Horace -- Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 1 “To Maecenas,” l. 60ff (1.1.60-61) (20 BC) [tr. Martin (1881)]

Dave — Mon, 23 May 2011 06:53:58 +0000

Be this your wall of brass — no secret sin,
To pale the cheek and rack the heart within!

[Hic murus aeneus esto,
nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa.]

Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 1 “To Maecenas,” l. 60ff (1.1.60-61) (20 BC) [tr. Martin (1881)]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Other translations:

Not to be giltye or war wan at anye falte at all,
A bulwarke that, to beare all bruntes, be that the brasen wall.
[tr. Drant (1567)]

Be this a wall of Brass, to have within
No black accuser, harbour no pale sin.
[tr. Fanshawe; ed. Brome (1666)]

Be this thy Guard, and this thy strong defence,
A vertuous Heart, and unstain'd Innocence;
Not to be conscious of a shameful sin:
Nor yet look pale for Scarlet Crimes within.
[tr. Creech (1684)]

True, conscious Honour is to feel no sin,
He ’s arm'd without that’s innocent within;
Be this thy Screen, and this thy Wall of Brass.
[tr. Pope (1737), ll. 93-95]

Be this thy brazen bulwark of defence,
Still to preserve thy conscious innocence,
Nor e'er turn pale with guilt.
[tr. Francis (1747)]

Be good, then, and be great;
This be your tower of strength, your throne of state;
To keep your heart unconscious of a sin,
And feel no goadings of remorse within!
[tr. Howes (1845)]

Let this be a [man’s] brazen wall, to be conscious of no ill, to turn pale with no guilt.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]

Be this your wall of brass, your coat of mail,
A guileless heart, a cheek no crime turns pale.
[tr. Conington (1874)]

Let this be a wall of brass around you -- "Not to be conscious of crime, or of any fault which spreads paleness over the countenance."
[tr. Elgood (1893)]

Be this our wall of bronze, to have no guilt at heart, no wrongdoing to turn us pale.
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]

And this bronze wall should be ours: to let no shame
Steal across our faces, no guilt steal into our hearts.
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]

Make this your barrier of bronze,
that no crime burdens you, no guilt has turned you pale.
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]

Let a man stand
Behind this bronze wall:
Never guilty,
Never pale with sin, and fear
Of sin.
[tr. Raffel (1983)]

Let this be our defense: not to have any
Wrongdoing on our conscience to worry over.
[tr. Ferry (2001)]

So let this be your wall of brass:
to have nothing on your conscience, nothing to give you a guilty pallor.
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]

Let that be your wall of bronze,
To be free of guilt, with no wrongs to cause you pallor.
[tr. Kline (2015)]

Lincoln, Abraham -- Speech (1863-09-30) to the Missouri Committee of Seventy

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I desire to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1863-09-30) to the Missouri Committee of Seventy
(Source)

A committee of seventy "Radical Union Men of Missouri," selected by a state convention, visited Lincoln in the White House, demanding immediate abolition of slavery in the border states, the recruitment of Black soldiers to the Union Army, and that action be taken regarding the factional conflicts (Radicals vs Conservatives) stirred up by the state governor and the US military governor overseeing the state militia. This was Lincoln's concluding remark in reply to the committee's petition.

This was not a prepared speech, so there is no "official" version. These words were later reported by Enos Clarke, one of the committee members, as recorded in Ida Tarbell's The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1895). Tarbell's book was a best-seller, and the quotation is usually given as above.

However, Clarke's report as recorded by Walter Stevens in the Missouri State Historical Society book Lincoln and Missouri (1916) is a bit different:

It is my ambition and desire to so administer the affairs of the government while I remain President that if at the end I shall have lost every other friend on earth I shall at least have one friend remaining and that one shall be down inside of me.

The difference between the two may be between different instances across the years of Clarke reporting on Lincoln's comments. Neither Tarbell nor Stevens give notes as to when and where their statements from Clarke derive.

WIST Quotations

Horace -- Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 1 “To Maecenas,” l. 60ff (1.1.60-61) (20 BC) [tr. Martin (1881)]

Lincoln, Abraham -- Speech (1863-09-30) to the Missouri Committee of Seventy