Familiar short sayings of great men
Familiar short sayings of great men (PDF) by Samuel Arthur Bent with historical and explanatory notes
In collecting true and notable sayings, and happy thoughts flashed in the heat of controversy or the war of wit, I have taken no account of what men have written in books, save as such written words illustrate their own or others' speech; nor will all the sayings of ancient or modern times be included in five hundred pages.
Such a compilation would be as impossible as to bring into one volume every historic event which has stirred man to heroic utterance, or every idea with which the sublime and the beautiful have inspired the scholar and the poet. Too liberal and intention has not been given to the title, "Great Men."
Those who remember Lysauder's maxim, that, " where the lion's skin fails to reach, it must be pieced out with the fox's," may ask if it is the lion's robe which covers both Julius Caesar and Sir Boyle Roche. If so, they have forgotten that Goethe did not confine his question to the clever things which one century borrows from another, even dullness has its place: " Who can think wise or stupid things at all, That was not thought already in the past? "
Example
JOHN ADAMS.
One of the most prominent advocates of the American War of Independence ; born in Braintree, Mass., Oct. 19, 1735; graduated from Harvard College ; member of the first Continental Congress, of the committee to prepare the Declaration of Independence ; Commissioner to France, 1777 ; Commissioner to England, 1782, and Minister, 1785 ; Vice-president, 1789-1797 ; President of the United States, 1797-1801 ; died July 4, 1826.
Sink or swim, live or die.
In a eulogy upon Adams and Jefferson, Aug. 2, 1826, Daniel Webster introduced a speech, supposed to have been made by Mr. Adams in favor of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, with the words, “ Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my heart and my hand to this vote.” The expression was derived from the record of a conversation between Mr. Adams and Jonathan Sewall in 1774: “TI answered that the die was now cast; I had passed the Rubicon. Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish with my country, was my unalterable determination!” My. Webster’s imaginary speech closed with the words, “Independence now, and independence forever!” Being roused by the discharge of cannon on the morning of the last day of his life, President Adams asked the cause; when told that it was Independence Day, he murmured, “ Independence forever!” He had on the 30th of June given those words in answer to a request for a toast to be offered in his name on the following 4th of July. He was asked if he would add nothing to it: “Not one word,” was his reply. — Life of John Adam.
