John Quincy Adams

“Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it”. –John Quincy Adams

Nahum Tate

“For sorrow is our joy, And joy our greatest sorrow. Elissa dies tonight, And Carthage flames tomorrow”. –Nahum Tate

Charles Dibdin

“For a soldier I listed, to grow great in fame. And be shot at for sixpence a day”. –Charles Dibdin

Meir Kahane

“One of the great problems with Americans is that – being a decent people – they assume that everyone else is equally decent”. –Meir Kahane

John Bonham

“Drumming was the only thing I was ever good at”. –John Bonham

Woodrow Wilson

“I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world… no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men”. –Woodrow Wilson

Phil Ochs

“One good song with a message can bring a point more deeply to more people than a thousand rallies”. –Phil Ochs

Ingmar Bergman

“The moments before he died, Christ was seized by doubt. Surely that must have been his greatest hardship? God’s silence”. –Ingmar Bergman

Jonas Salk

“Neither wisdom nor good will is now dominant. Hope lies in dreams, in imagination and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality”. –Jonas Salk

Konrad Zuse

“The danger of computers becoming like humans is not as great as the danger of humans becoming like computers”. –Konrad Zuse

Eça de Queiroz

“Human effort may manage at its best to transform a starving proletariat into a well-fed bourgeoisie; but then a worse proletariat emerges from the bowels of society. Jesus was right, there will always be the poor among us. Which proves that this humanity is the greatest error that God ever committed”. –Eça de Queiroz

Henri de Lubac

“It is not always charity, alas, which has grown greater, or which has become more enlightened: it is often faith, the taste for the things of eternity, which has grown less. Injustice and violence are still reigning; but they are now in the service of degraded passions”. –Henri de Lubac

Martin Niemöller

“We had been frightened of atomic weapons since 1945. In those days I became convinced — and remain convinced now — that, after Hitler, Truman was the greatest murderer in the world”. –Martin Niemöller

George Washington

“Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action; and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life”. –George Washington

Thomas Francis Meagher

“A good government may, indeed, redress the grievances of an injured people; but a strong people can alone build up a great nation”. –Thomas Francis Meagher

Helen Keller

“Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow man. It then appears that we are among the privileged”. –Helen Keller

J.G. Stedman

“I ever will profess myself the greatest friend to those whose actions best correspond with their doctrine; which, I am sorry to say, is too seldom the case amongst those nations who pretend most to civilization”. –J.G. Stedman

Anne Frank

“There is an urge and rage in people to destroy, to kill, to murder, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated and grown, will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again”. –Anne Frank

Robert A. Heinlein

“Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often confuses one for the other, or assumes the greater the love, the greater the jealousy. In fact they are almost incompatible; both at once produce unbearable turmoil”. –Robert A. Heinlein

Giordano Bruno

“Perchance you who pronounce my sentence are in greater fear than I who receive it”. –Giordano Bruno

Adolf Hitler

“The greatness of Christianity did not lie in attempted negotiations for compromise with any similar philosophical opinions in the ancient world, but in its inexorable fanaticism in preaching and fighting for its doctrine”. –Adolf Hitler

Michael Jackson

“The greatest education in the world is watching the masters at work”. –Michael Jackson

Francis Biddle

“The Constitution has not greatly bothered any wartime President”. –Francis Biddle

Polybius

“When a state after having passed with safety through many and great dangers arrives at the higher degree of power, and possesses an entire and undisputed sovereignty, it is manifest that the long continuance of prosperity must give birth to costly and luxurious manners…” –Polybius

Washington Irving

“Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them”. –Washington Irving

Henrik Ibsen

“The great task of our time is to blow up all existing institutions — to destroy”. –Henrik Ibsen

Voltaire

“The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture for wild beasts to fight in”. –Voltaire

Erich Ludendorff

“By appointing Hitler Chancellor of the Reich, you have handed over our sacred German Fatherland to one of the greatest demagogues of all time. I prophesy to you this evil man will plunge our Reich into the abyss and will inflict immeasurable woe on our nation. Future generations will curse you in your grave for this action”. –Erich Ludendorff

Robert Frost

“Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee; And I’ll forgive Thy great big one on me”. –Robert Frost

Douglas MacArthur

“I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within”. –Douglas MacArthur

Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world”. –Dwight D. Eisenhower

Alexis Carrel

“Everyone makes a greater effort to hurt other people than to help himself”. –Alexis Carrel

Walter Kaufmann

“The great artist is the man who most obviously succeeds in turning his pains to advantage, in letting suffering deepen his understanding and sensibility, in growing through his pains”. –Walter Kaufmann

Luc de Clapiers

“To execute great things, one should live as though one would never die”. –Luc de Clapiers

Meister Eckhart

“The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake”. –Meister Eckhart

Zhuangzi

“During our dreams we do not know we are dreaming. We may even dream of interpreting a dream. Only on waking do we know it was a dream. Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream”. –Zhuangzi

Emile Durkheim

“It is too great comfort which turns a man against himself. Life is most readily renounced at the time and among the classes where it is least harsh”. –Emile Durkheim

Adam Smith

“Money, says the proverb, makes money. When you have a little, it is often easier to get more. The great difficulty is to get that little”. –Adam Smith

Duke of Wellington

“Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained”. –Duke of Wellington

Hector Berlioz

“Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils”. –Hector Berlioz

Daniel Webster

“Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on Earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together”. –Daniel Webster

Aleister Crowley

“The pious pretense that evil does not exist only makes it vague, enormous, and menacing. Its overshadowing formlessness obsesses the mind. The way to beat an enemy is to define him clearly, to analyze and measure him. Once an idea is intelligently grasped, it ceases to threaten the mind with the terrors of the unknown”. –Aleister Crowley

Laozi

“Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good. He who knows has no wide learning; he who has wide learning does not know”. –Laozi

Andy Warhol

“What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest”. –Andy Warhol

Saul Alinsky

“The greatest enemy to individual freedom is the individual himself'” –Saul Alinsky

Stanley Kubrick

“The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes”. –Stanley Kubrick