‘No Englishman is too low to have scruples; no Englishman is high enough to be free from tyranny.’
Gandhi: “I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the culture of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible.
“But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. I refuse to live in other people’s houses as an interloper, a beggar or a slave.”
* George Bernard Shaw in his play, A Man of Destiny (Napoleon) has a passage in which Emperor Napoleon gives his views on Englishmen.
Napoleon: “Because the English are a race apart. No Englishman is too low to have scruples; no Englishman is high enough to be free from tyranny… When he wants a thing, he never tells himself that he wants it. He waits patiently until there comes into his mind, no one knows now, a burning conviction that it is his moral and religious duty to conquer those who possess the thing he wants…
“He boasts that a slave is free the moment his foot touches British soil. He makes two revolutions, and then declares war on our one in the name of law and order. There is nothing so bad or so good that you will not find Englishmen doing it; but you will never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principle. He fights you on patriotic principles; he enslaves you on imperial principles; he bullies you on manly principles; he supports his King on loyal principles and cuts off his head on republican principles. His watchword is always Duty; and he never forgets that the nation which let its duty get on the opposite side to its interest is lost… When he wants a new market for his adulterated Manchester goods, he sends a missionary to teach the native the Gospel of Peace….”
* “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal… that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863.
* “It was necessary to abolish the fez, which sat on the heads of our nation as an emblem of ignorance, negligence, fanaticism, and hatred of progress and civilization; to accept in its place the hat, the headgear worn by the civilized world.”
. Turkish President and revolutionary reformer (1883-1938).
* “A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.” Dean Acheson, US Secretary of State.
* “Political action is the highest responsibility of a citizen.” John F Kennedy, 35th President of the USA.
* “If the chief party…be corrupt, you must follow their humour and indulge them, and in that case honesty and virtue are pernicious.” Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527). Florentine philosopher.
* “Democracy means government by discussion but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.” C.R. Attlee, British Prime Minister.
* “Democracy takes time. Dictatorship is quicker but too many people get shot.” Jeffrey Archer. Mystery writer.
* “Two cheers for democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism.” E.M. Forster (1879-1970). Author, Passage to India.
* “Be polite. Write diplomatically. Even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.” Otto-Van Bismarck (1815-98). German Chancellor.
* “Diplomats are only useful in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.” Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970). President of France.
* “Sincere diplomacy is no more possible than dry water and wooden iron.” Joseph Stalin (1879-1953). Soviet dictator.
* “Do not criticise your government when out of country. Never cease to do so when at home.” Winston Churchill (1874-1965). British Prime Minister.
* “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” Voltaire (1694-1778).