Is it true or false that Belfast is north of London? That the galaxy is the shape of a fried egg? That Beethoven was a drunkard? T...hat Wellington won the battle of Waterloo? There are various degrees and dimensions of success in making statements: the statements fit the facts always more or less loosely, in different ways on different occasions for different intents and purposes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Gladstone in Great Britain and Parnell in Ireland, under the watchword, "Home Rule for Ireland," are fighting the battle of self-g...overnment for all mankind.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Nelson's famous signal before the Battle of Trafalgar was not: "England expects that every man will be a hero." It said: "England ...expects that every man will do his duty." In 1805 that was enough. It should still be.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have just read your dispatch about sore tongued and fatiegued [sic] horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of you...r army have done since the battle of Antietem that fatigue anything?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The militancy of men, through all the centuries, has drenched the world with blood, and for these deeds of horror and destruction ...men have been rewarded with monuments, with great songs and epics. The militancy of women has harmed no human life save the lives of those who fought the battle of righteousness. Time alone will reveal what reward will be allotted to women.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Consider what stuff history is made of,--that for the most part it is merely a story agreed on by posterity. Who will tell us even... how many Russians were engaged in the battle of Chernaya, the other day? Yet, no doubt, Mr. Scriblerus, the historian, will fix on a definite number for the schoolboys to commit to their excellent memories. What, then, of the number of Persians at Salamis? The historian whom I read knew as much about the position of the parties and their tactics in the last-mentioned affair as they who describe a recent battle in an article for the press nowadays before the particulars have arrived. I believe that, if I were to live the life of mankind over again myself (which I would not be hired to do), with the Universal History in my hands, I should not be able to tell what was what.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
America is said to be the arena on which the battle of freedom is to be fought; but surely it cannot be freedom in a merely politi...cal sense that is meant. Even if we grant that the American has freed himself from a political tyrant, he is still the slave of an economical and moral tyrant. Now that the republic--the res- publica--has been settled, it is time to look after the res- privata,--the private state,--to see, as the Roman Senate charged its consuls, "ne quid res-PRIVATA detrimenti caperet," that the private state receive no detriment.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have no doubt that it was a principle they fought for, as much as our ancestors, and not to avoid a three-penny tax on their tea...; and the results of this battle will be as important and memorable to those whom it concerns as those of the battle of Bunker Hill, at least.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We hear much of chivalry of men towards women; but ... it vanishes like dew before the summer sun when one of us comes into compet...ition with the manly sex. Let a woman sit, weep, wring her hands, and exult in her own helplessness, and the modern knight buckles on his imaginary breastplate and draws his sword in her behalf; but when the woman girds up her loins for the battle of life, ready to fight like a lioness, if need be, to put food in the mouths of her children, let her select for her field the living-room or the cooking range.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Our housekeeping is mendicant, our arts, our occupations, our marriages, our religion we have not chosen, but society has chosen f...or us. We are parlor soldiers. We shun the ragged battle of fate, where strength is born.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »