Quotes

Here are a bunch of quotes that I rather like.

The American Civil War

"Military fame is to be killed on the field of battle, and then have our name spelt wrong in the newspapers."

General William T. Sherman

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."

Last words of General John Sedgwick, United States Army, prior to being shot in the head, 1864

"Men, for God's sake, for your Country's sake, for your own sake, come up here, form a line and make one more stand."

Captain D. Putnam, United States Volunteers

"That man talks well, don't he."

Unidentified Privates Reply

"Stop men! Don't you love your Country?"

General Banks, United States Army

"Yes by God, and I'm trying to get back to it just as fast as I can."

Unidentified Private's Reply

"Why are you running?"

Confederate Officer, 1864

"I'm running because I can't fly."

Private's Response

"Pardon me, is the majority always drunk?"

South Carolinian voter in a letter to the Confederate Congress, 1863

"South Carolina is too small to be a Republic, and too large to be an insane asylum."

South Carolina Politician in response to calls for succession from the Union

"I think that the damn old cuss of a preacher lied like Dixie. For he said that God has fought all our battles and won our victories. Now if He had done all that, why is it not in the papers, and why has he not been promoted?"

Sergeant Albinis Fell, United States Army, 1864

"Before the war, it was said, 'The United States are...' Grammatically, it was spoken that way and thought of as a collection of independent states. After the war, it was always 'the United States is... as we say today without being self conscious at all. And that sums up what the war accomplished. It made us an 'is'."

Shelby Foote, Civil War Historian

"We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Abraham Lincoln, 1861

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate,  we can not consecrate,  we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address 1863

Air Crash Investigations

"The most frequent last words I have heard on cockpit voice recorder tapes are 'Oh shit', said with about that much emotion. There's no panic, no scream, it's a sort of resignation: we've done everything we can, I can't think of anything else to do and this is it."

Frank McDermott, Air Crash Investigator

"There's been a marked increase in BFOs recently. For BFO read Bits Falling Off."

Anonymous Airline Engineer

"We have no effective screening methods to make sure pilots are sane."

Dr Herbert Haynes, FAA

"Kicking tin has become a term that's used to describe accident-investigators and it's more prevalent in aviation. If you watch TV or you see a picture, typically you see a bunch of investigators, and the little caption says 'investigators looking at a piece of wreckage'. Usually on the news you see somebody shuffling around or kicking something with their foot to turn the piece over. That has just progressed into the term tin-kicker."

Gregory Feith, Air Safety Investigator NTSB

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get the going again. I trust that you are not in too much distress."

Captain Eric Moody 1982 (He landed safely!)

Student Representatives

"You're a Rep - FOR GOD'S SAKE DO YOUR JOB!"

Tara Hemmingway, USASA Staff Member 1997

"My parents put me out in the sun all day because they said it was good for me, and now I'm blind in one eye."

Kathryn Power, USASA Rep 1997

"If you want to get anywhere here, you're going to have to learn to treat your stormtroopers better."

Keiron Andrews, USASA Staff Member 1997

"The way that Student Associations work is that you have three people doing all the work, and seventy people standing around saying 'Gee you're crap.'"

David Schneider, USASA Rep 1997

"Being a student rep is like getting hooked on smack, you dabble in it and before you know it, you're addicted. Before you know it you're selling your VCR just to get a committee. Becoming a staff member is like the methadone programme."

Tyrone Lynch, USASA Rep 1997

All Sorts of Stuff

"I have yet to see a problem, however complicated, which, when looked at in the right way, did not become more complicated."

Unknown

"Errors have been made, others will be blamed."

Anon

"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

Unknown

"They [Corporations] cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed, nor excommunicated, for they have no souls."

Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of England

"Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue."

Seneca

"The death of one person is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic."

Joseph Stalin

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Edmund Burke

'"It is easier for a man to be loyal to his club than his planet; the bylaws are shorter, and he is personally acquainted with the other members."

E.B. White

"Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice."

H.L. Mencken

"It has yet to be proved that intelligence has any survival value."

Robert A. Heinlein

"When we jumped into Sicily, the units became separated, and I couldn't find anyone. Eventually I stumbled across two Colonels, a Major, three Captains, two Lieutenants and one rifleman, and we secured the bridge. Never in the history of war have so few been led by so many."

General James Gavin

"This is root beer. It's a Terran beverage, it's bright and bubbly and sickly sweet - just like the Federation. The thing about it is that the more you drink it, the more you like it - just like the Federation."

Quark in 'Star Trek Deep Space 9'

"Tyrone, you know how much I love to watch you work. But I have my Country's five hundredth anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder, and Gilder to frame for it. I'm swamped."

Prince Humperdink in 'The Princess Bride'

Military Officer Fitness Reports

"His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of curiosity."

"Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in trap."

"This man is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot."

"I would not breed from this officer."

"When she opens her mouth, it seems that this is only to change whichever foot was previously in there."

"He has carried out each and every one of his duties to his entire satisfaction."

"He would be out of his depth in a car park puddle."

"Technically sound, but socially impossible."

"This Officer reminds me very much of a gyroscope - always spinning around at a frantic pace, but not really going anywhere."

"This young lady has delusions of adequacy."

"This Medical Officer has used my ship to carry his genitals from port to port, and my officers to carry him from bar to bar."

"Since my last report he has reached rock bottom, and has started to dig."

"She sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them."

"He has the wisdom of youth and the energy of old age."

"This Officer should go far - and the sooner he starts, the better."

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