Investigations in Ferguson (2015)
1960, Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association
Context: That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe — a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.
ll. 25-29.
A Satire Against Mankind (1679)