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"Believe those who search for truth. Doubt those who claim to
have found it" - - André Gide
(1869 -1951) Nobel Laureate in Literature 1947
"Error
repeats itself endlessly in deeds. Therefore, we must repeat the
truth tirelessly in words" - -
Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe (1749 -1832) German writer
"I have observed that the world has suffered
far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics
or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No
agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an
unbeliever" - -
Daniel Boorstin (1914 - 2004) American social historian
"Five score years ago, a great
American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the
Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great
beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been
seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous
daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.
One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly
crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of
discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a
lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of
material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still
languished in the corners of American society and finds himself
an exile in his own land" - - Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 – 1968), speaking at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC 1963
"If there is anyone out there
who still doubts that America is a place where all things are
possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is
alive in our time; who still questions the power of our
democracy, tonight is your answer"
- -
President-Elect Barack Obama, Election Night Tuesday, November 4th, 2008, Grant Field, Chicago
“The scene was sickening and all the Irish were there, most of them vying
with each other in eagerness to plunder the public purse,”
William Ewart
Gladstone,
British Chancellor of the Exchequer, in an 1859 letter to his wife
concerning a House of Commons debate, on the cancellation of a subsidy for the
mail steam-packet service between Galway, Ireland and America. Gladstone was
facing a budget deficit of £5m.
Engaged in felling a tree at his home in Wales, in 1868,
Gladstone remarked on
receiving a telegram advising of the planned arrival of an emissary from the
Queen,
"very significant."
About to become prime minister for the first of four periods, he then
remarked to an aide:
"My mission is to pacify Ireland."
Of the 51 men and one woman, who have occupied 10
Downing Street, Gladstone
ranks with Tony Blair for the extent of attention given to the
"Irish Question."
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