Here is a question for the patriots who frequent this forum. I once read a quote from, I believe, one of the founding fathers of America (like maybe Sam Adams or Thomas Jefferson) that said in that eloquent way that they had (this is, of course, paraphrased): "I'm determined to know the worst, no matter how, bad, and to deal with it."

Does this ring a bell with anyone out there. Can you please give me the exact quote?

And while we're at it, anyone wish to share any other favorite patriotic quotes from the wise men of our past, that may be appropriate as we face the future?

Thank you

Skeeter

-- skeeter simpson (skeeter@barsawmp.corn), April 27, 1999

Answers

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. -- Patrick Henry, "The War Inevitable" (the famous "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech)

-- Jeff Weinstein (jeffmw@yahoo.com), April 27, 1999.

How about admiral Farragaut (Sp.?) (at Manila Bay) "Damm the torpedoes; FULL spead ahead !!!" In this case, the "72 hours". Eagle

-- Hal Walker (a999eagle@freewwweb.com), April 27, 1999.

Here's a good one.

We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto determination practiced in past centuries." David Rockefeller, founder of the Trilateral Commission, in an address before that organization in June of 1991

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), April 27, 1999.

Oh I'm sorry, you wanted Patriotic quotes didn't you? That's about as unpatriotic as it gets, good thing only slightly over half of our elected government are members of that organization, huh?

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), April 27, 1999.

"One man with conviction is a majority." (. . . or something along those lines) -Andrew Jackson

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), April 27, 1999.

Winston Churchill, excerpt from a speech to Harrow School, 29 Oct 1941.

". . . as Kipling well says, we must

"meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same."

You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done. Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist; certainly many more than will happen; but then they must also pray to be given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination. But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period - I am addressing myself to the School - surely from this period of ten months this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was closed, we were finished. All this tradition of ours, our songs, our School history, this part of the history of this country, were gone and finished and liquidated.

Very different is the mood today. Britain, other nations thought, had drawn a sponge across her slate. But instead our country stood in the gap. There was no flinching and no thought of giving in; and by what seemed almost a miracle to those outside these Islands, though we ourselves never doubted it, we now find ourselves in a position where I say that we can be sure that we have only to persevere to conquer."

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), April 27, 1999.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

- JFK

-- Grrr (grrr@grrr.net), April 27, 1999.

WOW! Jeff! You're the MAN! This just goes to prove that this discussion forum is frequented by some of the most intelligent people on earth.

Thank you very much.

-- skeeter simpson (skeeter@barsawmp.corn), April 27, 1999.

OG, Let's hope we don't need a Churchill to pull us out of the mud in the near future. . . I doubt there are any around today. Fortunately he left enough of a history that some "superannuated" service academy graduate might put on a sufficient impersonation.

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), April 27, 1999.

I am ALWAYS impressed by the intelligence presented in this forum. Cheers!

-- Blanche Fleur (teefleur@yahoo.com), April 27, 1999.

We build and defend not for our generation alone. We defend the foundations laid by our fathers. We build a life for generations yet unborn. We defend and we build a life, not for America alone, but for all mankind.

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

Dictatorship- a fetish worship of one man- is a passing phase. A state of society where one may not speak their minds, where children denounce their parents to the police....such a state of society cannot long endure.

Winston Churchill (okay, not a founding father, but a good quote anyway. ;-)

This generation has a rendezvous with destiny.

F.D.R.

-- Deborah (infowars@yahoo.com), April 27, 1999.

"If we dont believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we dont believe in it at all."

--Noam Chomsky

"If the rich could hire other people to die for them, the poor could make a wonderful living."

--Yiddish Proverb

-- R. Wright (blaklodg@aol.com), April 28, 1999.

I can't help it people, there are so many good ones out there!!

"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up.. ...human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable.... We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of NOW. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late.... this is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action."

--Dr. Martin Luther King , Jr.

-- R. Wright (blaklodg@aol.com), April 28, 1999.

I think the mistake a lot of us make is thinking the state-appointed shrink is our friend.-----Jack Handy

-- andrea (mebsmebs@hotmail.com), April 28, 1999.

We must be the change we wish to see. -- Mahatma Gandhi

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), April 28, 1999.

"Fighting for peace is like f*cking for virginity"

Unknown

-- quietman (quietman@rocketmail.com), April 28, 1999.

"Human history is becoming more and more a race between education and catastrophe."

- H.G. Wells

-- Grrr (grrr@grrr.net), April 28, 1999.