On August 28, 2010, conservative talk show host Glenn Beck held a controversial media event and “rally” for his Tea Party followers in Washington, D.C. Because Beck had made racially…
Category: Historical quotes
The origins of “Rum, sodomy and the lash” – Churchill’s alleged quip about British naval tradition…
Many books of quotations include a caustic quote attributed to Winston Churchill (1874-1965) in which he supposedly called British naval tradition nothing but “rum, sodomy, and the lash.” (Sometimes given…
“Our long national nightmare is over.”
In August of 1974, faced with Congressional hearings, a mountain of bad press and the looming threat of impeachment over the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the first president in…
Jefferson’s bloody “Tree of Liberty” quote still fertilizes freedom and fanaticism
One of the signs held by a gun-toting protester against the Democratic health care proposal earlier this year said “IT IS TIME TO WATER THE TREE OF LIBERTY!” This is…
OCTOBER 16 – Castro said “History will absolve me,” but it doesn’t seem likely
On October 16, 1953, Fidel Castro made a four-hour speech, but it wasn’t one of his long stem-winders to his followers. It was a speech he gave as a prisoner,…
OCTOBER 9 – The Greeks had a phrase for it: “Know thyself.”
On October 9th in the year 28 B.C., the Temple of Apollo at Delphi was dedicated. An inscription on the temple said: “Gnothi seauton.” In English, that’s the famous quotation…
SEPTEMBER 11 – They’ll never take our freedom (to rewrite history)
If you saw the 1995 movie Braveheart, you almost surely remember star Mel Gibson in his blue-painted face yelling the famous line “They may take our lives, but they’ll never…