Favorite Historic Quotes

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Grandpa

Grandpa

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Mar 2, 2014
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Houdini said:
Captain Robert Lewis co-pilot of the Enola Gay:

"As the bomb fell over Hiroshima and exploded, we saw an entire city disappear. I wrote in my log the words: "My God, what have we done?""

Houdini in Omaha
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Bringing to mind what Oppenheimer thought at the Trinity test, words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
- Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address

"I have not yet begun to fight!" - John Paul Jones after his ship was ripped by the gunfire of the Serapis.
"There's always some son of a b!+ch who doesn't get the word," muttered by a Marine sniper in the Bon Homme Richard's rigging.

(Interesting historical factoid: Captain Jones named the Bon Homme Richard to honor Benjamin Franklin, author of Poor Richard's Almanac.)
 
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Houdini

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Aug 15, 2014
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Grandpa said:
Bringing to mind what Oppenheimer thought at the Trinity test, words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
- Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address

"I have not yet begun to fight!" - John Paul Jones after his ship was ripped by the gunfire of the Serapis.
"There's always some son of a b!+ch who doesn't get the word," muttered by a Marine sniper in the Bon Homme Richard's rigging.

(Interesting historical factoid: Captain Jones named the Bon Homme Richard to honor Benjamin Franklin, author of Poor Richard's Almanac.)
Click to expand...

General George Armstrong Custer - “On to Little Big Horn for glory. We've caught them napping.”

Houdini in Omaha
 
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Flat Matt

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Apr 16, 2014
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As a brit, I couldn't possibly post on a historic quotes thread without including this one.

“We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the 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.
 
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Walter Oobleck

Walter Oobleck

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I knew he was in deep doo-doo when I heard him say it on camera, "I'm in charge here."
General Haig on the day Reagan was shot. I thought, okay, this was the guy, Vietnam, this that the other. But then, I knew Dan, who worked in the Pentagon, and told stories. You got the sound of the Korframs squelching as you walk a corridor, the lights overhead, office doors, and you pass some beady-little man with scrambled eggs, lot of gold, coffee cup in hand, Korframs squelching the only noise as you pass and you feel the eyes on your back as you continue on toward your destination. Sleep well.
 
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GNTLGNT

GNTLGNT

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Jun 15, 2007
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Flat Matt said:
As a brit, I couldn't possibly post on a historic quotes thread without including this one.

“We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the 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.
Click to expand...
...found this interesting...
 
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Flat Matt

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Apr 16, 2014
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You could always rely on Churchill for a good quote. Here are a few more that I like.

“When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.”

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

"We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

“If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last.”

“If you are going through hell, keep going.”

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

And I love this one:

Lady Astor: “Winston, if I were your wife I’d put poison in your coffee.”

Winston Churchill: “Nancy, if I were your husband I’d drink it.”
 
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AnnaMarie

AnnaMarie

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Feb 16, 2012
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"
Americans should never underestimate the constant pressure on Canada which the mere presence of the United States has produced. We're different people from you and we're different people because of you. Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is effected by every twitch and grunt. It should not therefore be expected that this kind of nation, this Canada, should project itself as a mirror image of the United States. "
- Pierre Trudeau
 
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A

Autumn Gust

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Sep 20, 2012
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Flat Matt said:
As a brit, I couldn't possibly post on a historic quotes thread without including this one.

“We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the 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.
Click to expand...
My husband really admires Churchill; that's why our son's middle name is Winston. :smile2: Churchill's six-volume history of WWII is enshrined in our family bookcase.
 
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Houdini

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"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, "Peace! Peace!" -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"
Patrick Henry - March 23, 1775

Houdini in Omaha
 
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