Matthew

“Animula vigula, blandula, Hospes comesque corporis, Quae nunc abibis in loca, Pallidula, rigida, nudula, Nec ut soles dabis iocos? ************** Soul of mine, pretty one, flitting one, Guest and partner of my clay, Whither wilt thou hie away – Pallid one, rigid one, naked one, Never to play again, never to play?” - Hadrian (July 10, 138)"A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably." - William Penn (date unknown)"... I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." - Thomas Jefferson (September 23, 1800)"Rollin tells us that the third Punic war was declared by the Romans and that a messenger was sent to Carthage to announce the declaration after that army had started on its way. The Carthaganians at once sent representatives to treat for peace. The Romans first demanded the delivery of three hundred hostages before they would enter into negotiations. When three hundreds sons of the nobles had been given into their hands they demanded the surrender of all the arms and implements of war before announcing the terms of the treaty. The conditions were sorrowfully but promptly complied with, and the people who boasted of a Hannibal and a Hamilcar gave up to their ancient enemies every weapon of offense and defense. Then the Roman consul, rising up before the humiliated representatives of Carthage, said: I cannot but commend you for the readiness with which you have obeyed every order. The decree of the Roman Senate is that Carthage shall be destroyed.” - William Jennings Bryan (August 7, 1893)"Reason is the very feeblest of Nature's forces, if you take it at any one spot and moment. It is only in the very long run that its effects become perceptible. Reason assumes to settle things by weighing them against one another without prejudice, partiality, or excitement; but what affairs in the concrete are settled by is and always will be just prejudices, partialities, cupidities, and excitements. Appealing to reason as we do, we are in a sort of forlorn hope situation, like a small sandbank in the midst of a hungry sea ready to wash it out of existence. But sandbanks grow when the conditions favor; and weak as reason is, it has the unique advantage over its antagonists that its activity never lets up and that it presses always in one direction, while men's prejudices vary, their passions ebb and flow, and their excitements are intermittent. Our sandbank, I absolutely believe, is bound to grow - bit by bit it will get dyked and break-watered." - William James (October 7, 1904)"I have tried so hard to do right." - Grover Cleveland (June 24, 1908)"Words calculated to catch everyone may catch no one. And I hope we can profit from Republican mistakes not just for our partisan benefit, but for the benefit of all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike. Where we have erred, let there be no denial; where we have wronged the public trust, let there be no excuses. Self-criticism is the secret weapon of democracy, and candor and confession are good for the political soul. But we will never appease, nor will we apologize for our leadership in the great events of this critical century from Woodrow Wilson to Harry Truman! What counts now is not just what we are against, but what we are for. Who leads us is less important than what leads us - what convictions, what courage, what faith - win or lose. A man doesn't save a century, or a civilization, but a militant party wedded to a principle can." - Adlai Stevenson (July 21, 1952)"If the pursuit of peace is both old and new, it is also both complicated and simple. It is complicated, for it has to do with people, and nothing in this universe baffles man as much as man himself. Much of nature's mystery has come under man's mastery. Heat, cold, wind and rain have lost their terrors, but the environment man has created for himself has yet to be brought under control. Nature's jungle has been conquered, but man still lives in the larger jungle of his fears." - Adlai Stevenson (October 24, 1952)"Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than freedom to stagnate, to live without dreams, to have no greater aim than a second car and another television set." - Adlai Stevenson (January 1960)"Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving, And revolving at 900 miles an hour, That's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned A sun that is the source of all our power. The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see, Are moving at a million miles a day In an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour Of the Galaxy we call the Milky Way. Our Galaxy itself contains 100 billion stars It's 100,000 light years side to side It bulges in the middle, 16,000 light years thick But out by us it's just 3,000 light years wide We're 30,000 light years from galactic central point, We go round every 200 million years And our Galaxy is only one of millions and billions In this amazing and expanding Universe As fast as it can go, at the speed of light you know, 12 million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is. So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure How amazingly unlikely it is your birth And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, Because there's bugger all down here on Earth." - Eric Idle (1983)