Their Finest Hour

     "Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'"
     ~ Winston Churchill, "Their Finest Hour" (speech, June 18th, 1940)

     (Note: yes, this was Churchill speaking to the British house of commons on overcoming Hitler. But a phrase in here that gets me every time I read it is "the lights of perverted science." Let us not give in to perverted science, here in the U.S.; let us turn back to our founding - back to God - and walk in His light, rather than that of perverted science.)

The Enjoyment of God

     "The enjoyment of God... is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Better than  fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of any, or all earthly friends. These are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but drops, but God is the ocean."

     ~ Jonathan Edwards

The Patriot Who Acknowledges God

     "The patriot who feels himself in the service of God, who acknowledges Him in all his ways, has the promise of Almighty Direction."

     ~ Francis Scott Key

True American Patriotism

     "Do not let anyone claim tribute of American patriotism if they even attempt to remove religion from politics."
   ~ General George Washington

Cheer Up, Boys!

"Cheer up, 'tis no use to be glum, boys, -
'Tis written, since fighting begun,
That sometimes we fight and we conquer,
And sometimes we fight and we run."

~ Old Pierre

(From "The Chronicle of the Drum" [part 1] by William Makepeace Thackeray)

What Might Have Been

Then she took up the burden of life again,
Saying only, 'it might have been.'
Alas for them both, and alas for us all,
Who vainly the dreams of youth recall,
For of all sad words of lips or pen,
The saddest are these - 'it might have been.'

     ~ Whittier

Trust

     "When you don't know the Why, trust the Who."

     ~ Pastor Guy Beaumont

A Man's Duty

     "There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do, if he chooses, and that is, his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution."

     ~ Mr. (George) Knightley

The Christian Founding of America

     "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the gospel of Jesus Christ."

     ~ Patrick Henry

True Christianity

"A Christian is not someone who has a belief, but someone who has a relationship with the living God. You come to know Him."

~ Kirk Cameron

The Ugliness of War

"...I hate the whole thin - the horror, the pain, the ugliness. War isn't a khaki uniform or a drill parade - everything I've read in old histories haunts me. I lie awake at night and see things that have happened - see the blood and filth and misery of it all. And a bayonet charge! If I could face the other things I could never face that. It turns me sick to think of it - sicker even to think of giving it than receiving it - to think of thrusting a bayonet through another man."

~ Walter Blythe

Pain and Death

"I don't think I'm afraid of death itself - it's of the pain that might come before death - it wouldn't be so bad to die and have it over - but to keep on dying!"

~ Walter Blythe

Real Progress

"About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers...."

~ Calvin Coolidge

Truth

"Well, if you won't accept Tennyson as an authority, perhaps you will believe the words of a Greater than he. 'Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.' I believe that, Anne, with all my heart. It's the greatest and grandest verse in the Bible - or in any literature - and the truest, if there are comparative degrees of trueness. And it's the first duty of a man to tell the truth, as he sees it and believes it."

~ Gilbert Blythe

True Wisdom

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

~ Jim Elliot

Enjoyment

"It's been by experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will."

~ Anne Shirley

Courage and Faith

"And whoever is happy will make others happy too. He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery!"


~ Anne Frank

Change

"'...things will change, whether we like it or no, things won't go on for a long while just as they are and no difference.'"



~ Silas Marner, Silas Marner, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

The Eyes of All America

"The eyes of all America are upon us. As we play our part posterity will bless or curse us."

~ Henry Knox