Famous Quotes

Famous Quotes on the need for valor and backbone.  (From a Paul Greenberg column – HERE)

"I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king and of a king of England, too; and think foul scorn that Parma and Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm." — Elizabeth I on the approach of the Spanish Armada, 1588
"England expects every man will do his duty." — Admiral Nelson at Trafalgar, 1805
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country. . . . We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in." — Thomas Paine, "The American Crisis," 1776-1777
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history." — Abraham Lincoln, Second Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 1, 1862
"I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." — U.S. Grant, May 11, 1864
"When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck before you crush him." — Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat, Sept. 11, 1941
"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never . . . ." — Winston Churchill, Oct. 29, 1941
"With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounded determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us G-d." — Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dec. 8, 1941
"I shall return." — Douglas MacArthur, Corregidor, March 11, 1942
"We can do it!" — Rosie the Riveter, pictured in a World War II poster
"OK, we'll go." — Dwight D. Eisenhower, June 5, 1944, D-Day minus one
"In war there is no substitute for victory." — Douglas MacArthur, April 19, 1951
"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."— John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961
"Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women." — Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1981
"Remember, George: This is no time to go wobbly." — Margaret Thatcher to George H. W. Bush, 41st president of the United States, shortly before the first Persian Gulf War of 1991
"But in my political lifetime I believe that it is fortitude or courage that we've most needed and often, I fear, most lacked." — Margaret Thatcher, Dec. 10, 1997
"Inspired by all the courage that has come before, we will meet our moment and we will prevail." — George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States, Oct. 11, 2001
"The idea that we're going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong." — Howard Dean, chairman, Democratic National Committee, Dec. 5, 2005