Who’d have thought we were fighting this war against a bunch of jerks.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
(Attributed, 1946)
On seeing the line-up of Nazi war crimes accused at Nuremburg. In Alex Ross, "Watching for a Judgment of Real Evil," <i>New York Times</i> (12 Nov 1995)
Believe in the ethics of Christianity. Can’t accept the mumbo jumbo.
Clement Attlee (1883-1967) English politician and Prime Minister (1945-51)
Interview with his Kenneth Harris, his biographer
Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.
Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English poet and critic
Literature and Dogma, preface (1873)
One must never make a show of false emotions to one’s men. The ordinary soldier has a surprisingly good nose for what is true and what false.
Erwin Rommel (1891-1944) German field marshal
Letter (Jun 1942), The Rommel Papers, ch. 9 [ed. B. H. Liddell Hart, (1953)]
The greatest test of courage is to bear defeat without losing heart.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer and orator
“The Declaration of Independence,” lecture (1876)
Full text.
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