Kathryn Harrison Quotes

Joan of Arc was born 600 years ago. Six centuries is a long time to continue to mark the birth of a girl who, according to her family and friends, knew little more than spinning and watching over her father's flocks.

I'd love to have played Joan of Arc. That would have been amazing.

I have a portrait of Saint Thomas More in my office.

I'll never have so compelling a figure within my embrace as Joan of Arc; there will never be a book whose last chapter is so very hard to get right.

And my father and mother strengthened me in this my first impression, saying in my presence, I was intended for some great purpose, which they had always thought from certain marks on my head and breast.

America, North and South, is a choice land, a land reserved for God's own purposes.

The least likely of military leaders, Joan of Arc changed the course of the Hundred Years' War and of history.

This girl at 17 really led an army, this girl at 19 really burned at the stake by her own choice. And you sit there and you want to figure out why did she make these choices? How did she live such a life?

Every time I see a film about Joan of Arc I'm convinced she'll get away with it. It's the only way to get through life.

The Cincinnatus of the West, Whom envy dared not hate, Bequeathed the name of Washington To make man blush there was but one!

The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused him of being a bore - on the contrary, they thought him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround him with an atmosphere of tedium.

Jeanne d'Arc was frowned upon for her masculine attire.

I discovered [Joan of Arc] toward the age of ten or twelve, when I went to France. I don't remember where I read about her, but I recall that she immediately took on a definite importance for me. I wanted to sacrifice my life for my country. It seems like foolishness and yet...what happens when we're children is engraved forever on our lives.

Revolution calls my name. I will soon dwell in nothingness, and my name will be in the Pantheon of history.

Whatever thing men call great, look for it in Joan of Arc, and there you will find it.

Ah! never shall the land forget How gushed the life-blood of her brave -

The only figure in history who endures is Jesus.

No matter what anyone says, suicide takes guts. It's for heroes and martyrs, truly vainglorious men. Archie was none of these. He was a man whose significance in the Greater Scheme of Things could be figured along familiar ratios: Pebble : Beach Raindrop : Ocean Needle : Haystack

Liberty is an old fact; it has had its heroes and its martyrs in almost every age. As I look back through the vista of centuries, I can see no end of the ranks of those who have toiled and suffered in its cause, and who wear upon their breasts its stars of the legion of honor.

The thing that we have going for us is that people are willing to sacrifice themselves.

They died for me,” I say. That feels important

If you outlaw half a million people you make martyrs of them. For example, if you outlaw Robin Hood, it is all very well, but if you outlaw a whole group of people around Robin Hood, then Robin Hood and his merry men become legends.