Quotes

The Spanish, in their conquest of Americas, looked to Scripture to justify their imperial reign: 1 Kings 10:22-25. "For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. The whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. Every one of them brought a present, objects of silver and gold, garments, weaponry, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year." — anonymous

Witness: The Greek word is martis, where we get the English word martyr. — anonymous

In 2011 political columnist David Brooks asked readers over 70 to write and send him “‘Life Reports'—essays about their own lives and what they done poorly and well.” Maybe the most revealing of the conclusions he drew: “Lean toward risk. It’s trite, but apparently true. Many more seniors regret the risks they didn’t take than regret the ones they did.” — anonymous

Seven Deadly Social Sins, Mahatma Gandhi * Politics without principle * Wealth without work * Commerce without morality * Pleasure without conscience * Education without character * Science without humanity * Worship without sacrifice His grandson Arun Gandhi added an eighth: Rights without responsibility — anonymous

“The disciples carried weapons,” Derek Melton, assistant chief of police in Pryor Creek, Okla., and senior pastor at Pryor Creek Community Church, told Religion News Service in 2012. “Peter cut a man’s ear off. I believe if more honest citizens were armed, the safer our communities would be.” — anonymous

The European is to the other races of mankind what man himself is to the lower animals: he makes them subservient to his use and when he cannot subdue them he destroys them. — Alexis de Tocqueville

Indispensable nation? If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future. (Interview on NBC-TV "The Today Show" with Matt Lauer, Columbus, Ohio, February 19, 1998, defending the US role in enforcing an embargo on Iraq in the aftermath of the first Gulf War in 1991. Historian James Chace and President Bill Clinton presidential aide Sidney Blumenthal apparently coined the term in 1996 to capture the essence of Clinton’s liberal-internationalist vision of the post–Cold War world. President Bill Clinton used it in his January 20, 1997, inauguration speech and in a 1998 speech outlining the rationale for the NATO’s intervention in Bosnia. President Barack Obama used the phrase at least twice, in his January 24, 2012, State of the Union Address and May 2012 commencement address at the US Air Force Academy Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton repeated the "indispensable nation" claim in a February 2013 speech and again in her 2014 book, Hard Choices. — anonymous

Bumper stickers posted in the inside of a song-taew (small pickup truck with covered bed serving as a tax in Thailand): 2 scenes First, ornate cross, on which hangs a crucified Ronald McDonald (the hamburger chain mascot) Second, figures representing evolutionary history, beginning with an ape, going forward to a man walking and carrying a cross, then back to an ape. Undernearth both are the words "Save Thai Culture" — anonymous

In 1982 I came across a quote from the humorist Will Rogers, who once asked: “Where the hell is Nicaragua, and what the hell are we doing there?” And that was in 1933. At that point the US had already been involved there for nearly a century. — anonymous

Opening monologue, in the HBO miniseries “The Pacific,” by a Marine commander to a group of non-commissioned officers shortly before Christmas 1941: “Those of you who are lucky enough to get home for Christmas, hold your loved ones dearly. Join them in prayers for peace on earth and good will toward all men. And then report back here ready to sail across God’s vast ocean, where we will meet our enemy and kill them all. Merry Christmas.” — anonymous