Quotes about nationality
page 30

“I have tried to draw attention to South Korea’s dangerous state-loyalty deficit, by which I mean citizens’ lack of a sense of identification with their republic. In doing so I have noted the obvious parallels with South Vietnam, another state fatally weakened by nationalism. On this point too, I seem to be talking to the wall. Even Americans interested in the nuclear crisis feel no need to learn about party politics in South Korea. It’s a thriving, prosperous democracy, and that’s all that matters.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

2010s, On Some Counter-Arguments (October 2017)

Feeling, Democracy, Sense, Learning

“Last year, when the need to form a fact-finding team to undertake a thorough investigation concerning the hidden elements involved in September 11 incident was brought up; an idea also endorsed by all independent governments and nations as well as by the majority in the United States, my country and myself came under pressure and threat by the government of the United States. Instead of assigning a fact-finding team, they killed the main perpetrator and threw his body into the sea. Would it not have been reasonable to bring to justice and openly bring to trial the main perpetrator of the incident in order to identify the elements behind the safe space provided for the invading aircraft to attack the twin world trade towers? Why should it not have been allowed to bring him to trial to help recognize those who launched terrorist groups and brought wars and other miseries into the region? Is there any classified information that must be kept secret?”

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (1956) 6th President of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Speech to the United Nations General Assembly (22 September 2011). http://gadebate.un.org/node/186 2011

War, Secret, World, Justice

“Intensive research in recent years into the sources of economic growth among both developing and developed nations generally point to a number of important factors: the state of knowledge and skill of a population; the degree of control over indigenous natural resources; the quality of a country's legal system, particularly a strong commitment to a rule of law and protection of property rights; and yes, the extent of a country's openness to trade with the rest of the world. For the United States, arguably the most important factor is the type of rule of law under which economic activity takes place. When asked abroad why the United States has become the most prosperous large economy in the world, I respond, with only mild exaggeration, that our forefathers wrote a constitution and set in motion a system of laws that protects individual rights, especially the right to own property. Nonetheless, the degree of state protection is sometimes in dispute. But by and large, secure property rights are almost universally accepted by Americans as a critical pillar of our economy. While the right of property in the abstract is generally uncontested in all societies embracing democratic market capitalism, different degrees of property protection do apparently foster different economic incentives and outcomes.”

Alan Greenspan (1926) 13th Chairman of the Federal Reserve in the United States

Alan Greenspan (2004) The critical role of education in the nation's economy.
2000s

World, Law, Nature, Knowledge

“I am going because the Army did not give me the political support to continue as commander and President of the nation. I am not one of those who abandon the ship in the middle of tempests or difficult hours such as those the nation is living in today. The people of the nation know this.”

Leopoldo Galtieri (1926–2003) Argentine military dictator

"AROUND THE WORLD; Former Argentina Chief Testifies on War" http://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/25/world/around-the-world-former-argentina-chief-testifies-on-war.html, The New York Times (March 25, 1983)

People, Support

“Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.”

Stephen Harper (1959) 22nd Prime Minister of Canada

The Star, January 30, 2007.
2007

Money, Wealth

“Unpredictable events, or the coincidence of vital events happening side by side, play their part in history. In the emerging of the United States of America, the South American nations, South Africa, Canada and Australia the unforeseen mixture of events was especially powerful in the final decades of the 18th century. Many of those events pirouetted around the fortunes of France, whose influence was as decisive when it was losing as when it was winning wars.”

Geoffrey Blainey book A Short History of the World

A Short History of the World (2000)

War, History, Decision, Parting

“The sciences of only one nation, the Greeks, have come down to us, because they were translated through Al-Ma'mun's efforts. He was successful in this direction because he had many translators at his disposal and spent much money in this connection.”

Ibn Khaldun book Muqaddimah

Muqaddimah (1377)

Money, Effort, Science, Success

“We have been constantly besought to engage in competitive armaments. Frequent reports will reach us of the magnitude of the military equipment of other, nations. We shall do well to be little impressed by such reports or such actions. Any nation undertaking to maintain a military establishment with aggressive and imperialistic designs will find itself severely handicapped in the economic development of the world. I believe thoroughly in the Army and Navy, in adequate defense and preparation. But I am opposed to any policy of competition in building and maintaining land or sea armaments.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

1920s, Second State of the Union Address (1924)

World, Sea

“All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.”

Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America

Book Three, Chapter XXII.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book Three

War

“The postwar era has not surprised Arthur Burns, for business cycles have continued their "unceasing round." although the United States recession of 1981-82 was the eighth since World War II and the deepest postwar slump by almost any measure, the 1983-84 recovery displayed an upward momentum sufficient to befuddle forecasters and delight incumbent politicians. Nor would a reincarnated Joseph Schumpeter be disappointed in the current status of business cycle research in the economics profession. To be sure, interest in business cycles decayed during the prosperity of the 1960s, as symbolized in the 1969 conference volume, Is the Business Cycle Obsolete? and in Paul Samuelson's remark the same year that the National Bureau of Economic Research "has worked itself out of one of its first jobs, namely, the business cycle."”

Robert J. Gordon (1940) American economist

Source: The American Business Cycle, 1986, p. 1-2

War, World, Disappointment, Business

“I'd also like to thank President Jones for his support, Justice Johnson for your strength and your courage and you stick-to-it-tivity, Judge Bailey - who I thought I had gotten into a mess, but having had dinner with him, he got me into a mess — but I have enjoyed your company and the opportunity to learn from you, to get to know you, and perhaps to develop a friendship over the years. And I would like to thank the other members of the Judicial Council for the National Bar Association who have been so courageous and forthright and kind to invite me to join you this afternoon.”

Clarence Thomas (1948) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

1990s, I Am a Man, a Black Man, an American (1998)

Friendship, Justice, Courage, Support

“Amid the vast modern network of universities, corporate laboratories, and national science foundations has arisen an awareness that the best financed and best organized of research enterprises have not learned to engender, perhaps not even to recognize, world-tuning originality.”

James Gleick book Genius

James Gleick (1992). Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman. Vintage Books

World, Learning, Universe, Science

“To be preyed upon by those stronger than you is bad enough; but to allow your artists and children to be slaughtered and defiled by barely organized foreigners who could be kept out by simple acts of national self-respect is far more shameful.”

Steve Sailer (1958) American journalist and movie critic

Checking Iron Age Barbarian Prejudice http://takimag.com/article/checking_iron_age_barbarian_prejudice_steve_sailer/print#ixzz4A7r77jkG, Taki's Magazine, April 22, 2015

Children

“The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.

In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.”

Mitt Romney (1947) American businessman and politician

[2008-11-19, Let Detroit Go Bankrupt, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html]
2008

Fate, Cars

“[Scripture], by which, “as in a glass, we may survey ourselves, and know what manner of persons we are,” (James 1. 23) discovers ourselves to us; pierces into the inmost recesses of the mind; strips off every disguise; lays open the inward part; makes a strict scrutiny into the very soul and spirit; and critically judges of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb. iv. 12) It shows us with what exactness and care we are to search and try our spirits, examine ourselves, and watch our ways, and keep our hearts, in order to acquire this important self-science; which it often calls us to do. “Examine yourselves; prove your own selves; know you not yourselves? Let a man examine himself.” (1 Cor. xi. 28) Our Saviour upbraids his disciples with their self-ignorance, in not “knowing what manner of spirits they were of.” (Luke ix. 55) And, saith the apostle, “If a man (through self-ignorance) thinketh himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself, and not another.” (Gal. vi. 3, 4) Here we are commanded, instead of judging others, to judge ourselves; and to avoid the. inexcusable rashness of condemning others for the very crimes we ourselves are guilty of, (Rom. ii. 1, 21, 22) which a self-ignorant man is very apt to do; nay, to be more offended at a small blemish in another's character, than at a greater in his own; which folly, self-ignorance, and hypocrisy, our Saviour, with just severity, animadverts upon. (Mat. vii. 3-5) And what stress was laid upon this under the Old Testament dispensation appears sufficiently from those expressions. "Keep thy heart with all diligence." (Prov. iv. 23) "Commune with your own heart." (Psal. iv. 4) "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts." (Psal. cxxxix. 23) "Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart." (Psal. xxvi. 2) "Let us search and try our ways." (Lam. iii. 4) "Recollect, recollect yourselves, O "nation not desired."”

John Mason (1706–1763) English Independent minister and author

Zeph. ii. 1
A Treatise on Self-Knowledge (1745)

God, Way, Soul, Search

“Would you like the oldest, most historically significant athletic competition the world has ever known, attracting athletes from every known nation on the face of the planet to come here and perform at the peak of their abilities, in the very city where you live? Most British people go, "Where will we park?!"”

Marcus Brigstocke (1973) comedian

Live At The Apollo (2006)

People, World

“That which in England we call the middle class is in America virtually the nation.”

Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools

"A Word More About America" (1885)

“Government policy, legislation on the family and marriage, and propaganda should not encourage an increase in the birth rates of advanced countries while demanding that it be curtailed in underdeveloped countries that are receiving assistance. Such a two-faced game would produce nothing but bitterness and nationalism.”

Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989) Soviet nuclear physicist and human rights activist

Progress, Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom (1968), Dangers, Hunger and Overpopulation (and the Psychology of Racism)

Marriage, Family, Game, Birth

“I am deeply sensitive to the spell of nationalism. I can play about thirty Bohemian folk songs… on my mouth-organ. My oldest friend, who is Czech and a patriot, cannot bear to hear me play them because he says I do it in such a schmalzy way, 'crying into the mouth organ'. I do not think I could have written the book on nationalism which I did write, were I not capable of crying, with the help of a little alcohol, over folk songs, which happen to be my favourite form of music.”

Ernest Gellner (1925–1995) Czech anthropologist, philosopher and sociologist

"Reply to Critics" in The Social Philosophy of Ernest Gellner

Alcohol, Books, Music, Way

“In 1945 a Mississippi sergeant, Jake Lindsey, was honored by an unusual joint session of the Congress. I close therefore, with this appeal to the students of the University, the people who are most concerned. You have a great tradition to uphold, a tradition of honor and courage won on the field of battle and on the gridiron as well as the University campus. You have a new opportunity to show that you are men of patriotism and integrity. For the most effective means of upholding the law is not the State policeman or the marshals or the National Guard. It is you. It lies in your courage to accept those laws with which you disagree as well as those with which you agree.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Radio and Television Report to the Nation on the Situation at the University of Mississippi (30 September 1962)
1962

Men, People, Law, Courage

“We are working around the clock to ensure Baltimore City remains at peace, as it has throughout the day. The presence of the National Guard, Maryland State Police, and other law enforcement officials will continue in the days to come to ensure order is fully restored for the citizens of Baltimore.”

Larry Hogan (1956) American politician

" Governor Larry Hogan Mobilizes State Resources To Support Baltimore City Law Enforcement Response http://governor.maryland.gov/2015/04/28/governor-larry-hogan-mobilizes-state-resources-to-support-baltimore-city-law-enforcement-response/" (28 April 2015).

Peace, Law

“About ten days later, it being the time of year when the National collected down and outs to walk on and understudy I arrived at the head office of the National Theatre in Aquinas Street in Waterloo.”

Tom Baker (1934) English actor

Time

“It is an act of cruelty, of barbarism, to kill, to strike unconscious, and to cut the throat of animals, who do no harm to anyone, the way we do; because they are sensitive to injury and pain just as we are, regardless of what is said vainly, falsely, and ridiculously by our new Cartesians, who regard them as purely machines without soul and without feelings … This is a ridiculous opinion, a pernicious principle, and a detestable doctrine, because it clearly tends to stifle in the hearts of men all feelings of kindness, of gentleness, and of humanity that they might have toward these poor animals. … Blessed are the nations that treat them kindly and favorably, who are compassionate toward their miseries and their pains; but cursed are the nations that treat them cruelly, who tyrannize over them, who enjoy shedding their blood, and who are avid to eat their flesh.”

Jean Meslier (1664–1729) French priest

In Œuvres complètes (Paris: Anthropos, 1970–1972), t. I, 210-18; quoted in Matthieu Ricard, A Plea for the Animals, trans. Sherab Chödzin Kohn (Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 2016), p. 19 https://books.google.it/books?id=bTLuDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA19 Testament: Memoir of the Thoughts and Sentiments of Jean Meslier

Men, Pain, Way, Feeling

“I have always said that if Great Britain were defeated in war I hoped we should find a Hitler to lead us back to our rightful position among the nations. I am sorry, however, that he has not been mellowed by the great success that has attended him. The whole world would rejoice to see the Hitler of peace and tolerance, and nothing would adorn his name in world history so much as acts of magnanimity and of mercy and of pity to the forlorn and friendless, to the weak and poor. … Let this great man search his own heart and conscience before he accuses anyone of being a warmonger.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

"Mr. Churchill's Reply" in The Times (7 November 1938).
The 1930s

War, World, Peace, Hope

“The United States has never actually wanted one true spy service, on the model of England’s MI6. Instead, it has tried to create a first-rate spy community. That community reflects the character of our culture: it’s a crazy-quilt of checks and balances, division of labor, specialization, decentralization, friendship with free nations, civilian control of the military, and a distrust of secrecy dating to the Salem witch trials. The result is an over-managed yet under-coordinated system, spanning not just dozens of U. S. agencies, but dozens of other governments, and even nongovernmental organizations. It includes not just the CIA, the FBI, and the Pentagon, but functional partners in British and Israeli intelligence, treaty alliances such as NATO and SEATO, and even information sharing with transnational entities such as the United Nations, the Vatican, and Google.”

Mark Riebling (1963) American writer

Litany of Blunders (2007)

Friendship, Intelligence, Communication

“Once upon a time, when the Yewnited States was just a little shaver among the nations, but already very spoiled along the literate Eastern fringes, there lived younder in Tennessee a lovable old man with a tongue like a rat-tailed file and a face so hard they called him Old Hickory.”

Whittaker Chambers (1901–1961) Defected Communist spy

"The Old Deal," October 22, 1945
TIME magazine (1939-1948)

Time

“The very wise and wealthy financiers of the world--going way back, even before Rothschild's time--have observed that the world was a pretty rocky place to live in, and that nations were always fighting over something or other, there was always somebody who was trying to conquer somebody else, and wars were universal. Too bad about that, but that's the way it is. So we--the bankers--found out that if we loan money to them that we'll get paid back - they don't question what the interest rate is because they're fighting a war! And if they can win the war they can just plunder the victim and pay us whatever we want out of the plunder - it doesn't cost them anything really. Then the issue comes up of what happens if one of these nations decides not to pay us? Ah! The answer is very simple: if they refuse to pay us back we'll finance an opposing nation, a revolutionary group somewhere else to become an enemy of that nation and attack it, and destroy it, invade it. We'll create another war, in other words, in order to get our money back, we'll finance this side to attack that side. And so, by financing all sides in a war, and keeping the world divided up into warring fractions so that no one unit is particularly stronger than the other, the banks can continue to finance all sides of wars forever, and always collect their interest, because they have the ability of putting one nation against another nation against another nation to collect their debts.”

G. Edward Griffin (1931) American conspiracy theorist, film producer, author, and political lecturer

From the documentary Corporate Fascism: The Destruction of America's Middle Class (2011) http://www.youtube.com/embed/hTbvoiTJKIs?autoplay=1&start=2094&end=2183

Money, War, World, Way

“The Republican Party recognizes the right of the majority to govern, and their power to enforce that right against all attempts at disunion, come from what quarter they may. It is based upon the great fundamental principle upon which the National Government rests, that the Constitution, and all laws made in pursuance thereof, are to be faithfully observed and enforced, and it demands economy and a rigid accountability on the part of all public officers.”

Elbridge G. Spaulding (1809–1897) American politician

Remarks on the Republican platform (1860)

Law, Parting

“Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means "submission". Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.”

Geert Wilders (1963) Dutch politician

2000s, Speech at the Four Seasons, New York (25 September 2008)

Life, God, Religion, Fools

“Here was a place where men and life and death had reached the lowest form of degradation. How could any reward in national progress even faintly justify the establishment and operation of such a place?”

Charles Lindbergh (1902–1974) American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist

After visiting the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp in Germany, as quoted in The New York Times (20 April 1980) http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/27/specials/lindbergh-jews.html

Life, Death, Men

“Government by three men in a room has turned New York State into a national symbol of governmental dysfunction. Enough is enough!”

Michael Bloomberg (1942) American businessman and politician, former mayor of New York City

http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/searchlight/20070117/203/2080
Election Reform

Men

“America is a nation fundamentally ambivalent about its children, often afraid of its children, and frequently punitive toward its children.”

Letty Cottin Pogrebin (1939) American author, journalist, lecturer, and social justice activist

Source: Family and Politics (1983), Ch. 3

Children

“Jingoistic rhetoric and puerile self-congratulatory nationalism.”

Carl Sagan book Contact

Source: Contact (1985), Chapter 11 (p. 181)

“People naturally aspire to the symbols and the ideals of our nation. Yet whether it is a political party, a church, a charity - any institution built by man can fail and can fall. The key thing is to aspire to be better. And, for our political institutions, to understand that self sacrifice - just like forgiveness - is at the centre of the order of things.”

Alex Salmond (1954) Scottish National Party politician and former First Minister of Scotland

Scotland in the World Forum (February 4, 2008), Church of Scotland (May 25, 2009)

People, Forgiveness, Understanding, Nature

“The authors analyze the nation-state as a worldwide institution constructed by worldwide cultural and associational processes, developing four main topics:
(1) properties of nation-states that result from their exogenously driven construction, including isomorphism, decoupling, and expansive structuration;
(2) processes by which rationalistic world culture affects national states;
(3) characteristics of world society that enhance the impact of world culture on national states and societies, including conditions favoring the diffusion of world models, expansion of world-level associations, and rationalized scientific and professional authority;
(4) dynamic features of world culture and society that generate expansion, conflict, and change, especially the statelessness of world society, legitimation of multiple levels of rationalized actors, and internal inconsistencies and contradictions”

John W. Meyer (1935) Sociologist and professor at Stanford University

John W. Meyer, et al. "World society and the nation‐state." American Journal of sociology 103.1 (1997): 144-181.

World, Change

“A brave nation fights because it must; a cowardly nation fights because it can.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

“Betraying Brave Boys,” http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31722 WorldNetDaily.com, March 26, 2003. 2000s

Fight

“No industry should remain under State ownership unless there is a positive and overwhelming case for it so doing. Inertia is not enough. As a nation, we simply cannot afford it.”

Nigel Lawson (1932) British Conservative politician and journalist

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1981/nov/10/nationalised-industries in the House of Commons (10 November 1981)

“I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

Address on Latin American Policy before the Southern Commercial Congress http://books.google.com/books?id=_VYEIml1cAkC&q=%22I+would+rather+belong+to+a+poor+nation+that+was+free+than+to+a+rich+nation+that+had+ceased+to+be+in+love+with+liberty%22&pg=PA20#v=onepage Mobile, Alabama (27 October 1913) 1910s

Love

“Arafat himself frankly expressed his 'understanding' and 'respect' of the Israeli need to maintain Jewish supremacy in an editorial he published in the New York Times. He shamelessly asserted: 'We understand Israel's demographic concerns and understand that the right of return of Palestinian refugees, a right guaranteed under international law and United Nations Resolution 194, must be implemented in a way that takes into account such concerns'. He proceeded to state that he is looking to negotiate with Israel on 'creative solutions to the plight of the refugees while respecting Israel’s demographic concerns”

Joseph Massad (1963) Associate Professor of Arab Studies

i.e., 'respecting' its Jewish supremacist concerns.
Ibid.
"The Ends of Zionism: Racism and the Palestinian Struggle"

Law, Way, Understanding, Time

“Our sufferings have taught us that no nation is sufficient unto itself, and that our prosperity depends in the long run, not upon the failure of our neighbors but their successes.”

John Buchan (1875–1940) British politician

"A University's Bequest to Youth" (10 October 1936)
Canadian Occasions (1940)

Failure, Suffering, Success, Dependency

“The connection of Islam to Arabism is not, therefore, similar to that of any religion to any nationalism. The Arab Christians, when their nationalism is fully awakened and when they restore their genuine character, will recognize that Islam for them is nationalist education in which they have to be absorbed in order to understand and love it to the extent that they become concerned about Islam as about the most precious thing in their Arabism. If the actual reality is still far from this wish, the new generation of Arab Christians has a task which it should perform with daring and detachment, sacrificing for it their pride and benefits, for there is nothing that equals Arabism and the honor of belonging to it.”

Michel Aflaq (1910–1989) Syrian philosopher, sociologist and Arab nationalist

In Memory of the Arab Prophet (1 April 1943)

Love, Education, Religion, Understanding

“It will bring about the extinction of the nation-state as we know it… I think it will be as big a deal as the creation of cities.”

William Gibson (1948) American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and founder of the cyberpunk subgenre

Referring to the Internet
No Maps for These Territories (2000)

Thinking

“A nation needs clear rules on what happens in the case of a disputed succession. Surely there’s a Queen’s Bedchamber Mace or someone who knows.”

Mark Rosenfelder American language inventor

Discussing http://zompist.wordpress.com/2010/05/08/ask-zompist-uk-election/ the results of the 2010 UK election

Success

“Civil libertarians do not deny that FISA hampers our ability to counter terrorists. Citing the abuses alleged by the Church Commitee, however, they argue that chronic insecurity is the price we must pay to preserve our liberties. But the United States was not a fascist dictatorship before Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter rode to the rescue. Our current surveillance rules are nether constitutionally required, nor traditionally American. They were observed neither by Senator Kennedy's elder brothers, nor by any presidents or attorneys general before the Carter presidency. For the first two centuries of our country's history, threats to our national security were countered without warrant. And the Supreme Court, from Olmstead v. U. S. (1928) to U. S. v. U. S. District Court (1972), has allowed warrantless surveillance in national security, as opposed to criminal, investigations.”

Mark Riebling (1963) American writer

Uncuff the FBI: Congress Must Undo the Church Committe's Damage (2002)

History, Country

“Fate is mightier than genius. Caesar desired to become the restorer of the civil commonwealth, and became the founder of the new military monarchy which he abhorred; he overthrew the regime of aristocrats and banks in the state, only to put a military regime in their place, and the commonwealth continued as before to be tyrannized and turned to profit by a privileged minority. And yet it is a privilege of the highest natures thus creatively to err. The brilliant attempts of great men to realize the ideal, though they do not reach their aim, form the best treasures of nations.”

Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903) German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist and writer

Vol. 4, pt. 2. translated by W.P. Dickson.
The History of Rome - Volume 4: Part 2

Men, Fate, Nature

“The art of music above all the other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation.”

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) English composer

National Music (1934) p. 123.

Art, Music, Soul

“1) You would agree to remove these weapons systems from Cuba under appropriate United Nations observation and supervision; and undertake, with suitable safeguards, to halt the further introduction of such weapons systems into Cuba.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1962, Second Letter to Nikita Khrushchev

“Interview of 1929, as quoted in "Nations are greatly concerned over death of German President" in Berkeley Daily Gazette”

Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934) Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and president of Germany

1 August 1934
Variant translation:
I am not a pacifist. That is not my attitude. But all my impressions of war are so bad that I could be for it only under the sternest necessity — the necessity of fighting Bolshevism or of defending one's country.
As quoted in TIME magazine (13 January 1930)
President

Death, Quotes

“All over the world, the nation, in a dream
Of money and love and sport, hangs at the paps
Of well-being, and so
Goes fattening, mellowing, dozing, rotting down
Into a rich deliquium of decay.”

William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) English poet, critic and editor

Epilogue
Hawthorn and Lavender (1901)

Love, Money, World, Dreams

“The third and last classification of projects under this measure, Mr. President, are urgent infrastructure, socio-economic, rehabilitation and reconstruction projects which are not funded in any existing appropriation laws. These projects, such as the MRT 3 Rehabilitation and Capacity Extension, the updating of DSWD’s National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), or the Emergency Housing Assistance for Victims of Typhoon Yolanda, constitute crucial development initiatives that shall benefit displaced and poverty-stricken Filipinos.”

Francis Escudero (1969) Filipino politician

2014, Speech: Sponsorship Speech for the Supplemental Appropriations for FY 2014

Law, Housing

“Anyone (including retired ROC generals) would have stood up under that circumstance (during PRC national anthem) or it would be impolite.”

Feng Shih-kuan (1945) Taiwanese politician

Feng Shih-kuan (2016) cited in " Retired generals stayed silent: minister http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2016/11/18/484298/Retired-generals.htm" on The China Post, 18 November 2016

“we have heard as yet only the proceedings of the first day of Burr’s trial, which from the favor of the Marshal and judge promises him all which can depend on them. A grand jury of two federalists, four (Tertium) Quids and ten republicans does not seem to be a fair representation of the state of Virginia. But all this will shew the original error of establishing a judiciary independant of the nation, and which, from the citadel of the law can turn it’s guns on those they were meant to defend, and controul and fashion their proceedings to it’s own will. I have always entertained a high opinion of the Marshal’s integrity and political correctness. But, in a state where there are not more than eight Quids, how five of them should have been summoned on one jury is difficult to explain from accident.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to John W. Eppes (28 May 1807) https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-5646 1800s, Second Presidential Administration (1805-1809)

Law, Error, Fashion, Dependency

“It was relatively easy, we now realize, to categorize countries and nations. You knew who your enemies were and whom you could count on as collaborators and friends. And even more importantly, you had ready-made scapegoats to take the blame when things were going wrong.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

Speech entitled Freedom and Tolerance (June 1995), Cape Town Press Club

Country

“Now they [the Powers] have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death. If we must perish, why not fight to the death?”

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) Chinese empress

[The Last Empress: The She-Dragon of China, Keith Laidler, 2003, John Wiley & Sons, 221, http://books.google.com/books?id=QLPZ7294oSIC&pg=PA221&dq=have+started+the+aggression,+and+the+extinction+of+our+nation+is+imminent++no+face+ancestors+death&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oGsLT5rpEqHu0gGY29nuBQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=have%20started%20the%20aggression%2C%20and%20the%20extinction%20of%20our%20nation%20is%20imminent%20%20no%20face%20ancestors%20death&f=false, 1-9-2011, 0470864265, the courage and fighting spirit were at once evident: 'Now they have started the aggression,' she declared, 'and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death. If we must perish, why not fight to the death?'2]
[Massacre in Shansi, Nat Brandt, 1994, illustrated, Syracuse University Press, 181, http://books.google.com/books?id=R0GGv-Dio1MC&pg=PA181&dq=have+started+the+aggression,+and+the+extinction+of+our+nation+is+imminent++no+face+ancestors+death&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oGsLT5rpEqHu0gGY29nuBQ&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=have%20started%20the%20aggression%2C%20and%20the%20extinction%20of%20our%20nation%20is%20imminent%20%20no%20face%20ancestors%20death&f=false, 1-9-2011, 0815602820, Tz'u Hsi was enraged: "Now the Powers have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death. If we must perish, why not fight to the death."' The Peking Field Force — made up of five armies — was ordered to surround the legations supposedly to protect the diplomats but effectively sealing them off from the rest of the city.]
[The Boxer Rebellion, Richard O'Connor, 1973, illustrated, reprint, Hale, 85, http://books.google.com/books?ei=oGsLT5rpEqHu0gGY29nuBQ&id=LYVxAAAAMAAJ&dq=have+started+the+aggression%2C+and+the+extinction+of+our+nation+is+imminent++no+face+ancestors+death&q=extinction+ancestors, 1-9-2011, 0709147805, 3. All military operations were to be controlled by the foreign ministers. . . As she listened, her majesty's face was congested with rage. . . .With firm and vehement emphasis she then told the Grand Council: "Now they have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death. If we must perish, why not fight to the death?]
[The spirit soldiers: a historical narrative of the Boxer Rebellion, Richard O'Connor, 1973, illustrated, Putnam, 85, http://books.google.com/books?ei=oGsLT5rpEqHu0gGY29nuBQ&id=P4NxAAAAMAAJ&dq=have+started+the+aggression%2C+and+the+extinction+of+our+nation+is+imminent++no+face+ancestors+death&q=extinction+imminent, 1-9-2011, 3. All military operations were to be controlled by the foreign . . .Council: "Now they have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death. If we must perish, why not fight to the death? She then elaborated on the great benefits the Manchu dynasty had conferred upon China and predicted that the grateful Chinese]
[The Siege at Peking: The Boxer Rebellion, Peter Fleming, 1990, illustrated, Dorset Press, 97, http://books.google.com/books?id=pHrZAAAAMAAJ&q=have+started+the+aggression,+and+the+extinction+of+our+nation+is+imminent++no+face+ancestors+death&dq=have+started+the+aggression,+and+the+extinction+of+our+nation+is+imminent++no+face+ancestors+death&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oGsLT5rpEqHu0gGY29nuBQ&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBA, 1-9-2011, 0880294620, 'Now,' she is reported to have exclaimed, 'the Powers have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death.]
[The Siege at Peking, Peter Fleming, 1959, NEW YORK 49 East 33rd Street, New York 16, N.Y, HARPER & BROTHERS, 97, 1-9-2011, The Empress Dowager reacted in the way that the authors of the document presumably hoped she would. 'Now,' she is reported to have exclaimed, 'the Powers have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death. If we must perish, why not fight to the death?' A Decree (which was widely ignored) went out to the provinces ordering them to send troops to Peking.]
[The Boxer catastrophe, Issue 583 of Columbia studies in the social sciences, Chester C. Tan, 1967, reprint, Octagon Books, 73, http://books.google.com/books?ei=oGsLT5rpEqHu0gGY29nuBQ&id=_gcOAQAAMAAJ&dq=have+started+the+aggression%2C+and+the+extinction+of+our+nation+is+imminent++no+face+ancestors+death&q=extinction+nation, 1-9-2011, 0374977526, affairs to be committed to their hands. The fourth point was not mentioned. She then made the following statement: " Now they [the Powers] have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death. If]
[Columbia studies in the social sciences, Volume 583, Columbia University. Faculty of Political Science, 1955, Columbia University Press, 73, http://books.google.com/books?ei=oGsLT5rpEqHu0gGY29nuBQ&id=ZfocAQAAMAAJ&dq=have+started+the+aggression%2C+and+the+extinction+of+our+nation+is+imminent++no+face+ancestors+death&q=extinction+nation, 1-9-2011, metnioned. She then made the following statement: " Now they [the Powers] have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death. If we must perish, why not fight to the death? " Finally Hsü Yung-i,]
[The rhetoric of empire: American China policy, 1895-1901, Volume 36 of Harvard East Asian series, Marilyn Blatt Young, 1969, Harvard University Press, 147, http://books.google.com/books?ei=oGsLT5rpEqHu0gGY29nuBQ&id=tUlCAAAAIAAJ&dq=have+started+the+aggression%2C+and+the+extinction+of+our+nation+is+imminent++no+face+ancestors+death&q=extinction+imminent, 1-9-2011, a surrender of sovereignty: (1) a special place to be assigned to the emperor for residence; (2) all revenues to be collected by the foreign ministers; (3) all mmilitary affairs to be committed to their hands. . .After reading them out the empress dowager declare, "Now they [the powers] have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death. If we must perish, why not fight to the death?]
[The dragon empress: life and times of Tz'u-hsi, 1835-1908, Empress dowager of China, Marina Warner, 1974, illustrated, reprint, Cardinal, 227, http://books.google.com/books?ei=oGsLT5rpEqHu0gGY29nuBQ&id=hTend7Ttp9UC&dq=have+started+the+aggression%2C+and+the+extinction+of+our+nation+is+imminent++no+face+ancestors+death&q=extinction+imminent, 1-9-2011, 0351186573, 'Now,' she cried, 'now they have started the aggression and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we must fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death.'18 Quoting]
[Symbolic war: the Chinese use of force, 1840-1980, Volume 43 of Institute of International Relations English monograph series, Jonathan R. Adelman, Zhiyu Shi, 1993, Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University, 132, http://books.google.com/books?ei=oGsLT5rpEqHu0gGY29nuBQ&id=ZYm6AAAAIAAJ&dq=have+started+the+aggression%2C+and+the+extinction+of+our+nation+is+imminent++no+face+ancestors+death&q=aggression+extinction+imminent, 1-9-2011, 9579368236, Council issued a decree recruiting Boxers to the army, attacking the advance of Seymour, pacifying the Boxers and ordering local troops to march northward to protect the capital. The next day the Empress Dowager declared that, "Now they have started the aggression and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death."44 In the words of the imperial decree]

Death, Fight

“The principles and the purposes expressed in the Charter of the United Nations continue to represent our hope for the eventual establishment of the rule of law in international affairs. The Charter constitutes the basic expression of the code of international ethics to which this country is dedicated. We cannot, however, close our eyes to the harsh fact that through obstruction and even defiance on the part of one nation, this great dream has not yet become a full reality. It is necessary, therefore, that we take additional measures to supplement the work of the United Nations and to support its aims. There are times in world history when it is far wiser to act than to hesitate. There is some risk involved in action — there always is. But there is far more risk in failure to act. For if we act wisely now, we shall strengthen the powerful forces for freedom, justice, and peace which are represented by the United Nations and the free nations of the world.”

Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)

Special Message to the Congress on the Threat to the Freedom of Europe (1948)

World, Peace, Justice, Law

“The struggles waged by nations are weak only when they lack support in the hearts of their women. But when women are moved and lend help, when women, who are by nature calm and controlled, give encouragement and applause, when virtuous and knowledgeable women grace the endeavor with their sweet love, then it is invincible.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

Love, Women, Support, Nature

“All that this country can achieve depends on developing our nation as a high growth, vibrant economy. In the modern global economy, even the greatest political ambition is doomed to failure without an economy driving employment, investment, research and development and rewarding success.”

Alex Salmond (1954) Scottish National Party politician and former First Minister of Scotland

Principles and Priorities : Programme for Government (September 5, 2007)

Failure, Success, Dependency, Country

“As for it's results, they have been, by the grace of Allah, positive and enormous, and have, by all standards, exceeded all expectations. This is due to many factors, chief among them, that we have found it difficult to deal with the Bush administration in light of the resemblance it bears to the regimes in our countries, half of which are ruled by the military and the other half which are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents.
Our experience with them is lengthy, and both types are replete with those who are characterised by pride, arrogance, greed and misappropriation of wealth. This resemblance began after the visits of Bush Sr to the region.
At a time when some of our compatriots were dazzled by America and hoping that these visits would have an effect on our countries, all of a sudden he was affected by those monarchies and military regimes, and became envious of their remaining decades in their positions, to embezzle the public wealth of the nation without supervision or accounting.
So he took dictatorship and suppression of freedoms to his son and they named it the Patriot Act, under the pretence of fighting terrorism. In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing of sons as state governors, and didn't forget to import expertise in election fraud from the region's presidents to Florida to be made use of in moments of difficulty.”

Osama bin Laden (1957–2011) founder of al-Qaeda

Full transcript of bin Ladin's speech http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2004/11/200849163336457223.html Aljazeera, (01 Nov 2004) 2000s, 2004

Hope, Fraud, Freedom, Light

“But for National Socialism with this demand for social justice stands and falls the question of destiny for the German people, whether the German people can find its way to a noble nation, or whether it will eke out a miserable life in degradation and corruption as a fellaheen nation.”

Gottfried Feder (1883–1941) German economist and politician

Source: The German State on a National and Socialist Foundation (1923), p. 71

Life, People, Justice, Way

“It was the mass sale and distribution of novels and newspapers that was critical to the rise of the imagined nation.”

George Ritzer (1940) American sociologist

Source: Globalization - A Basic Text (2010), Chapter 6, Global Political Structures and Processes, p. 148

Imagination

“The Vatican newspaper in Rome, Osservatore Romano, said of National Socialism, ‘It is the most inhumane of all heresies. Hitler is true to his role of anti-Christ.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Source: "Let the Record Speak" 1939, p. 287 (newspaper column: “Spain and the Catholics,” January 27, 1939)

Christ

“Purism increases nationalism because it teaches that everything should be classified as Croatian or non-Croatian, and what comes from their own nation must be good, while what comes from other nations must be harmful and evil.”

Snježana Kordić Jezik i nacionalizam

El purismo aumenta el nacionalismo porque enseña a clasificar todo como croata o no croata, y a que todo lo que supuestamente proceda del propio país se diga que es bueno, mientras que de lo que proceda de otras naciones se diga que es perjudical y malo.
[Kordić, Snježana, w:Snježana Kordić, Snježana Kordić, Lengua y Nacionalismo, Madrid, Euphonía Ediciones, 2014, http://www.euphoniaediciones.com/plataforma/libros/lengua-y-nacionalismo-17-89-22-1-1, 22, 978-84-936668-8-0] (in Spanish)

Evil

“Big Dams are to a nation's 'development' what nuclear bombs are to its military arsenal. They're both weapons of mass destruction. They're both weapons governments use to control their own people. Both twentieth-century emblems that mark a point in time when human intelligence has outstripped its own instinct for survival. They're both malignant indications of a civilization turning upon itself. They represent the severing of the link, not just the link -- the understanding-- between human beings and the planet they live on. They scramble the intelligence that connects eggs to hens, milk to cows, food to forests, water to rivers, air to life, and the earth to human existence.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

The Greater Common Good May, 1999 http://www.narmada.org/gcg/gcg.html. Articles

Life, People, Food, Intelligence

“Austria had become the second German state in fact, because there German culture, now homeless in its old home, found a new country. The more violent the opposition to German National-Socialism, the more justified became the Austrian claim to be the representatives of the now homeless German culture and of the higher values of Germanism. To all intents and purposes Weimar had been exiled from the Third Reich and had found its home in Vienna.”

Kurt Schuschnigg (1897–1977) Chancellor of Austria

Source: The Brutal Takeover: The Austrian ex-Chancellor’s account of the Anschluss of Austria by Hitler, 1971, p. 44

Home, Country

“And I hope you will join me — I hope you will join me in expressing thanks to one American for the strength and calm and comfort she brings to our nation in crisis, our First Lady, Laura Bush.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2000s, 2002, State of the Union address (January 2002)

Hope

“Were a stranger to drop on a sudden into this world, I would show him, as a specimen of its ills, a hospital full of diseases, a prison crowded with malefactors and debtors, a field of battle strewed with carcasses, a fleet foundering in the ocean, a nation languishing under tyranny, famine, or pestilence. To turn the gay side of life to him, and give him a notion of its pleasures; whither should I conduct him? to a ball, to an opera, to court? He might justly think, that I was only showing him a diversity of distress and sorrow.”

David Hume book Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Demea to Philo, Part X
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779)

Life, Pleasure, World, Disease

“What should be the profession of faith of a sound but reasonable Imperialist? He will not be possessed with any secret desire to see the whole of Africa or of Asia painted red on the maps. He will entertain not only a moral dislike, but also a political mistrust of that excessive earth-hunger, which views with jealous eyes the extension of other and neighbouring European nations. He will have no fear of competition. He will believe that, in the treatment of subject races, the methods of government practised by England, though sometimes open to legitimate criticism, are superior, morally and economically, to those of any other foreign nation; and that, strong in the possession and maintenance of those methods, we shall be able to hold our own against all competitors.”

Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer (1841–1917) British diplomat

Political and Literary Essays, 1908-1913

Hunger, Secret, Fear, Faith

“Finns live in smaller homes than Americans and consume a lot less. They spend relatively little on national defense, though they still have universal male conscription, and it is popular. Their per capita national income is about 30 percent lower than ours. Private consumption of goods and services represents about 52 percent of Finland's economy, and 71 percent of the United States'. Finns pay considerably higher taxes — nearly half their income — while Americans pay about 30 percent on average to federal, state and local governments.”

Robert G. Kaiser (1943) American journalist

2000s, "Why can't we be more like Finland?" (2005)

Home, Universe

“All free peoples are deeply impressed by the courage and steadfastness of the Greek nation.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States

Letter to King George of Greece (5 December 1940)
1940s

People, Courage

“And finally, it is truly fitting that I bring this message to an event held under the auspices of the United Nations. The UN does so much to alleviate suffering and disadvantage amongst women throughout the world, not least in peace building efforts in fractured states and societies, where violence against women and girls is horrific in both its nature and scale.”

David Morrison (1956) Australian army general

Address at the International Women's Day Conference (2013)

Women, World, Peace, Girl

“About the Bofors issue: He (Rajiv Gandhi) said that he was quite ready to get all the details regarding payments to Indian nationals, but then Bofors Company did not want to violate commercial secrecy as it would affect its future deals. I told Rajiv, as Deface Minister I knew that all arms manufacturers were employing agents and remunerating them under different names. Therefore, it would be unrealistic to think that foreign arms dealers did not have agents. But utmost care should be taken to see that they did not influence our decisions.”

R. Venkataraman (1910–2009) seventh Vice-President of India and the 8th President of India

He had advised Rajiv Gandhi to make a statement in the parliament
Source: Commissions and Omissions by Indian Presidents and Their Conflicts with the Prime Ministers Under the Constitution: 1977-2001, p. 143.

Thinking, Decision, Future

“National loyalty is founded in the love of place, of the customs and traditions that have been inscribed in the landscape and of the desire to protect these good things through a common law and a common loyalty.”

Roger Scruton (1944–2020) English philosopher

England and the Need for Nations (2006)

Love, Law, Loyalty

“In the past eight years, failed policies have caused our country to deteriorate. Our rights have been trampled, and our security threatened. We are weaker by almost every measure. We are on the wrong path. That is clear even to someone who was not even born here. I came to the United States from Rome, Italy in 1985. I followed all the rules, and finally became a naturalized citizen in 1996. Others who want to come to the U. S. to live and work should follow the same rules. We are a nation of laws for a reason. There should be no shortcuts for those who don’t want to pay or wait”

Antonio Sabàto Jr. (1972) American actor and model

Speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention (July 18, 2016)

Law, Nature, Waiting, Past

“Some men who are not real men love other things about themselves, but the real man believes that his honor is dearer than his life; and a nation is merely all of us put together, and the nation's honor is dearer than the nation's comfort and the nation's peace and the nation's life itself.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

Speech in Cleveland http://books.google.com/books?id=o3j10P6YFZIC&pg=PA1090&dq=%22nation's+honor+is+dearer+than+the+nation's+comfort%22 (January 1916) 1910s

Love, Life, Men, Peace

“We knew that we had created a new means of warfare, and the question as to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else. We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through, and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured.”

Wernher von Braun (1912–1977) German, later an American, aerospace engineer and space architect

Press statement after surrendering to U.S. Forces (May 1945)

People, World, Question, Decision

“June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, on behalf of the Virginia delegation, submitted to the Continental Congress three resolutions, of which the first declared that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. This resolution, which may conveniently be called the Resolution of Independence, was finally voted by the Continental Congress on the 2 of July, 1776. Strictly speaking, this was the official declaration of independence; and if we were a nation of antiquaries we should no doubt find an incongruity in celebrating the anniversary of our independence on the 4 of July.”

Carl L. Becker (1873–1945) American historian

The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas (1922)

“Borders are always dictated by the strong, never by the weak.… We simply consider it as a legitimate right and interest of the Serb nation to live in one state. This is the beginning and the end.… If we have to fight, by God we are going to fight. I hope that they will not be so crazy as to fight against us. If we do not know how to work properly or run an economy, at least we know how to fight properly.”

Slobodan Milošević (1941–2006) Yugoslavian and Serbian politician

Remarks at a meeting with Serb leaders (16 March 1991), as quoted in Doder and Branson (1999) Milosevic: Portrait of a Tyrant

God, Hope, Strong, Fight

“Going back to the most ancient times, national well-being, the national prestige depended on territory. The more territory a country had, the more income revenue there was, the more people there were to be mobilized for arms strength. So we had an enormous sense of territorial conflict and territorial integrity, and that was unquestionably a part of the cause of war, coupled with the fact that there was a disposition in that direction by the landed class, a disposition to think of territorial acquisition and territorial defense and to think of the peasantry as a superior form of livestock which could be used for arms purposes.”

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat

Booknotes interview (1994)

War, People, Thinking, Sense

“Into a world unknown,—the corner-stone of a nation.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Courtship of Miles Standish

Part V; referring to Plymouth Rock
The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858)

World

“Fascism... was the socialism of ‘proletarian nations.”

A. James Gregor (1929–2019) American political scientist

Source: The Faces of Janus: Marxism and Fascism in the Twentieth Century, (2000), p. 135

“The university is being called upon to educate previously unimagined numbers of students; to respond to the expanding claims of national service; to merge its activities with industry as never before. Characteristic of this transformation is the growth of the knowledge industry, which is coming to permeate government and business, and to draw into it more and more people raised to higher and higher levels of skill. The production, distribution and consumption of knowledge is said to account for 29 percent of gross national product, and knowledge production is growing at about twice the rate of the rest of the economy. What the railroads did for the second half of the last century, and the automobile for the first half of this century, may be done for the second half of this century by the knowledge industry; and that is, to serve as the focal point for national growth.”

Clark Kerr (1911–2003) American academic

David Lance Goines, 1993, The Free Speech Movement: Coming of Age in the 1960's, Ten Speed Press, p. 49.

People, Education, Business, Knowledge

“To insist on racial divisions, on racial differences, in an already divided people, is to place obstacles in the way of public and individual happiness, which can only be obtained by bringing people together as a nation.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

My Race (1893)

Happiness, People, Way

“It is not part of the functions of the national government to find employment for people — and if we were to appropriate a hundred millions for this purpose, we should be taxing forty millions of people to keep a few thousand employed.”

James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)

To B. A. Hinsdale in 1874, as quoted in The Life and Letters of James Abram Garfield: 1831-1877 (1925) by Theodore Clarke Smith, p. 517
1870s

People, Parting

“The hayseeds think we are like the Indians to the National Government—that is, sort of wards of the State, who don’t know how to look after ourselves and have to be taken care of by the Republicans of St. Lawrence, Ontario, and other backwoods counties. p. 21”

George Washington Plunkitt (1842–1924) New York State Senator

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 5, New York City Is Pie for the Hayseeds

Thinking

“I have supported the President in his efforts to disarm Saddam Hussein. I think Iraq poses a threat to the region; he poses a threat to our interests both abroad and here at home. And, I think it is important for the President to build support among our allies, to build support at the UN for what he's doing, but that face is that Saddam Hussein over last 11 years has refused to obey 16 UN resolutions. He is a megalomaniac. He's been a threat to his own people. And we can't negotiate with him in the same way that we've been able to negotiate with the heads of other opposing nations.”

Jeanne Shaheen (1947) American politician

2002 U.S. Senate Debate, October 2002 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8_Mx4bqxhE

People, Way, Home, Support

“Although I am still in favour of a National Government in these difficult times, and shall probably be found in the great majority of cases in the Government Lobby, there are some issues that have arisen, or are likely to arise, upon which I am unable to give the Government the support which it has, perhaps, the right to expect from those receiving the Government Whip. It occurs to me, therefore, that it would perhaps be more satisfactory if I was no longer regarded as being among the supporters of the present Administration.”

Harold Macmillan (1894–1986) British politician

"Mr H. Macmillan M.P.", The Times, 8 July 1936, p. 8.
Letter written on 29 June 1936 resigning the Government whip.
1920s-1950s

Support, Time

“In the end it's the big picture which changes nations and whatever our opponents may say, Australia's changed inexorably for good, for the better.”

Paul Keating (1944) Australian politician, 24th Prime Minister of Australia

Concession Speech, March 2, 1996.

Change

“An independent nation cannot function without its own national language. That English should be replaced by our own language as a patriotic necessity. But so far as University education is concerned at any rate, it appears prudent to delay the change-over until our linguistic consolidation has proceeded further and our own languages have become more adequately equipped with the machinery of modern learning,- encyclopedias, dictionaries, reference books, treatises, text books, and a widely intelligible vocabulary of technical terms of modern science … the most elaborate code of ethical conduct that anyone could draw up cannot go much beyond the simple exhortation of The Upanishad’s Satyam vada, Dharmam cara [speak the truth, act nobly]. These should be the watch-words of our public and private life.”

Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar (1919–1974) Indian writer

In his convocation address at the Sri Venkateshwara University, at Tirupathi, quoted in "Jayachamaraja Wodeyar – A Princely scholar".

Life, Truth, Books, Education

“I wish luck to you and your nation that loves you as the election results we can see testify.”

Silvio Berlusconi (1936) Italian politician

On Alexander Lukashenko, as quoted in Results of the official visit of Silvio Berlusconi to Belarus at belarus.by (1 December 2009) the official website of the Republic of Belarus http://www.belarus.by/en/press-center/news/results-of-the-official-visit-of-silvio-berlusconi-to-belarus_i_0000000549.html 2009

Love

“I hope there will be stability and security in all parts of Iraq and neighboring Arab countries. I hope there will be national unity in Iraq by forgetting the past and looking for the future.”

Abdul Rahman Arif (1916–2007) President and Prime Minister of Iraq

As quoted in anon (August 25, 2007), Abdel-Rahman Aref, 91, Former Iraqi President, Is Dead http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/25/world/middleeast/25aref.html?ref=world, The New York Times.

Hope, Past, Future, Parting

“At its heart, the libertarian message is an American message. We love our country, we care for our neighbors, and we want everyone to be happy, healthy and prosperous. We want people to be free to raise their children in peace. We’re only different because we’re not afraid to stand by the principles upon which our nation was founded. We’re only different because we believe, as our Founding Fathers did, that individual initiative and creativity, and voluntary cooperation and mutual assistance among people is best way to solve any problem or overcome any difficulty we face.”

R. Lee Wrights (1958–2017) American gubernatorial candidate

" Libertarians Can Make a Difference by Being Different http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=7323," Liberty For All (8 February 2012, retrieved 25 February 2012). Republished http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2012/02/lee-wrights-libertarians-can-make-a-difference-by-being-different/ by Independent Political Report (18 February 2012). 2012

Love, Happiness, Children, People

“What was centrally new about Christ … was His willingness to sacrifice, in the interest of non-resistant love, all other forms of human solidarity, including the legitimate national interests of the chosen people. The Jews had been told that in Abraham all the nations would be blessed and had understood this promise as the vindication of their nationalism. Jesus revealed that the contrary was the case: the universality of God's kingdom contradicts rather than confirms all particular solidarities and can be reached only by first forsaking the old aeon.”

John Howard Yoder (1927–1997) 20th century American Mennonite theologian

The Original Revolution (1971), p. 58

Love, God, People, Universe

“Freud, Galileo and Darwin told us, at different times and in different ways, that we are not the center of the universe; that we do not have control; that we do not fully understand our motivations; that we are not all that special. They did not have an easy time of it—for each society wants to believe that it can exercise control over its own destiny and over others. I suspect their findings apply not just to science or personal behavior, but to the way power and leverage can be exercised by nation states. Yours, I suspect, will be the first generation which will have to achieve results with neither military nor economic predominance—no matter where you sit.”

Eugene Rotberg (1930)

Informal remarks, University of Pennsylvania Law School. http://www.generotberg.com/speeches/2000s/Selected-from-Remarks-Penn-Law-092206.html, 2006

Way, Behavior, Exercises, Motivation

“Our nation is becoming a totalitarian state and unless we rise up to defend our rights, they will be lost forever.”

Jayda Fransen (1986) British political activist

Islamists who want to behead gays are fine, Polish citizens are deported! · Jayda's Soapbox (27 February 2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gerFRHjJizE

“Streit, Okposo, Tavares, Moulson and Hunter… Hunter for Moulson, it hopped over his stick, Moulson got it back, couldn't control, then THEY SCORE! It's Tavares! John Tavares picked up the loose puck, and fires home his first National Hockey League goal! A power play goal, and the Islanders lead it 2 to 1! How about THAT for fast hands?”

Howie Rose (1954) American sports announcer

October 3, 2009 - Pittsburgh Penguins at New York Islanders, the season and home-ice opener for the Islanders, and the debut of the Isles' first overall draft pick in the 2009 NHL Draft, John Tavares. Mark Eaton of the defending Stanley Cup Champion Penguins was penalized 2 minutes for hooking. Rose set up this 2nd period power play for the Isles.
2009

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