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. . . DUELS see: "CHALLENGE" see: "FIGHT" ^ [When challenged to a duel by an Army major:] Sir, I have two objections to this duel matter. The one is, lest I should hurt you; and the other is, lest you should hurt me. I do not see any good it would do me to put a bullet thro' any part of your body. I could make no use of you when dead for any culinary purpose, as I would a rabbit or a turkey. I am no cannibal to feed on the flesh of men. Why then shoot down a human creature, of which I could make no use? A buffaloe would be better meat. For though your flesh might be delicate and tender; yet it wants that firmness and consistency which takes and retains salt. At any rate, it would not be fit for long sea voyages. You might make a good barbacue, it is true, being of the nature of a raccoon or an opossum; but people are not in the habit of barbacuing any thing human now. As to your hide, it is not worth taking off, being little better than that of a year old colt. [...] As to myself, I do not much like to stand in the way of any thing harmful. I am under apprehensions you might hit me. That being the case, I think it most adviseable to stay at a distance. If you want to try your pistols, take some object, a tree or a barn door, about my dimensions. If you hit that, send me word, and I shall acknowledge that if I had been in the same place you might also have hit me. John Farrago Late Captain, Pennsylvania Militia --Hugh Henry Brackenridge (17481816) American writer, lawyer, and justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. _Modern Chivalry: Containing the Adventures of Captain John Farrago and Teague O' Regan, His Servant_ [1792-1815] ^ ^ Alexandre Dumas (18021870) French novelist and playwright. Dumas's quarrel with a rising young politician became so intense that a duel was inevitable. As both were superb shots, they decided to draw lots, the loser agreeing to shoot himself. Dumas lost. Pistol in hand, he withdrew in silent dignity to another room, closing the door behind him. The rest of the company waited in gloomy suspense for the sound of the shot that would end Dumas's career. It rang out at last. They ran to the door, opened it, and there was Dumas, smoking revolver in hand. 'Gentlemen, a most regrettable thing has happened. I missed.' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ ^^ Humphrey Howarth (c. 1800), British surgeon: Challenged to a duel, Howarth appeared at the appointed venue stark naked. His challenger, understandably nonplussed, asked what he thought he was doing. Howarth solemly explained that if any bit of cloth is carried into the body by gunshot, festering inevitably follows. His opponent averred it would be ridiculous to fight a naked man and the duel was called off. --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.] ^^ ^ Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (18041869) French critic and literary historian: Although himself unpugacious, Sainte-Beuve was once compelled to fight a duel with pistols. At the critical moment, just as the order to fire was about to be given, it started to rain. Sainte- Beuve called for a pause in the proceedings while he went to his carriage and fetched and opened a large umbrella. He then faced his opponent with the umbrella held in his left hand and the pistol in his right. The opponent protested at the derogation of the dignity of the occasion. "I don't mind being killed," Sainte-Beuve responded, "but I do mind getting wet." --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ ^^ The most endearing handling of a duel challenge was done by the much-loved comic author Georges Courteline. Some cocky would-be writer, wishing to get himself some free publicity, wrote Courteline an insulting letter demanding satisfaction for some trumped-up slight. The letter was badly written and the spelling execrable. Courteline, who could be a caustic grumbler but beneath whose gruff exterior was a sweetly human man, took his quaint pen in hand and replied: "My dear young sir. As I am the offended party, the choice of weapons is mine. We shall fight with orthography. You are already dead!" --Cornelia Otis Skinner (19011979) American author and actress. _Elegant Wits and Grand Horizontals_ [1962] ^^  . . see: "BORING" see: "FOOLS" see: "IGNORANCE" see: "STUPIDITY" The head of dullness ... loses nothing of her benumbing and lethargizing influence, by reiterated discharges. --C.C. Colton (17801832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_ [1824 ed.] "Preface" He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others. --Samuel Foote (17201777) English dramatist and actor. Quoted in James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ (entry of 1783) [1791]. The worst of it is, dullness is catching. --Douglas Jerrold (18031857) English playwright and journalist. Attributed in Charles Noel Douglas _Forty Thousand Quotations, Prose and Poetical_, p. 546 [1917]. Sherry [Thomas Sheridan 17191788] is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, sir, is not in Nature. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. [28 July 1763] in James Boswell _Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791]. It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (18801956) American journalist and literary critic. "The National Letters" in _Prejudices: Second Series_ [1920]. ----- bromide [BROH-myd], noun: 1. A compound of bromine and another element or a positive organic radical. 2. A dose of potassium bromide taken as a sedative. 3. A dull person with conventional thoughts. 4. A commonplace or conventional saying. hebetude [HEB-uh-tood], noun: Mental dullness or sluggishness. jejune (adj.) [ji-'jun] Lacking in nutrient content, hence insipid, dull, lacking in intellectual content. jejunely (adverb) jejuneness (noun) longueur [long-GUR], noun: A dull and tedious passage in a book, play, musical composition, or the like. obtund (verb) [ahb-'tκnd] Make dull or blunt, deaden adj: obtundent n: obtundity pedestrian [puh-DES-tree-uhn], noun, adjective: 1. a person who gets about on foot; walker. 2. without imagination; dull.  DUNKIRK . . see: "WORLD WAR II" see: "PLACES" for other related links see: "WAR & PEACE" for other related links After the British deliverance at Dunkirk, Churchill, in the House of Commons, rallied Britain with his most memorable speech. "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the streets and fields, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender," he declared. Then, as the House of Commons thundered in an uproar at his stirring rhetoric, Churchill muttered in a whispered aside to a colleague, "And we'll fight them with the butt ends of broken beer bottles because that's bloody well all we've got!" --James C. Humes _The Wit and Wisdom of Winston Churchill_ [1994] - And so the epic of Dunkirk might have ended, but in the tradition of British politics it fell to the prime minister to give an accounting of the Allied armies' collapse in France. As Edward R. Murrow explained the background to his American listeners, Churchill's predecessors were responsible for the shocking lack of training and equipment that had handicapped the British Expeditionary Force; at Munich, Chamberlain had 'purchased a few months of normal living and normal working, while assuring the country that. . . time was on the side of the Allies. But they brought that quiet and complacency in an expensive market.' Fortunately for Britain and those who stood beside her in these hours of borrowed time, a new leader had taken charge, and the meaning of Dunkirk was about to be perpetuated by one of the great orators of that or any other day. Winston Churchill rose in a House of Commons packed with members and visitors. He reminded them in detail of what had happened in the wake of the German breakthrough at Sedan, when Hitler's armies swept like a sharp scythe around the right and rear of the armies of the north, 'until all that prevented the enemies' armor from overrunning the port of Dunkirk was four thousand Tommies and French poilus defending Calais, heroic men who held out through four days of street fighting until only thirty unwounded survivors remained to be taken off by the navy. A week earlier, Churchill had feared that no more than twenty or thirty thousand men might be saved at Dunkirk, that 'the whole root and core and brain of the British Army' would have to surrender; yet despite all the enemy had hurled against them, the worst had not happened, thanks to the untiring efforts of the navy and air force. ... (Churchill continues)...'Yet whatever might come, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills . . . we shall never surrender, even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the old.' --Richard M. Ketchum Historian and author. _The Borrowed Years 19381941_ [1989] . . . and specifically regarding the rescue ... Among them, as J.B. Priestley told his radio audience, were the little steamers that once carried day-trippers on holiday to seaside resorts, with 'the gents full of high spirits and bottled beer, the ladies eating pork pies, the children sticky with peppermint, and these Brighton Belles and Brighton Queens, summoned to rescue the troops, were creating an English epic by making excursion trips into hell and coming back glorious. By no means all of them returned: the good ship Gracie Fields, which used to ply the ferry run to the Isle of Wight, was one that paddled and churned away forever.' Of something like 850 vessels involved, at least 235 were lost. ... During nine frantic and heroic days, between May 26 and June 4, some 338,000 Allied troops were rescued from almost certain disaster in what Winston Churchill properly called 'the deliverance.' ... Even so, it was not yet over. Until the final hours, Ramsey's flotilla kept coming, and as late as June 5 the boats were still taking Frenchmen off the beaches. A young lieutenant commanding a motor torpedo boat took a last look at the harbor before turning for home. 'The whole scene,' he remembered, 'was filled with a sense of finality and death; the curtain was ringing down on a great tragedy.' David Divine, a free-lance writer who took a little motor sailer to Dunkirk, had been stranded on a sandbar and in the final hours of the evacuation he picked up a ride home on the White Wing, a thiry-foot launch, when he saw what must be a thousand French soldiers silhouetted by the flash of exploding shells. They were waiting patiently to board a ship when it suddenly exploded and vanished from sight. With their last hope of rescue gone, the Frenchmen turned around and headed through the gunfire toward the shattered town. It was, Divine said, 'quite the most tragic thing I have ever seen in my life.' --Richard M. Ketchum Historian and author. _The Borrowed Years 19381941_ [1989] - This little steamer, like all her brave and battered sisters, is immortal. She'll go sailing proudly down the years in the epic of Dunkirk. And our great-grandchildren, when they learn how we began this war by snatching glory out of defeat, and then swept on to victory, may also learn how the little holiday steamers made an excursion to hell and came back glorious. --J.B. [John Boynton] Priestley (18941984) English novelist, playwright and critic. Radio broadcast [5 June 1940]. . . see: "RESPONSIBILITY" see: "CHARACTER" for other related links Do daily and hourly your duty; do it patiently and thoroughly. Do it as it presents itself; do it at the moment, and let it be its own reward. Never mind whether it is known and acknowledged or not, but do not fail to do it. --John H. Aughey (18281911) American clergyman. _Spiritual Gems of The Ages_ [1886] In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty. --Augustine, St. of Hippo (354430) Christian theologian and bishop of Hippo in Roman Africa [396430]. Attributed in Thomas Fielding _Select Proverbs Of All Nations_ [1824]. The first duty towards children is to make them happy. If you have not made them happy, you have wronged them. No other good they may get can make up for that. --Charles Buxton (18231871) English author. _Notes of Thought_ [1873] No more important duty can be urged upon those who are entering the great theatre of life than simple loyalty to their best convictions. --Edwin Hubbel Chapin (18141880) American clergyman and author. _Living Words_ [1861] We don't have to be "successful," only valuable. We don't have to make money, only a difference, and particularly in the lives society counts least and puts last. --William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (19242006) American clergyman and peace activist. _Credo_ [2004], "Faith, Hope, Love" He that undertakes the education of a child undertakes the most important duty of society. --Thomas Day (17481789) English author. In James Kerr (ed.) _An Account of the Life and Writings of Thomas Day_ [1791]. Where duty is plain delay is both foolish and hazardous; where it is not, delay may be both wisdom and safety. --Tryon Edwards (18091894) American theologian. In _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, [1908]. No man can always be right. So the struggle is to do one's best; to keep the brain and conscience clear; never to be swayed by unworthy motives or inconsequential reasons, but to strive to unearth the basic factors involved and then to do one's duty. --Dwight D. Eisenhower (18901969), American Army General, supreme Allied commander WWII, NATO commander, American President [19531961]. In a letter to Mamie Doud Eisenhower [15 February 1943]. - What I must do is all what concerns me, not what the people think. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) American philosopher and poet. "Self-Reliance" _Essays_, First Series [1841] You will always find those who think they know your duty better than you know it. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) American philosopher and poet. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Edge-Tools of Speech_, p. 118 [1886]. - Be not diverted from your duty by any idle reflections the silly world may make upon you, for their censures are not in your power, and consequently should not be any part of your concern. --Epictetus (55135) Greek philosopher. Attributed in _The Anniversary Calendar, Natal Book, and Universal Mirror_. [2 vols., pub. by William Kidd, London, 1832]. When I'm not thank'd at all, I'm thank'd enough: I've done my duty, and I've done no more. --Henry Fielding (17071754) English novelist and dramatist. _The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great_, act I, sc. 3 [1731] People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights. --attributed to Indira Gandhi (19171984) Prime Minister of India [1966-1977] and [1980-1984]. She was assasinated by Sikh extremists. I hate to see a thing done by halves; if it be right, do it boldly; if it be wrong, leave it undone. --Bernard Gilpin (15171583) English theologian. Attributed in "The Saturday Magazine" [15 September 1832]. - The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these two concepts fall into disrepute, get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. --Robert Heinlein (19071988) American science-fiction writer. _Time Enough for Love_ "Intermission" [1973] Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect. But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time and squawk for more! So learn to say No and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. (This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.) --Robert Heinlein (19071988) American science-fiction writer. _The Notebooks of Lazarus Long_ [1978] - I have another duty equally sacred . . . My duty to myself. --Henrik Ibsen (18281906) Norwegian playwright. _A Doll's House_, act III [1879] For of those to whom much is given, much is required. --John Fitzgerald Kennedy (19171963) American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [19611963]. Address to Massachusetts legislature [9 January 1961]. Duty is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less. --Robert E. Lee (18071870) American Confederate general. Lines inscribed beneath his bust in the Hall of Fame at the former campus of New York University. I could not love thee, Dear, so much, Loved I not honour more. --Richard Lovelace (16181657) English poet. "To Lucasta, Going to the Wars" [1649] Everyone who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit. --John Stuart Mill (18061873) English philosopher and social reformer. _On Liberty_, ch. 4 [1859] If we believe a thing to be bad, and if we have a right to prevent it, it is our duty to try to prevent it and to damn the consequences. --Lord Milner (18541925) British colonial administrator. [Speech in Glasgow, 26 November 1909], as quoted in Connie Robertson _The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 280 [1998]. England expects that every man will do his duty. --Horatio Nelson (17581805) British naval commander. [Signal sent from his flagship commencing the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.] I know this a man got to do what he got to do. --John Ernst Steinbeck (19021968) American novelist. _The Grapes of Wrath_, ch. 18 [1939] So many worlds, so much to do, So little done, such things to be. --Alfred, Lord Tennyson (18091892) English poet. "In Memoriam A. H. H." [1850] The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. --Henry David Thoreau (18171862) American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher. _Civil Disobedience_ [1849] Every living creature that comes into the world has something allotted to him to perform, therefore he should not stand an idle spectator of what others are doing. --Sarah Kirby Trimmer (17411810) English author of children's books, educational works, and textbooks. _Fabulous Histories_ [1821] To act with common sense according to the moment, is the best wisdom I know; and the best philosophy, to do one's duties, take the world as it comes, submit respectfully to one's lot; bless the Goodness that has given so much happiness with it, whatever it is; and despise affectation. --Horace Walpole (17171797) English writer and connoisseur. Letter to Sir Horace Mann [27 May 1776]. I fancy that it is just as hard to do your duty when men are sneering at you as when they are shooting at you. --Woodrow Wilson (18561924) American Democratic statesman and President [19131921]. Quoted in "The Outlook" [23 May 1914]. end page | DANCING - DAY | DEATH - PAGE 1 (A-G) | DEATH - PAGE 2 (H-Z) | DEBATE - DEEDS | DECEPTION | DEFEAT - DELAY | DEMOCRACY | DENIAL - DESIRE | DESPAIR - DICKENS (CHARLES) | DICTIONARY - DILIGENCE | DINNER - DISABILITY | DISAGREEMENT - DISGUISE | DISHONESTY - DOCTORS | DOGS | (ON) DOING GOOD - DREAMS | DRESS - DRUNKENNESS | DUELS - DUTY | | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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