The Notes (13 page)

T
here can be only one possible defense policy for the U.S. It can be expressed in one word—the word is 1st. I do not mean 1st when—I don’t mean 1st if—I mean 1st, period.

Dwight Eisenhower

T
he vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk its own destruction.

Demosthenes, 1000 Years Ago—Athenian Mkt. Place

W
hat sane man would let another man’s words rather than his deeds tell him who is at war & who is at peace with him.

General G. Macarthur, West Point ’62

I
do not know the dignity of their birth but I do know the glory of their death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory.

Prayer Of Aristophanes Among Ruins of Greek Temple Destroyed in the Peloponnesian War

F
rom the murmur & subtlety of suspicion with which we vex one, another give us rest. Make a new beginning mingle again among the kindred of the nations with the alchemy of love; and with some finer essence of forbearance, temper our minds.

Vladimir Lenin

G
reat historical questions can be solved only by violence, & organization of violence in the modern struggle is a military organization.

I
t would be madness to renounce coercion.

Nikita Khrushchev

W
e must realize that we cannot exist eternally, for a long time . . . one of us must go to his grave. The Ams. & the west do not want to go to their grave either so what can be done? We must push them to their grave.

Feb. 1961, Gus Hall, American Communist Party, Funeral E. Dennis

I
dream of the hour when the last Congressman is strangled to death on the guts of the last preacher—and since the Christians seem to love to sing about blood, why not give them a little of it? Slit the throats of their children & draw them over the mourners bench and the pulpit, & allow them to drown in their own blood, & then see whether they enjoy singing those hymns.

Winston Churchill, The Gathering Storm

I
t is my purpose . . . to show how easily the tragedy of the Second World War could have been prevented; how the malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous; how the structure and habits of democratic states, unless they are welded into larger organisms, lack those elements of persistence and conviction which can alone give security to humble masses; how, even in matters of self-preservation, no policy is pursued for even ten or fifteen years at a time. We shall see how the counsels of prudence and restraint may become the prime agents of mortal danger; how the middle course adopted from desires for safety and a quiet life may be found to lead direct to the bull’s-eye of disaster.

ON THE PEOPLE

Pope Pius 12th, End WWII

T
he Am. people have a genius for great & unselfish deeds—into the hands of Am. God has placed an afflicted mankind. For men who could not see that what they firmly believed was liberalism added up to socialism could scarcely be expected to see what added up to communism. Any charge of comm. enraged them precisely because they could not grasp the differences between themselves and those against whom it was made.

Hilaire Belloc

W
e sit by & watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic invasion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large & awful faces from beyond; and on these faces there is no smile.

Daniel Webster

I
sought for the greatness of Am. in her commodious harbors & her ample rivers & it was not there. In her fertile fields & boundless prairies & it was not there. In her rich mines & her vast world commerce & it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of Am. & heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and her power. Am. is great because she is good & if Am. ever ceases to be good Am. will cease to be great.

Goethe Letter to Eckerman, 1828

T
he truth must be repeated again & again because error is constantly being preached round about us. And not only by isolated individuals but by the majority. In the newspapers & encyclopedias, in the schools and Universities everywhere error is dominant, securely & comfortable ensconced in pub. opinion which is on its side.

Chinese Proverb, 400 B.C.

W
hen the music of a nation becomes fast, wild & discordant it shows the nation is in confusion.

Abba Eban

H
istory shows that men & nations behave reasonably only when they have exhausted all other alternatives.

Alexander Hamilton

I
t will be of little avail to the people that laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood: if they be repealed or revised before the are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be tomorrow.

Thomas Jefferson, 1810

A
strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the highest duties of a good citizen but it is not the highest. The law of necessity, of self preservation, of saving our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property & all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.

T
he lottery is a wonderful thing; it lays the taxation only on the willing.

T
o compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.