Service Quotes
This quotation was used by the Siemens Corporation to thank award-winning Federal civil servants who had received the Service to America Medal.
Ataturk was a young major at the time commanding troops of a weak and corrupt Ottoman regime. However a combined English and French (the strongest military powers in Europe) invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula threatened to capture the Turkish capital, Constantinople. Ataturk alone rallied the Turkish defenders and fought the invaders to a standoff in long drawn out battle with huge casualties on both sides. Ataturk became a national hero. Although Ataturk thereafter was very reluctant to use military force or endanger troops, the thing he always thought worth the supreme sacrifice (including his own) was the independence and sovereignty of the nation. See {584502} for his continuing belief in this type of sacrifice.
This is a precursor to the famous JFK inaugural address quotation. See also, Khalil Gibran {601423} and Warren G. Harding {622594} and {629021}.
See John F. Kennedy's famous 1961 inaugural quote {589867} for a more modern articulation targeted at all. The above quotation is from the Anthony R. Ferris translation of 1958. In an interesting play of influences, note the following Andrew Dib Sherfan’s 1975 translation done after the Kennedy inaugural address.
Joseph Addison had earlier written of such a situation. Recent research has strongly suggested that Hale may never have said these words. The American patriots wanted to have heroes and may not have been too worried about the documentation and historical research. See {621112}
