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Quotes to Live By

"'it became necessary to destroy the town to save it,' a U.S. major says."

A statement attributed to an anonymous American major by AP correspondent Peter Arnett, writing about the provincial capital, Ben Tre, Vietnam, on February 7, 1968.

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"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Motto on the title page of An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania (1759), published by Benjamin Franklin. The statement is usually attributed to him. In the Poor Richard's Almanack of 1738, Franklin is known to have written a similar proverb: "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power."

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In February 1848, the U.S. Congressman from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, explained his opposition to the Mexican War:

"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose -- and you allow him to make war at pleasure....If, today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us'; but he will say to you, 'Be silent; I see it, if you don't.'"

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"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

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Hermann Goering, April 18, 1946, from Nuremberg Diary by Gustave Gilbert.

"We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once." Friedrich Nietzsche

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"We know who we love, but the Devil knows who we'll marry." David Mamet (Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, screenwriter, director) from his book I'm reading: On Directing Film.