Quotes from History

[F.W 5,655]

What are your most moving or stirring quotes,made by anyone from History?Please can we keep this to REAL characters or situations only,start a movie one of your own by all means....i like tons of movie quotes myself....

You can give it word for word,or kind of paraphrase it,for brevity.There are obviously hundreds,if not thousands.

One of mankinds most stirringly defiant must be that of Churchill,to the Empire just after Dunkirk.

In it,he basically is kind of goading Hitler to try invade."Hitler knows he must break us in this island-or lose the war"..then ends with,"even if the British Empire should last for a thousand years,they will still say,THIS was their finest hour!"....Britains Army in tatters,yet the tone of defiance,Churchill more or less saying"come and have a go if you think youre hard enough!".Knowing full well,Hitler neither had the capacity to send so much as a canoe across the Channel,let alone an Army,or indeed,the guts to do so.Thus ultimately,losing him the war.Hitler was a right old woman indeed...

Stirring stuff...

 

[2prnot2p 1,071]

Hey Fannywatcher.  This is a great topic.  There have been so many throughout history.  It's hard to decide which ones are most prolific.  I'd have to say that my top two are:

"There's a sucker born every minute!" - P.T. Barnum

"All religion is bunk!" - Thomas Edison

[WantonLee 823]

"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."

- Henry Ford

 

An old statement, but still nothing has changed. If you take a closer look the actual banking crisis -  starting in 2008 - you might find it is in fact the same crisis that happend in the early 20th century, culminating in WWII. It is inded very important that no one questions the monetary system... because the last president that did ... well lets just not question the official version that the commies are behind his death, so we won't share his fate. 😉

[F.W 5,655]

"Give me liberty,or give me death"

 

This was uttered by an American politician,Patrick Henry,during a debate whether or not Virginia should raise troops to fight against the British during the Revolutionary War.He gave this speech and the debate was carried,troops were raised and the rest is history.Britain eventually lost its colony in the Americas.

This is a very pertinent statement today,when all over governments are trying more and more to erode our freedoms,on the pretext of community cohesion...

Edited November 4, 2018 by fannywatcher

[steve25805 121,382]

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Martin Luther King Jr

[steve25805 121,382]

"All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing."

Edmund Burke

[steve25805 121,382]

We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender,

Winston Churchill, 1940

[steve25805 121,382]

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Franklin D Roosevelt

[steve25805 121,382]

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

Abraham Lincoln

[steve25805 121,382]

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

Winston Churchill, 1940

[steve25805 121,382]

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

Napoleon Bonaparte

[Guest UnabashedUser]

"What you see here started here" -- General Douglas MacArthur, Governor of Japan (on bronze plaque at the Peace Park in Nagasaki, Japan)

[F.W 5,655]

There was also a quote by Lincoln,that went something like:"All the armies of Europe could not get a drink from the Ohio river"

He was addressing how he felt the unity of the USA should not be split by the civil war.

[F.W 5,655]

A phrase by General Cota,then of the 29th Division on D-Day(he later commanded the 28th Div),upon finding his men pinned down,being killed by heavy resistance on Omaha beach,unable to really move out of their scant cover,suffering heavy losses,he decided to take charge and get his men out of it,and move off the beach inland.

"Only two kinds of men are staying on this beach-those that are dead,and those that are gonna die!"

I guess,reminding them that they are soldiers,and if you dont die here now,maybe tomorrow you will die.You have to take action.

Then within minutes he organised a team of engineers to destroy some defences and steeled his men to charge their way off the beach.

Incorrect!I was going by Robert Mitchum in "the Longest Day".In fact,this wasnt Cota,but the regimental commander,a Colonel Taylor,who uttered those stirring words.Sorry..

Edited November 25, 2018 by F.W
incorrect

[F.W 5,655]

How can we omit Lincolns "Gettysburg address"?

I cant quote it,but its only 269 words.It was over so quickly that photographers,using the cameras of the time,couldnt even get picture of him giving the speech.

Yet it says so much about the nature of civilisation.That the reason 20,000 men have died here,was not to be ever forgotten.Fighting and giving your life to ensure that freedom of speech,and freedom of all the things we take for granted,will not be taken away.

"Government of the people,by the people,and for the people,shall not perish from the earth".