Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Revolutions are always the deepest memories of a people

If they [the Russians] want to fight with me, let them come and we see who wins.

There is no example in history of a revolutionary movement involving such gigantic masses being so bloodless.

America's present need is not heroics but healing, not nostrums but normalcy, not revolution but restoration, not agitation but adjustment, not surgery but serenity, not the dramatic but the dispassionate, not experiment but equipoise, not submergence in internationality but sustainment in triumphant nationality.

There was still another class of men who were opposed to secession in any case. Of these, William C. Wickham, of Hanover, and Jubal Early will serve as examples. They thought secession unnecessary and imprudent in any conceivable event. They believed that it offered no remedy for existing or possible ills, and that it could result only in the prostration of the South. They opposed it, therefore, with all their might; not only as not yet called for, but as suicidal in any event, and not to be thought of at all. And yet these men, when the war came, believed it to be their duty to side with their State, and fought so manfully in behalf of the South as to make themselves famous military leaders.

… what a fearful waste it is that we have to go killing each other before even a difference of opinion can be settled amongst people of the same nation.

To estimate the value of Newton's discoveries, or the delight communicated by Shakespeare and Milton, by the price at which their works have sold, would be but a poor measure of the degree in which they have elevated and enchanted their country; nor would it be less groveling and incongruous to estimate the benefit which the country has derived from the Revolution of 1688, by the pay of the soldiers, and all other payments concerned in effecting it.

We report on the mischiefs. perils, and estate of your land of Ireland, which is on the point of being lost …. The Irish, you enemies, of one assent and covenant, commence to levy war throughout all their land, burning, destroying and preying dearly on your lieges of those parts …. As an act of charity, send a good, sufficient chieftain, stocked and strengthened with men and treasure … as a noble and generous prince is bound to do for his lieges.

Violence is the only language understood by Mr. Lloyd George and his ministers.

Violence is a holy and historically progressive force.

Now, a river of blood will divide France from its enemies.

I was born about 80 years too late. If you were a kid in 1910, the Fourth of July was a big deal. You knew all about the Revolution, and you still had Civil War veterans.

Emerson was such an important figure in our literary history, and in the moral and religious development of our people, that attention cannot be directed to him too often.

Reactionaries often describe both Marx and Lenin as theorists, without taking into consideration that their utopias inspired Russia and China - the two countries called upon to lead a new world which will allow for human survival if imperialism does not first unleash a criminal, exterminating war.

I despise all those who fight for peace. It's only the bad guys and the troublemakers who create entertaining and history-changing events.

The American war is over, but this is far from being the case with the American Revolution.

In fact, it's pretty dramatic when you get to 1975, very revealing, the [Vietnam] war ends. Everybody had to write something about the war, what it meant. You also had polls of public opinion, and they're dramatically different.

Alice thought, No. It wasn't the War and the disgruntled veterans; it wasn't the droves and droves of colored people flocking to paychecks and streets full of themselves. It was the music. The dirty, get-on-down music the women sang and the men played and both danced to, close and shamelesss or apart and wild...It made you do unwise disorderly things. Just hearing it was like violating the law.

The moment this House undertakes to legislate upon this subject slavery, it dissolves the Union. Should it be my fortune to have a seat upon this floor, I will abandon it the instant the first decisive step is taken looking towards legislation of this subject. I will go home to preach, and if I can, practice, disunion, and civil war, if needs be. A revolution must ensue, and this republic sink in blood.

Revolutionary war is an antitoxin which not only eliminates the enemy's poison but also purges us of our own filth.

The friends of gold will have to be extremely wise and moderate if they are to avoid a revolution.

I don't think my generation carries the weight of World War II anymore. But I've got to tell you, even if we don't really talk about it, we get reminded constantly by other people or other countries. I get offered a World War II movie at least once a week just because I speak German and was born there. I have always stayed away from it because I didn't want to be put into that box.

Posterity will talk of Washington as the founder of a great empire, when my name shall be lost in the vortex of revolution.

One war, such as that of our Revolution, is enough for one life.

In history as in life it is success that counts. Start a political upheaval and let yourself be caught, and you will hang as a traitor. But place yourself at the head of a rebellion and gain your point, and all future generations will worship you as the Father of their Country.