Here are some quotes with currency. They are by Presidents Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Jefferson, as well as Gandhi, Einstein, Mark Twain and a few others. Hope you enjoy, and find wisdom and courage therein.
- Anon
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” -- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21,
1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins) Ref: “The Lincoln Encyclopedia”, Archer
H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)
“Generally, news reporting and punditry are respectful of the rich and
disdainful of the poor.”-- Syndicated columnist Norman Solomon (from this article).
“There is a common tendency to ignore the poor or to develop some
rationalisation for the good fortune of the fortunate.”-- John Kenneth
Galbraith
“They make a desert and call it peace.”--
Tacitus, defining Roman imperialism
“There's enough on this planet for everyone's needs but not for everyone's greed”-- Mahatma Gandhi
“I destroy my enemy by making him my friend”-- Abraham Lincoln
“Except for religious conflicts and the petty wars of feudal lords, wars are primarily fought over resources and trade. President Woodrow Wilson recognized that this was the cause of World War I: ‘Is there any man, is there any woman, let me say any child here that does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry?’”-- J.W. Smith, Economic Democracy: The Political Struggle for the Twenty-First Century,
“I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism”-- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“I dread our own power and our own ambition; I dread our being too much dreaded....We may say that we shall not abuse this astonishing and hitherto unheard-of-power. But every other nation will think we shall abuse it. It is impossible but that, sooner or later, this state of things must produce a combination against us which may end in our ruin.”-- Edmund Burke, describing his fears for the former British Empire
“More! More! is the cry of a mistaken soul.”-- William Blake
“Every corner of the public psyche is canvassed by some of the most talented citizens to see if the desire for some merchandisable product can be cultivated.”-- John Kenneth Galbraith
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”-- H.L. Mencken
“[W]hat suffers in the atmosphere of immediacy is analysis. What suffers in this search for speed is depth. The media in the wealthy world are becoming increasingly simplistic, superficial, and celebrity-focused.”-- Laurie Garrett
“Live life simply so that others may simply live”-- Gandhi
“The first casualty when war comes is Truth”-- U.S. Senator Hiram Johnson, 1917
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”-- George Orwell
“What journalism is really about - it's to monitor power and the centres of power.”-- Amira Hass
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it... Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. -- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”-- Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger, 1916, Ch.9
“Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”-- Albert Einstein
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”-- Theodore Roosevelt, U.S. President 1901-1909(From The American Presidency) [quoted from MediaChannel.org media in conflict news page.]
“A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt about a tragedy. He said, ‘I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.’ The grandson asked him, ‘Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?’ The grandfather answered, ‘The one I feed.’”-- a native American Indian story
“War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.”-- Thomas Jefferson
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children... This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”-- Former U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a speech on April 16, 1953
“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.”-- Theodore Roosevelt, on April 19, 1906
“To tackle the underlying roots of violence and conflict, we need a massive international effort to reduce poverty and injustice, and to promote development, democracy and human rights.”-- Clare Short
