Favourite quote from history

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Joined: 6 Mar 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 216

16 Mar 2007, 4:07 pm

Mine has to be "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" by Joseph Oppenheimer after the detonation of the atom bomb :roll:

IcelandicGuy
Blue Jay

Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 84
Location: Reykjavik

16 Mar 2007, 6:40 pm

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
Edmund Burke

matt271
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 27 Jan 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 982
Location: Australia

16 Mar 2007, 7:02 pm

Veni, vidi, vici, or i came, i saw, i conquered

Natalie
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 14 Mar 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 61
Location: SF Bay Area/UC Davis, California

16 Mar 2007, 7:04 pm

The one in my signature.

_________________
"I would not say the future is necessarily less predictable than the past. I think the past was not predictable when it started."
~ Donald Rumsfeld

ARW_AS
Sea Gull

Joined: 21 Mar 2006
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 221
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland

16 Mar 2007, 7:10 pm

Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Winston Churchill

Wouldn't mind getting tapes of his speeches, so I could get a feel for the passion that can't be read in the words.

Flagg
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 8 Nov 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,399
Location: Western US

16 Mar 2007, 7:57 pm

Quote:

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the
sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of
their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and
thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered;
yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict,
the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem
too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would
be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be
highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has
declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in
ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is not
slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even
the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only
to God.

Thomas Paine

TheMachine1
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Veteran

Joined: 11 Jun 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,011
Location: 9099 will be my last post...what the hell 9011 will be.

16 Mar 2007, 8:50 pm

Quote:

1944, December 29. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe recounting the German demand to surrender Bastogne, Belgium, which was held by the 101st Airborne Division against overwhelming odds, and his reply. "Nuts!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_McAuliffe

beaker
Pileated woodpecker

Joined: 17 Feb 2007
Age: 52
Gender: Male
Posts: 176
Location: Connecticut, United States

16 Mar 2007, 9:34 pm

Quote:

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his

George S. Patton

Quote:

Happiness is wanting what you have, not having what you want.

Unknown, I remember a song having something along those lines, I've seen it around but I've never seen a name.

_________________
Just Plain Strange.

CockneyRebel
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Veteran

Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Posts: 116,798
Location: In my little Olympic World of peace and love

16 Mar 2007, 9:42 pm

"It's not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country"! JFK- 1962

javajunkie80
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 9 Mar 2007
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Posts: 58
Location: QLD, Australia

16 Mar 2007, 10:01 pm

In 1941, our Australian Prime Minister John Curtin, declared in a speech that

"Without any inhibitions of any kind, I make it quite clear that Australia turns to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kindship with the United Kingdom"

I love this quote because it is signicant to a strong turn in Australia's history. After having thousands of men sacrificed in WWII by Britain, Australia finally decided that our ties to Britain were not strong enough to have so many of us slaughtered at the hands of a nation who thought us no better than the petty theives and convincts that they'd sent to the penal colonies over 100 years earlier. Our nation was doing more than its fair share of supporting the war effort, and even though we ended up being screwed by the US as well, the damage to Australia-Britain relations was already done.

TG
Toucan
Toucan

Joined: 30 Dec 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 284
Location: The mighty rivers of BC

16 Mar 2007, 10:13 pm

"I can't mate in captivity."

-Katharine Hepburn

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There are no stupid questions?

T-rav20
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Joined: 5 Jan 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,848
Location: South Jersey

17 Mar 2007, 12:13 am

Leonidas I wrote:

"Μολὼν λαβέ"

Wikipedia wrote:

Molon Labe was the response of King Leonidas I of Sparta to Xerxes I of Persia at the onset of the Battle of Thermopylae. Xerxes, whose forces vastly outnumbered the Spartans and their allies, offered to spare the lives of Leonidas and his few thousand defenders if only they would lay down their weapons. Instead, the Spartans held Thermopylae for three days and, while they died to the last man, they inflicted serious damage on the Persian army, delaying it and essentially preventing the conquest of the Greek Peninsula.

When he uttered this response Leonidas was completely aware that he and all his men were doomed. Leonidas had known this since before leaving Sparta. So his response "Μολὼν λαβέ" might best be rendered into English as "After you finish coming here (we will be dead) then you can take our weapons."

_________________
Ceterum autem censeo, Carthaginem esse delendam

The following statement is True, the preceding statement was False.

I'm A PINEY from my head down to my HINEY.

jimservo
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Veteran

Joined: 11 Jun 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,964
Location: Philadelphia Suburbs

17 Mar 2007, 11:15 am

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it..." -Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence

Aspie1
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Joined: 7 Mar 2005
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Posts: 6,749
Location: United States

17 Mar 2007, 12:43 pm

"If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert."
David ben Gurion, First Prime Minister of Israel.

Note: "ben" is Hebrew for "son of"; it is not a middle name. (the female equivalent is "bat" [baht])

Theory
Snowy Owl

Joined: 12 Jan 2007
Age: 31
Gender: Female
Posts: 127
Location: Florida, USA

17 Mar 2007, 12:49 pm

"If a country is not worth protecting, it is not worth claiming." -George Rogers Clark

lau
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Veteran

Joined: 17 Jun 2006
Age: 75
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,785
Location: Somerset UK

17 Mar 2007, 3:24 pm

"Never Whistle While You're Pissing" Hagbard Celine.

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