James Stoddard

LIST OF QUOTATIONS USED IN LIBERTY BELL AND THE LAST AMERICAN

In writing this novel, I have used a number of quotations, modifying them only when necessary for the sake of natural dialogue.  The original versions are listed below.  One of the first quotations I discovered was by Winston Churchill: “It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.  The quotations, when engraved upon the memory, give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.” Though I have some education, I found his words applicable.  Reading the quotations of the American Founders and others is a broadening experience.  Many can easily be found on the internet.

CHAPTER ONE

“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”  Joseph Hoover to James Stewart, in the movie: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck.

“We cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty if we expect our Republic permanently to endure.”   Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt

“One if by land, two if by sea . . .” From the poem Paul Revere’s Ride by the American poet, Henry W. Longfellow.  The mention in this book of an attack by air was my own invention.   

“Avoid gaming. This is a vice which is productive of every possible evil; equally injurious to the morals and health of its votaries. It is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and father of mischief.”  George Washington

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing.”  Oscar Wilde

 “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”  Source uncertain but spoken at the Battle of Bunker Hill and attributed to various Americans. 

CHAPTER TWO

“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”  Thomas Jefferson

“I will fight you in the field!  I will fight you in the—”  An abbreviated bit of the stirring speech by Winston Churchill during the Second World War, part of which says: “We shall go onto 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, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the old.”   The bulldog, Church Hill, quotes some of this in a later chapter.

CHAPTER THREE

“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”  Attributed to various sources, but this version is from Edmund Burke.  (1729-1797)

“. . . melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”  Slogan for M&Ms, Mars Incorporated.

“Out of the Many, One.”  Translation of E pluribus unum, Latin phrase on the Seal of the United States.

CHAPTER FOUR

“Be sincere, be brief, be seated.” Franklin Roosevelt

“I have never been drunk or in the slightest degree under the influence of liquor.”  Teddy Roosevelt

‘I have returned.  By the grace of Almighty God our forces stand again on Filipino soil, soil consecrated in the blood of our two peoples.  We have come, dedicated and committed, to the task of destroying every vestige of enemy control over your daily lives, and of restoring, upon a foundation of indestructible strength, the liberties of your people.”  General Douglas MacArthur

“To some generations much is given.  Of other generations much is expected.  This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.”  Franklin Roosevelt

“Don’t hit a man at all if you can possibly avoid it, but if you do hit him, put him to sleep.”  Teddy Roosevelt

“Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history.  Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” Teddy Roosevelt

“It is not the critic who counts, but the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming.”  Teddy Roosevelt

“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”  Teddy Roosevelt.  An often-quoted alternate version, which I have used in the book, is ‘Walk softly, but carry a big stick.”  By his own words, Roosevelt was quoting an old saying he picked up in West Africa.  He always used “speak” rather than “walk.”

CHAPTER FIVE

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”  Abraham Lincoln

“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow.  The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”  Abraham Lincoln

“All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.”  Abraham Lincoln

“When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted.  It is an old and true maxim that a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.  So with men.  If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.  Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his reason, and which, once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing him of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause is really a good one.” Abraham Lincoln  This was cut from the manuscript, but it’s a favorite of mine.

“Our cause then must be intrusted (sic) to, and conducted by, its own undoubted friends—those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work—who do care for the result.”  Abraham Lincoln

“In darkest day, in blackest night . . .” The first line of Green Lantern’s oath when recharging his lantern—DC Comics. The rest is of my invention, based on the U. S. Postal service pledge of “Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds,” which in turn is attributed to the Greek historian, Herodotus.

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”  Benjamin Franklin, following the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Many of the signers would lose their property and lives.

CHAPTER SIX

“You are ambitious, which within reasonable bounds does good rather than harm.”  Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to Major General Joseph Hooker.

“Towering genius disdains a beaten path.  It seeks regions hitherto unexplored . . . It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen.”  Abraham Lincoln, warning of the dangers of ambitious tyrants.

“I am exceedingly anxious that the Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original ideas for which that struggle was made; and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle.”  Abraham Lincoln

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.  The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion.  As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew.  We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”  Abraham Lincoln

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”  Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Bhagavad Gita, remembering his thoughts at the testing of the first atomic bomb.

“It has been said that for evil men to accomplish their purpose it is only necessary that good men should do nothing.” Generally attributed to Edward Burke, but original author may be unknown.

“This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties.  A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved.  It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.”  Benjamin Franklin

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”  A paraphrase of a portion of the inaugural address of Franklin Roosevelt. 

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”  Rosa Parks

“A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.”  Martin Luther King

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”  Martin Luther King

“And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field to ponder and dream; And lo! The shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom and the power of the vision pass into their souls.”  Joshua L. Chamberlain, the hero of Little Round Top, speaking at the dedication of the Maine Monument at Gettysburg. This particular quote was in an early draft of the book. I had to cut it because of its length but thought I would include it here.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.”  Benjamin Franklin

“A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at its edges.”  Benjamin Franklin

“Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.”  Winston Churchill.

“Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon.”  Winston Churchill

“You have enemies?  Good.  That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”  Winston Churchill

“It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves.”  Thomas Jefferson

“One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. Never run away from anything. Never!” Winston Churchill

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”  Thomas Jefferson

“I never worry about action, but only inaction.”  Winston Churchill

CHAPTER NINE

“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”  George Washington

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force.  Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”  George Washington

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.”  Winston Churchill

“Errors of opinion may be tolerated where Reason is left free to combat it.”  Thomas Jefferson

“A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”  Thomas Jefferson

“Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.”  Winston Churchill

“He is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.” Thomas Jefferson

“Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.”  Winston Churchill

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”  Thomas Jefferson

“Attitude is the little thing that makes a big difference.”  Winston Churchill

“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”  Winston Churchill

“One man with courage is a majority.” Thomas Jefferson

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal.”  Thomas Jefferson

“I like a man who grins when he fights.”  Winston Churchill

“This is no time for ease and comfort.  It is the time to dare and endure.”  Winston Churchill

“Victory at all costs, victory in spite of terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”  Winston Churchill

“As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun.  While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind.  Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.  Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.”  Thomas Jefferson

“Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.” Winston Churchill 

“He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” Winston Churchill

“The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.”  Winston Churchill

“Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.” Thomas Jefferson

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

“My wife and I tried two or three times in the last forty years to have breakfast together, but it was so disagreeable we had to stop.”  Winston Churchill

“In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity.”  Winston Churchill 

“Death solves all problems.  No man, no problem.”  Joseph Stalin

“One death is a tragedy, one million is a statistic.”  Joseph Stalin

“We shall not flag or fail.  We shall go on to the end.”  Winston Churchill

“We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans.”  Winston Churchill.  He uses other parts of this speech in this chapter.  The entire portion is shown in the notes on Chapter Two.

“When we hang the capitalists, they will sell us the rope we use.”  Joseph Stalin

“Let us therefore brace ourselves for our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say: This was their finest hour.”  Winston Churchill

“Now this is not the end.  It is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”  Winston Churchill, speaking of a turning point in the war.    

CHAPTER TEN

“For happily the Government of America gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that those who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”  George Washington, addressing the Jewish people of Rhode Island, following the Revolutionary War.

“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.” Thomas Jefferson

“I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government.  It is always oppressive.”  Thomas Jefferson

“I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves.  If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”  Thomas Jefferson

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.”  Thomas Jefferson

“That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.”  Thomas Jefferson 

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”  Thomas Jefferson

“. . . what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that the people preserve the spirit of resistance?”  Thomas Jefferson, writing of a rebellion against the United States by citizens in Massachusetts.

“I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on steady advance. . . the art of printing alone, and the vast dissemination of books, will maintain the mind where it is, and raise the conquering ruffians to the level of the conquered, instead of degrading these to that of their conquerors.  And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and liberties of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them.  In short, the flames kindled on the Fourth of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism.  On the contrary they will consume those engines, and all who work them.”  Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to John Adams

“My only fear is that I may live too long.  This would be a subject of dread to me.”  Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to John Adams

“Numi, numi, yaldati, Numi, numi, nim.  Numi, numi k’tanati, Numi, numi nim . . .”  Lyrics from a Jewish lullaby from the land of Israel.  Translated, it is: Sleep, sleep, my little girl, sleep, sleep.  Sleep, sleep, my little one, sleep, sleep.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“I prefer the tumult of liberty over the quiet of servitude.”  Thomas Jefferson

CHAPTER TWELVE

No quotes.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“A pledge is a chain that is always clanking and reminding the wearer of it that he is not a free man.” Mark Twain.

“When one’s character begins to fall under suspicion and disfavor, how swift then, is the work of disintegration and destruction.”  Mark Twain

“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”  Shakespeare

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“I am become Death.” Robert Oppenheimer

“There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled and so abandon war forever.”  Thomas Edison

“I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.”  Thomas Edison

“I am not only a pacifist, but a militant pacifist.  I am willing to fight for peace.”  Albert Einstein 

“A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.”  Albert Einstein

“The only source of knowledge is experience.”  Albert Einstein

“You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.”  Albert Einstein 

“The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight of wonder.”  Albert Einstein

“The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.”  Albert Einstein

“Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.”

“It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.”  Albert Einstein

“Nationalism is an infantile disease.  It is the measles of mankind.”  Albert Einstein

“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.”  Albert Einstein

“Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age.”  Albert Einstein

“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit, and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?”  Albert Einstein

“My young friend and I, however, were engaged in the greatest activity of which man is capable . . . Opening up yet another fragment of the frontier of beauty.”  Albert Einstein, from an article by Jerome Weidman, which first appeared in the November, 1955 Reader’s Digest

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“If the presence of electricity can be made visible in any part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence may not be transmitted instantaneously by electricity.”  Samuel Morse

“Seeming to do is not doing.”  Thomas Edison

“Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent.  Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.”  Thomas Edison

“Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”  Albert Einstein

“Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.”  Thomas Edison

“There is no substitute for hard work.”  Thomas Edison

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”  Albert Einstein  

“I think and think for months and years.  Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false.  The hundredth time I am right.”  Albert Einstein

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”  Albert Einstein  

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”  Albert Einstein

“The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.”  Albert Einstein 

“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”  Albert Einstein

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”  Albert Einstein

“Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.”  Albert Einstein

“Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.”  Albert Einstein

“Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism—how passionately I hate them!”  Albert Einstein 

“Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.”  Albert Einstein

“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”  Albert Einstein

“The road to perdition has ever been accompanied by lip service to an ideal.”  Albert Einstein  

“Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist.  They are wrong: it is character.”  Albert Einstein

“When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second.  When you sit on a red-hot cinder, a second seems like an hour.  That’s relativity.”  Albert Einstein

“The people, Madam, have been pleased, with the most flattering unanimity, to elect me to the Chief magistracy of the United States, but before I can assume the functions of my office, I have come to bid you an affectionate farewell.  So soon as the weight of public business, which must necessarily attend the outset of a new government, can be disposed of, I shall hasten to Virginia, and—” 

            “And you will see me no more; my great age, and the disease which is fast approaching my vitals, warn me that I shall not be long in this world; I trust in God that I may be somewhat prepared for the better.  But go, George, fulfill the high destinies which Heaven appears to have intended for you; go, my son, and may that Heaven’s and a mother’s blessing be with you always.”  George Washington’s words to his mother, and her reply, recorded by his adopted son.

“We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey, and waved good-bye, and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’”  Ronald Reagan, an address delivered from the Oval Office following the Challenger disaster, including lines from the poem High Flight by the American-British aviator and poet, John Gillespie Magee, Jr., who died as the result of a mid-air collision during World War II. 

“Consider how little a drunken man differs from a beast . . . By degrees it renders a person feeble and not only unable to serve others but to help himself; and being an act of his own, he falls from a state of usefulness into contempt, and at length suffers, if not perishes, in penury and want.”  George Washington

“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master.  For this reason mastery demands all of a person.”  Albert Einstein 

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.  Curiosity has its own reasons for existing.”  Albert Einstein 

“You have to learn the rules of the game.  And then you have to play better than anyone else.”  Albert Einstein

“Logic will get you from A to B.  Imagination will take you everywhere.”  Albert Einstein 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Leave it as it is.  You can not improve it.  The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.  What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American, if he can travel at all, should see.”  Teddy Roosevelt, upon seeing the Grand Canyon

“The administration of justice is the firmest pillar of government.”  George Washington

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“The White Men did not kill them (the bison) to eat; they killed them for the yellow metal that made them crazy, and they took only the hides to sell.  Sometimes they did not even take the hides, but only the tongues. . . Sometimes. . . they just killed and killed because they liked to do that.”  Black Elk,  Oglala warrior and priest

“When other soldiers went back for rest and recreation, the native Code Talkers were asked to stay behind. They stayed in battle the whole entire time.  It was an amazing feat.  They were exhausted and they often would go 24 to 35 hours without food or rest.”  Chester Nez, the last Navajo Code Talker, who died June 4, 2014.

“They (the white men), would take everything from each other if they could, and so there were some who had more of everything than they could use, while crowds of people had nothing at all and were maybe starving.”  Black Elk

“For of all the created things or beings in the universe, it is the two-legged people alone, who if they purify and humble themselves, may know the Great Spirit, who is everywhere.”  Black Elk 

“The Great Spirit is everywhere; He hears what is in our minds and our hearts, and it is not necessary to speak to him in a loud voice.”  Black Elk

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”  Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.  According to internet sources, Yamamoto may not have actually said these words, though they may encapsulate his feelings.  He did say:  “A military man can scarcely pride himself on having ‘smitten a sleeping enemy’. . . I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack.” 

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”  Robert Kennedy

“If I could have convinced more slaves that they were slaves, I could have freed thousands more.”  Harriet Tubman

“My hair had never been combed and it stood out like a bushel basket . . . and I expect that there hair saved my life.”  Harriet Tubman, on being struck by an iron weight for refusing to obey a slave owner. 

“I prayed all night long for my master ‘til the first of March, and all the time he was bringing people to look at me and trying to sell me. . . Then I changed my prayer.  First of March, I began to pray ‘Oh, Lord, if you ain’t going to change that man’s heart, kill him, Lord, and take him out of the way!’  But that was a wicked prayer, which I much regret, for he died the next week.  Hate only leads to hate, and his death meant his family could no longer afford to keep my family.”  Harriet Tubman

“I grew up like a neglected weed—ignorant of liberty, having no experience in it.”  Harriet Tubman

“I had reasoned this out in my mind, that there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death: if I could not have one, I would have the other.”  Harriet Tubman

“Quakers almost as good as colored.  They call themselves friends and you can trust them every time.”    Harriet Tubman

“When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person.  There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.” Harriet Tubman

“But I was a stranger in a strange land.  My father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, were in Maryland.  But I was free, and they should be free.”  Harriet Tubman

“And then we saw the lightning and that was the guns, and then we heard the thunder, and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling, and that was the drops of blood falling, and when we came to get the crops, it was dead men that we reaped.”  Harriet Tubman

“I would  fight for my liberty so long as my strength lasted, and if the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.”  Harriet Tubman

“Suppose that was an awful big snake down there on the floor.  He bite you.  Folks all scared, because you die.  You send for a doctor to cut the bite; but the snake, he rolled up there, and while the doctor doing it, he bite you again.  The doctor dug out that bite; but while the doctor doing it, the snake, he spring up and bite you again; so he keep doing it, till you kill him.  That’s what master Lincoln ought to know.”  Harriet Tubman

“Never wound a snake; kill it.”  Harriet Tubman

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer.  Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”  Harriet Tubman

“Much that you have done would seem improbable, to those who do not know you as I know you.”  Frederick Douglass, a letter to Harriet Tubman.

“I go to prepare a place for you.”  Harriet Tubman’s dying words.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  John Adams

CHAPTER TWENTY

“The man who dies leaving behind him millions of available wealth, which was his to administer during life, will pass away “unwept, unhonored, and unsung,” no matter to what uses he leaves the dross which he cannot take with him. Of such as these the public verdict will then be: ‘The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.,” Andrew Carnegie

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined.  Those which are to remain in the state government are numerous and indefinite.”  James Madison

“Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”  Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, though neither Norad nor Liberty knew the quote’s source at the time.  

“. . . whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.”  Thomas Jefferson and James Madison

“Of the people, by the people, for the people.”  Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

“To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.”  Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“Until this moment, Senator, I think I have never truly gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. . . Have you no sense of decency, sir?  At long last, have you left no sense of decency.”  Attorney Joseph Welsh. Welsh was referring to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s accusation of Communist sympathies on the part of Fred Fisher, a young lawyer in Welsh’s employ.  Welsh’s speech was the beginning of the end of McCarthy’s witch-hunt.

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free . . .” from the poem New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, the last lines of which are inscribed on a plaque inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty

“Loose lips sink ships.”  A phrase created by the War Advertising Council and used on posters by the United States Office of War Information during World War II. 

“With great power comes great responsibility.”  Not Stan Lee, as many might suppose; usually attributed to Voltaire.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” Often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, various sources disagree on the exact origin.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 

“I am not a crook.”  Richard Nixon

“I played by the rules of politics as I found them.”  Richard Nixon

“I gave ‘em a sword; and they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish.  And I guess if I had been in their position, I’d have done the same thing.”  Richard Nixon

“The consideration that human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected, will always continue to prompt me to promote the progress of the former, by inculcating the practice of the latter.” George Washington

“Truth will ultimately prevail when there is pains to bring it to light.”  George Washington

“I can see clearly now… that I was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate.”  Richard Nixon, following his resignation.

“Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.”  George Washington

“You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore. . .”  Richard Nixon

“The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.”  Richard Nixon

“A man is not finished when he is defeated; he is finished when he quits.”  Richard Nixon

“We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything.”  Thomas Edison

“As I have said many times, God doesn’t play dice with the world.”  Albert Einstein

“Anyone who sees and paints a sky green and a field blue ought to be sterilized.”  Adolph Hitler

“I see no reason why man should not be just as cruel as nature.” Adolph Hitler. 

“It is not by the principles of humanity that man lives or is able to preserve himself above the animal world, but solely by means of the most brutal struggle.”  Adolph Hitler

“Humanitarianism is the expression of stupidity and cowardice.”  Adolph Hitler

“All propaganda must be popular and accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those it seeks to reach.”  Adolph Hitler 

“How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think.”  Adolph Hitler 

“Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see Paradise as Hell, or. . . to consider the most wretched sort of life as Paradise.”   Adolph Hitler 

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually everyone will believe it.”   Adolph Hitler

“Great liars are also great magicians.”  Adolph Hitler

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“He can never die in battle.”  An Indian chief, identity uncertain, speaking of General Washington in a battle during the French and Indian War, a story reported by Dr. Craik (a longtime friend of Washington’s) to Washington’s step-grandson. 

“I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.”  Thomas Edison

“Nuts!”  Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, a written response to the Germans’ demand for surrender of the town of Bastogne during World War II.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

No quotes.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

No quotes.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“Let there be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan’s power to make war.”  Harry S. Truman, in his address to the American people announcing the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the Republic.”  Ben Franklin

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“On the subject of the history of the American revolution, you ask Who shall write it?  Who can write it?  And who ever will be able to write it?  Nobody; except merely it’s external facts.  All it’s councils, designs, and discussions, having been conducted by Congress with closed doors, and no member, as far as I know, having even made notes of them, these, which are the life and soul of history must for ever be unknown.”   Thomas Jefferson, a letter to John Adams.

“Our entire much-praised technological progress, and civilization generally, could be compared to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal.”  Albert Einstein

“Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”  Albert Einstein

“But from the standpoint of daily life, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other—above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.  Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.”  Albert Einstein

“I find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.”  Thomas Edison 

 “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, (sic) promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.”  The Preamble to the United States Constitution