Favorite Historical Quotes

[Insigna]

Everyone post some good ones but make sure they are from history and not from pop stars or actors and junk like that.

Here are some of my favorite:

"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid."
- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
- Galileo Galilei

"The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad."
- Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

"We have art to save ourselves from the truth."
- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
- Voltaire (1694-1778)

"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), Inaugural
Address, January 20, 1953

"Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

"A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation."
- H. H. Munro (Saki) (1870-1916)

"University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small."
- Henry Kissinger (1923-)

"No Sane man will dance."
- Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

"Vote early and vote often."
- Al Capone (1899-1947)

"Men are not disturbed by things, but the view they take of things."
- Epictetus (55-135 A.D.)

"What about things like bullets?"
- Herb Kimmel, Behavioralist, Professor of Psychology, upon hearing the above quote (1981)

"Nothing is wrong with California that a rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure."
- Ross MacDonald (1915-1983)

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

"Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something."
- last words of Pancho Villa (1877-1923)

Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
-Sir Winston Churchill

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
-Sir Winston Churchill

Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
-Friedrich Nietzsche

No poor bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making other bastards die for their country.
-Patton

The Neapolitans lost very little honor in this engagement, for they had but little honor to lose. But they did lose all that they had.
-Horatio Nelson, writing back home after watching the Army of naples routed by a French army a tenth its size

"We have nothing to hide... We have nothing. And we must hide it."
N. Khrushchev on Soviet foreign policy

"History teaches us that we learn nothing from history."
-Friedrich Hegel

"It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war."
-JFK

"We won't just shoot the bastard, but rip out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks."
- General George Patton

"Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Lets go inland and be killed."
- General Norman Cota: Omaha Beach, 1944

"We are outnumbered, there is only one thing to do. We must attack!"
- Admiral Andrew Cunningham, 11 November 1940.
Before attacking the Italian fleet at Taranto

"My fellow Americans. I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
-President Reagan, before a scheduled radio broadcast, unaware that the microphone was already on

"The Pope! how many divisions has he got?"
- Stalin
In 1935, a French visitor asked Soviet leader Josef Stalin if he thought Pope Pius XI might prove to be an ally.

"Tell my son Josef that he will meet my divisions in eternity."
- Reply from the Pope when he heard the story years later.

You tell me Grant is always drunk? fine. Find out what he drinks and send a case to all of my other generals!
Abraham Lincoln

"The ardennes are impenetrble... this sector is not dangerous." Petain, 1934

"There is no such thing as the arial battle. there is only the battle on the ground." Gamelin, 1936

We are not Poles, It could not happen here." Gamelin 1940, when warned that Germany may use blitzkrieg tactics in the west.
Nous vaincrons parce que nous sommes les plus forts.
We shall win because we are the stronger.
Edouard Daladier, 1939

Mon centre cède du terrain,ma droite se replie. Situation excellente. j'attaque!
My center is giving ground, my right is retreating. Situation excellent. To the attack!
Foch, September 6, 1914 at 1st Marne.

"Gentlemen, you have fought like lions and been led by donkeys."
--Erwin Rommel, to British prisoners after the fall of Tobruk

"Republicans believe every day is 4th of July, but Democrats believe every day is April 15."
Ronald Reagan

"We shall not flag or fail. 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 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

"Most essential qualification for a politician: The ability to foretell what will happen tomorrow, next month, and next year- and to explain afterward why it did not happen. "
– Winston Churchill

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take everything you have."
– Winston Churchill

"To the meaningless French idealisms, of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, we present the German realities of Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery."
- Prince Bernhard von Bulow

I wanted a nation and they gave me the Belgians.
-Leopold I von Saxen-Coburg-Gotha, first king of Belgium

It's very bad. I will lose my job.
-East German border guard asked by the BBC for his thoughts on the bringing down of the Berlin wall...

If you see a white plane it´s American, if you see a black plane it´s RAF. If you see no planes at all it´s the Luftwaffe.
-German soldier on the Western Front, 1944

"Two kinds of people are staying on this beach, the dead and those who are going to die."
-US Army Colonel George Taylor urging his troops forward on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

"Out in the front every one is holding out, Herr Oberstleutnant. Every one. My grenadiers and my engineers and my tank crews-- they're all holding their ground. Not a single man is leaving his post. Not one! They're lying in their foxholes mute and silent, for they are dead. Dead! Do you understand? You may report to the field marshal that the Panzer Lehr Division is annihilated."
--Generalleutnant "Fritz" Bayerlein

"The Germans are staying in there just by the guts of their soldiers. We outnumber them 10 to 1 in infantry, 50 to 1 in artillery, and by an infinite number in the air."
--General Barton, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, Normandy

"It takes a brave man to be a coward in the Red Army"
-Stalin

On the Tobruk front a large force of Italians attacked one enemy cyclist, causing him to dismount. After heavy and prolonged fighting they were able to puncture his tires. The front wheel was destroyed, while destruction of the rear wheel must also be considered probable. The handle bars are in our hands, but possession of the frame is still contested.
-German satire of an Italian war communique, reportedly captured by British troops in Libya
not an actual quote but its ok anyway

Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most
pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.
-Churchill

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
-Churchill Speech, 20 Aug. 1940, House of Commons, on the pilots who fought the Battle of Britain.


"Now the Italians have joined the war on the German side. But that is only fair since we had the the last time."
-Churchill

"The point of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his..."
-General Patton

All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us... they can't get away this time.
-Lieutenant General Lewis B."Chesty" Puller (when surrounded by 8 enemy divisions)

If you have sacrificed my nation to preserve the peace of the world, I will be the first to applaud you. But if not, gentlemen, God help your souls.
-Jan Masaryk, Czech Minister (1938)

"Deos fortioribus adesse." (The gods are on the side of the stronger.)
Tacitus c.56 - c.177 AD

"We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
July 1776 - At the Signing of the Declaration of Independence

"This is no time for making new enemies."
Voltaire On being asked to renounce the Devil, on his deathbed

[Verto]

You've a lot of favorites.

[orange]

that last one is great

[Spiffor]

My favorite:

"Chegitz, still angry about the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991?
You provide no source. You PROVIDE NOTHING! And yet you want to destroy capitalism.. you criminal..."

Fez

[MrFun]

I wish I remember the complete quote, and the originator of this, but it goes something like . . .

"First they went after the Jews, but I did nothing.

Then they went after the political dissidents, but I did nothing."


You get the idea -- does anyone know the correct quote, and who originated this??

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by MrFun
I wish I remember the complete quote, and the originator of this, but it goes something like . . .

"First they went after the Jews, but I did nothing.

Then they went after the political dissidents, but I did nothing."


You get the idea -- does anyone know the correct quote, and who originated this??

..a Pope?

[DarkCloud]

"First they went after the Jews, but I did nothing to save them.

Then they went after the political dissidents, but I did nothing to save them.

Then they went after the free thinkers, but I did nothing to save them.

Then they went after me, but there was no one left to save me."

I think it might have been a prominent Lutheran clergyman or somehting of the sort... some holy man who wanted to save people, but thought that since the Nazi's weren't bothering his flock, that he was immune... something of the sort (he may not have been lutheran, but he certainly WASNT a pope )

[General Ludd]

I've made a few text files to put good quotes in, but for some reason I keep deleting them. Seems I've deleted the most recent one, too.


EDIT: But I read a pretty good Ghandi quote the other day - "I am committed to the truth, not to consistency."

[The diplomat]

"If a nation expects to be both ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be."
Thomas Jefferson

[MrFun]

Originally posted by DarkCloud
"First they went after the Jews, but I did nothing to save them.

Then they went after the political dissidents, but I did nothing to save them.

Then they went after the free thinkers, but I did nothing to save them.

Then they went after me, but there was no one left to save me."

I think it might have been a prominent Lutheran clergyman or somehting of the sort... some holy man who wanted to save people, but thought that since the Nazi's weren't bothering his flock, that he was immune... something of the sort (he may not have been lutheran, but he certainly WASNT a pope )

thanks

[orange]

Originally posted by Spiffor
My favorite:

Quote:

"Chegitz, still angry about the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991? You provide no source. You PROVIDE NOTHING! And yet you want to destroy capitalism.. you criminal..."

Fez

That one will always have a dear place in my heart

[Az]

"The ardennes are impenetrble... this sector is not dangerous." Petain, 1934

Petain = MSS?

"The Pope! how many divisions has he got?"
- Stalin
In 1935, a French visitor asked Soviet leader Josef Stalin if he thought Pope Pius XI might prove to be an ally.

"Tell my son Josef that he will meet my divisions in eternity."
- Reply from the Pope when he heard the story years later.

yep kids, Stalin is going to heaven.

Still, both, great quotes.

"My fellow Americans. I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
-President Reagan, before a scheduled radio broadcast, unaware that the microphone was already on

[Odin]

Nothing in Biology makes sense unless in the light of evolution.
-Theodosius Dobzhansky

I like to tick off the creationists.

I will never forget Fezzie's quote to Che.

[Odin]

Originally posted by Azazel
My fellow Americans. I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
-President Reagan, before a scheduled radio broadcast, unaware that the microphone was already on

I knew Dutch was a moron.

[Grandpa Troll]

There are things known and things unknown...............and in between are


THE DOORS

...........Jim Morrison..of THE DOORS


Peace

Grandpa Troll

[Petek]

Here are three quotes that I've picked up from sigs on Usenet:

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it."
--Mark Twain

"The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical midgets. We know more about war than we know of peace, more about killing than we know about living."

......Gen. Omar Bradley, a hero of World War II,
in 1948 speech.

"Carob is a brown powder made from the pulverized fruit of a Mediterranean evergreen. Some consider carob an adequate substitute for chocolate because it has some similar nutrients (calcium, phosphorus),
and because it can, when combined with vegetable fat and sugar, be made to approximate the color and consistency of chocolate. Of course, the same arguments can as persuasively be made in favor of dirt."
--Sandra Boynton

[st_swithin]

"Only when one has learned to acknowledge that wiser minds have made better words to come out of our mouths may we truly, then, begin to speak them." -Honore de Balzac

"I know that there are people in this world who do not love their fellow human beings and I hate people like that!" -Tom Lehrer

"God is gracious to some very peculiar people." -Wallace Stevens

"Some people never go crazy, what truly horrible lives they must live." -Charles Bukowski

"The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud." -Coco Chanel

"The nature of bad news infects the teller when it concerns the fool or coward." -Shakespeare

"Writers are shmucks with Remingtons." -Hugh King

"Kittenshittenflingen." -Joe Rumsey, in a conversation about the meaning of obfuscation

[Imran Siddiqui]

"To the meaningless French idealisms, of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, we present the German realities of Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery."
- Prince Bernhard von Bulow

That's the best .

"Now the Italians have joined the war on the German side. But that is only fair since we had the the last time."
-Churchill

But Churchill tries for the lead .

"My fellow Americans. I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
-President Reagan, before a scheduled radio broadcast, unaware that the microphone was already on

That was highly amusing. Ronnie was always a cutup... unfortunetly they turned the mic on a bit too soon... funny as Hell though . Not like it bothered him any, it was a great joke .

[Insigna]

I found a place where you can hear the Reagan quote. They say it was a voice test for the microphone.

http://www.yaf.com/Reagan.shtml

[Ned]

One day in the pavilion at Karakorum he [Genghis Kahn] asked an officer of the Mongol guard what, in all the world, could bring the greatest happiness.

"The open steppe, a clear day, and a swift horse under you," responded the officer after a little thought, "and a falcon on your wrist to start up hares."

"Nay," responded the Kahn, "to crush your enemies, to see them fall at your feet -- to take their horses and goods and hear the lamentation of their women. That is best."

[Ned]

Veni, vidi.... Vinci! Julius Caesar

[st_swithin]

vici.

[Ned]

"E tu, Brute?" Caesar as he fell, dying.

[Ned]

"There is nothing to fear but fear itself." Julius Caesar to his wife in the Ides of March.

[Ben Kenobi]

First they went after the Jews, but I did nothing.

Then they went after the political dissidents, but I did nothing."


Mr. Fun:

Here's the whole quote,

When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church — and there was nobody left to be concerned.

Pastor Niemoller

http://www.serendipity.li/cda/niemoll.html

[DRoseDARs]

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin

"No."
-- Rosa Parks

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."
-- Noam Chomsky

"Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying."
-- Woody Allen

"I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, you can't prove a thing."
-- Bart Simpson

"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."
--Robert H. Goddard

"The history of man is a graveyard of great cultures that came to catastrophic ends because of their incapacity for planned, rational, voluntary reaction to challenge."
-- Erich Fromm

"A real diplomat is one who can cut his neighbor's throat without having his neighbor notice it."
-- Trygve Lie

"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggy' until you can find a rock."
-- Unknown

"A day will come when beings shall stand unpon this Earth, as one stands upon a footstool, and laugh as reach out their hands amidst the star."
-- H.G. Wells

"To consider the Earth as the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd as to assert that on a vast plain only one stalk of grain shall grow."
-- Metrodoros of Chios

"Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow."
-- Mark Twain

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Ned
"E tu, Brute?" Caesar as he fell, dying.

He didn't really say that of course. That's a line from the Shakespeare play. The "nothing to fear..." one may very well be too, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

[Spiffor]

In France, this "historical quote" is taught as "Tu quoque fili" (you too, my son). WTG historical accuracy !

Besides, quite a few quotes I've read here are attributed to Clemenceau in France I guess someone made a witty remark, and every country quickly made believe the leader said it.

Azazel:
Pétain != MSS. The quote is from 1934, 6 whole years before the rout. We didn't defend the Ardennes because our generals were actually believing this crap

[FrustratedPoet]

Besides, quite a few quotes I've read here are attributed to Clemenceau in France I guess someone made a witty remark, and every country quickly made believe the leader said it.

Very true. This probably happens to a few people in all countries, which reminds me of an amusing anecdote on this effect....

Apparently Oscar Wilde was at a party where somebody made an extremely clever and witty joke. Wilde was heard to remark to a friend "I wish I had said that". "Don't worry Oscar," came the reply, "you will, you will."

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
Apparently Oscar Wilde was at a party where somebody made an extremely clever and witty joke. Wilde was heard to remark to a friend "I wish I had said that". "Don't worry Oscar," came the reply, "you will, you will."