Favorite Historical quote

[Octavian X]

As long as we have a thread over your favorite person in history, we might as well have one over your favorite quote by a historical figure.

I have to go with Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. One particular part comes to mind:
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 Powers from the Consent of the Governed...

 

[Pillager]

"She's grown ugly by Jove!"

- the Duke of Wellington during his marriage service on seeing his fiancée/wife after a long period of absence.

 

[MrPresident]

"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

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." - Abraham Lincoln

 

[Fundamentalist]

"There is no such thing as society, we are all a group of individuals"- Margaret Thatcher (no im not a Tory lol)

 

[Dark Ascendant]

"War is Hell."-Robert E. Lee

 

[joespaniel]

"Other states have an army, in Prussia the army has a state." -Mirabeau

"Laws are like sausages, one is best not seeing them made." - Bismark

 

[joespaniel]

One more:

"The enemy to the east has been struck down, and shall never rise again."
-Adolf Hitler, August 1941

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Know yourself, know the enemy; a hundred battles, a hundred victories. - Sun Zi.

Exact Chinese words - zhiji zhibi, baizhan baisheng.

Used so widely, it's now a standard Chinese proverb.

 

[gr8ful wes]

"I am a doughnut" JFK

"Goo Goo Ga Joob" Lennon

That depends on what your definition if "is" is(or something like that) Bill Clinton

"I am not a crook" Nixon

"Speak softly and carry a big stick" Roosevelt(really is my favorite quote)

"read my lips, No New Taxes" Bush

 

[knowltok2]

I had always been told that it was: I am a jelly doughnut.

Can anyone clarify?

 

[Collingwood]

I don't know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they frighten me. - Wellington

 

[Aphex_Twin]

In politics, stupidity in not a disadvantage.

Napoleon

 

[Sodak]

Originally posted by knowltok2
I had always been told that it was: I am a jelly doughnut.

Can anyone clarify?

He said "ich bin ein berliner" - intending to say he, too, was a citizen of Berlin. The gaff, as you know, is that berliner is what a jelly donut is called.

"I hate to cook" - Joan of Arc

 

[nixon]

If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves.
Joseph Stalin

It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.
Joseph Stalin

Politics would be a helluva good business if it weren't for the goddamned people.
Richard M. Nixon

 

[gr8ful wes]

Ich bin ein berliner. Thanks

Another great Kennedy quote and it is actualluy true is (and I paraphrase here) that the Chineese symbols for crissis are danger and opportunity.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by gr8ful wes
Another great Kennedy quote and it is actualluy true is (and I paraphrase here) that the Chineese symbols for crissis are danger and opportunity.

To be more accurate, the Chinese character meaning crisis is made up of the characters meaning danger and opportunity respectively.

Many Chinese characters are constructed such.

 

[Le Petit Prince]

look down....

You guys never heard of Hitler about the two massacres in history? it was something like "There have been two massacres in history, Verdun , XXXXXX (dont remember)... and Moscow (???) will be the third"

 

[Jimmicus]

Ghandi, when asked what he thought of Western Civilisation replied: "I think it would be a wonderful idea".

My signature below is also a favourite of mine from Winston Churchill...

 

[gr8ful wes]

Who said "Democracy isn't the best system, it is simply the least worst?" or something like that. That one amuses me

 

[MrPresident]

"In a civil war, a general must know ... exactly when to move over to the other side.
- Henry Reed

"War does not determine who is right - only who is left."

"I'm at the foot of the ladder...I'm going to step off...now. That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind." - Neil Armstrong

"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country" - JFK

"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" - FDR

"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right." - Isaac Asimov

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin

"I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work." - Ben Franklin

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character give him power." - Abraham Lincoln