famous words

[Thorvald of Lym]

This is an excerpt from Gustave Gilbert's interview with Hermann Göring during the Nuremberg Trials of 1946:

Göring: "Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

Gilbert: "There is one difference," I pointed out, "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

Göring: "Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

 

[Trafalgar]

"Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times".

A quote from the great man himself, Winston Churchill.

 

[History_Buff]

We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you know, everyone you love, everyone you've ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines. Every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish this pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

A reminder that in the grand scheme of things, Humanity is far less signifigant than most of us would like to believe.

 

[Hornblower]

NUTS!

- Gen Anthony C. McAuliffe

When offered surrender by his German counterpart during the Siege of Bastogne.



"Never were so few, commanded by so many, from so far away."

- An unknown GI during the Battle at Kasserine Pass

 

[DAv2003]

"I am the scurge of God. For if you had not sinned, God would not have sent me to punish you." - Not sure but I believe this one is Ghengis Khan

"A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths, a statistic." - Josef Stalin

"Death solves all problems - no man, no problem."

"To choose one's victims, to prepare one's plans minutely, to slake implacable vengeance, and then go to bed... there is nothing sweeter in the World." - Josef Stalin

 

[Plotinus]

It's Attila the Hun who's supposed to have claimed to have been the scourge of God.

 

[Verbose]

NUTS!

- Gen Anthony C. McAuliffe

When offered surrender by his German counterpart during the Siege of Bastogne.

I believe it's generally recognised that his actual word was... sanitized... into "Nuts!" for official quoting purposes.

Otherwise there's the prior historical recorded use of an explecative by the commanders of Napoleon's Old Guard at the battle of Waterloo, when asked to surrender:

"Merde!"
- General Pierre Cambronne.

It became known as "Cambronne's word" in France afterwards. Again, just like with "Nuts!", there has been retrospective discussion as to who said exactly what, to whom, when.

 

[Kyriakos]

Some other quotes:

Μη μου τους κύκλους τάραττε" (do not disturb my circles). Said to have been spoken by Archimedes during the fall of Syracuse to the romans, when a roman soldier stepped over the sand he was still drawing shapes upon and working on his calculations.

"I will speak to my Lord in latin, to my women in french, and to my horse in german" Charles V.

"Άκουσον μεν, πάταξον δε" (Listen to me, and then (if you still want to) hit me" Themistocles, while arguing the plan of the defense which later on lead to the naval battle of Salamis, with another general who became enraged and tried to hit him.

And some more litarary spam:

"I am a ridiculous man. The others now call me insane" Dostoevsky, from 'the dream of a ridiculous man'.

 

[Verbose]

"I will speak to my Lord in latin, to my women in french, and to my horse in german" Charles V.

I think it's actually:

To God I speak Spanish, to women Italian, to men French, and to my horse - German. - Charles V

And it was later re-used by another monarch:

I speak French to my ambassadors, English to my accountant, Italian to my mistress, Latin to my God and German to my horse. - Frederick the Great of Prussia

 

[Kyriakos]

I knew there was something wrong about it :S

 

[DAv2003]

It's Attila the Hun who's supposed to have claimed to have been the scourge of God.

Ah OK, thanks for that.

 

[Trafalgar]

"Peccavi."

Sir Charles Napier.

 

[privatehudson]

Otherwise there's the prior historical recorded use of an explecative by the commanders of Napoleon's Old Guard at the battle of Waterloo, when asked to surrender:

"Merde!"
- General Pierre Cambronne.

It became known as "Cambronne's word" in France afterwards. Again, just like with "Nuts!", there has been retrospective discussion as to who said exactly what, to whom, when.

I'm not suprised that Crambronne denied having said the alternative (The Guard dies, it does not surrender) since if he had said it he'd look rather silly surviving the battle and living to the ripe old age of 72.

Personally I've always preferred Michel being the speaker, at least he had the decency to follow through with the alternative statement.

 

[ohcrapitsnico]

Some other quotes:

Μη μου τους κύκλους τάραττε" (do not disturb my circles). Said to have been spoken by Archimedes during the fall of Syracuse to the romans, when a roman soldier stepped over the sand he was still drawing shapes upon and working on his calculations.

I like that quote for some reason.

 

[Verbose]

I like that quote for some reason.

Too bad the Roman soldier killed him, making them Archimedes last words.

 

[Tee Kay]

A few random quotes...

“As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for socialism is its adherents”
- George Orwell

“Would this sort of war or savage bombing which has taken place in Vietnam have been tolerated for so long had the people been European?
- Indira Gandhi

“It’s not that I don’t have opinions rather that I’m paid not to think aloud”
- Yitzhak Navon

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education”
- Mark Twain

 

[scherbchen]

Too bad the Roman soldier killed him, making them Archimedes last words.

yup. something to keep in mind: when the pillaging hordes knock down your door after taking your city, asking "you the guy we lookin for?"... not a great moment to be snippy.

 

[Dachs]

yup. something to keep in mind: when the pillaging hordes knock down your door after taking your city, asking "you the guy we lookin for?"... not a great moment to be snippy.

The guy built ingenious weapons of mass destruction, like the magnifying glass, the crane, and the scissors. He was a bleedin' war criminal!

 

[scherbchen]

not like i'm buying into the lens-burns-ship-at-sea thing, but he was considered to be a genius. superior tactics does not a criminal make

ot:

Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.
- ali

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

"The more time passes, the more I am sorry about it. We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog."

- Oleg Gazenko, remarking on Laika and Sputnik 2​

"I've always wanted to improve and expand on the good name of my weapon by doing good things."

- Mikhail Kalashnikov, the new Alfred Nobel​

"We may not have got everything right, but at least we knew when the century was going to end."

- Douglas Adams​

"I believe people would be alive today if there was a death penalty."

- Nancy Reagan​