Favorite Quotes

To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest
critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate
beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed
social condition, to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

At a toast in the Court of France they lifted their glasses and one
said: "I give you the King of France, and I will call him the Sun;
and I give you the King of England, and call him the Moon"; and then
turning to Ben Franklin, he said: "What will you do for a toast,
with the sun and moon already engaged?"

Franklin raised his glass,
and said: "I cannot give you the sun, or the moon, or the stars, nor
call my country such, but I give you the United States, and call
them Joshua, the son of Nun, who made the sun and the moon and the
stars to stand still as long as he pleased."

"I love the man that can smile in trouble,
that can gather strength from distress,
and grow brave by reflection.
'Tis the business of little minds to shrink;
but he whose heart is firm,
and whose conscience approves his conduct,
will pursue his principles unto death." --Thomas Paine

"War is an ugly thing,
but not the ugliest of things.
The decayed and degraded
state of moral and patriotic
feeling which thinks that
nothing is worth war is much
worse. The person who has
nothing for which he is willing
to fight, nothing which is more
important than his own personal
safety, is a miserable creature
and has no chance of being free
unless made and kept so by the
exertions of better men than himself."
John Stewart Mill

"In the beginning of a change,
the Patriot is a scarce man and
brave, hated and scorned.
When his cause succeeds however,
the timid join him,
for then it costs nothing
to be a Patriot." Mark Twain

Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age.
Nothing does - except wrinkles. It's true, some
wines improve with age.
But only if the grapes were good in the first place.
Abigail Van Buren (1918 -1978)

"There is a rank due to the United States, among nations, which
will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation
of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to
repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful
instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we
are at all times ready for war." --George Washington

"We shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight on the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender. ...
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties,
and so bear ourselves that,
if the British Empire and its Commonwealth
last for a thousand years,
men will say,
'This was their finest hour'." --Winston Churchill

"Freedom from fear and injustice and oppression
will be ours only in the measure that men
who value such freedom are ready to
sustain its possession --
to defend it against every thrust
from within and without." --Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Moral truth is the same in every culture, in every time,
and in every place. ...
We are in a conflict between good and evil,
and America will call evil by its name. We will lead
the world in opposing it." --President George W. Bush

"Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic
for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has
happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again.
Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American
Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout
the world." -- Daniel Webster

If history teaches anything,
it teaches that simple-minded appeasement
or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly.
It means the betrayal of our past,
the squandering of our freedom.
Ronald Reagan (1983)

"There was a time when our national security
was based on a standing army
here within our borders and shore
batteries of artillery along our coasts,
and of course, a navy to keep the sea-lanes open
for the shipping of things necessary to our well-being.
The world has changed.
Today, our national security can be threatened
in faraway places. It's up to all of us to be aware
of the strategic importance of such places and to be able
to identify them." --Ronald Reagan

Norman Schwartkopf, when asked "how do you fight an enemy
that is not afraid to die, an enemy who in fact welcomes death?"
He replied "You accommodate them!"