Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quoteShare via Email Print this Page Daily Quotes Archives2002-06-25 Jun 25, 2002The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history...the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it. Put it into the cold words of everyday. The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination -- that government of the people, by the people, for the people, should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves.~ H. L. Mencken Jun 24, 2002European merchants supply the best weaponry, contributing to their own defeat.~ SaladinA nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it.~ Sir Winston ChurchillThe Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.~ Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Jun 21, 2002He who dares not offend cannot be honest.~ Thomas PaineThe most formidable weapons against errors of every kind is reason. I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall.~ Thomas PaineWhen men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.~ Thomas Paine Jun 20, 2002If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.~ Henry David ThoreauThe ugliness of bigotry stands in direct contradiction to the very meaning of America.~ Hubert H. Humphrey Jun 19, 2002The concept of military necessity is seductively broad, and has a dangerous plasticity. Because they invariably have the visage of overriding importance, there is always a temptation to invoke security "necessities" to justify an encroachment upon civil liberties. For that reason, the military-security argument must be approached with a healthy skepticism.~ Justice William J. Brennan Previous week's quotes Next week's quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print