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;void(0)) . . . EPITAPHS see: "LAST WORDS" see: "DEATH" for other related links When I am dead, I hope it may be said His sins were scarlet, but his books were read. --Hilaire Belloc (18701953) British poet, essayist, historian, and novelist. "On His Books" [1923] [Suggested epitaph for a movie star:] She sleeps alone at last. --Robert Benchley (18891945) American humorist and newspaper columnist. Quoted in Edmund Fuller _2500 Anecdotes for All Occasions_ [1943]. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them. (Particularly associated with Remembrance Day services.) --Laurence Binyon (18691943) English poet. "For the Fallen" [1914] And when he goes to heaven, To Saint Peter he will tell: Another Marine reporting, sir; I've served my time in hell! --Epitaph on grave of Pfc. Cameron of the U.S. Marine Corps, Guadalcanal [1942] And when I lie in the green kirkyard, With the mould upon my breast, Say not that 'She did well or ill,' Only, 'She did her best.' --Dinah Mulock Craik (18261887) English writer and poet. (Lines from one of her poems repeated at her eulogy.) It's pleasant to hear these nice words while I'm still alive. I'd rather have the taffy than the epitaphy. --Chauncey Depew (18341928) American orator, politician, and railroad president. Quoted in Herbert Victor Prochnow _The Public Speaker's Treasure Chest_ [1977 ed.]. His form was of the manliest beauty, His heart was kind and soft, Faithful, below, he did his duty; But now he's gone aloft. --Charles Dibdin (17451814) British actor and dramatist. _Tom Bowling_ [song published in 1841] For there is no day however beautiful that is not followed by night. --On the tombstone of Jean d'Orbesan in Padua, Italy. Here lies my wife: here let her lie! Now she's at rest, and so am I. --John Dryden (16311700) English poet, critic, and dramatist. (Epitaph intended for his wife.) When you go home, tell them of us and say, 'For your tomorrows, these gave their today.' (Particularly associated with the dead of the Burma campaign of WWII.) --John Maxwell Edmonds (18751958) English classicist. "Inscriptions Suggested for War Memorials" [1919] [Suggested epitaph for himself:] Here lies W.C. Fields. I would rather be living in Philadelphia. --W. C. Fields [William Claude Dukenfield] (18801946) American vaudeville star and film actor. Quoted in "Vanity Fair" [June 1925]. Here Skugg Lies snug As a bug In a rug. --Benjamin Franklin (17061790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. Epitaph for Miss Georgiana Shipley's pet squirrel, in a letter to her [26 September 1772]. Life's race well run, Life's work well done, Life's crown well won, Now comes rest. --Epitaph of James A. Garfield (18311881) 20th President of the United States [1881]. Life is a jest and all things show it; I thought so once, but now I know it. --John Gay (16851732) English poet and dramatist. "My Own Epitaph" [1720] Underneath this pile of stones Lies the remains of Henry Jones His name was Smith It was not Jones But Jones was put To rhyme with stones. Over my dead body! --George S. Kaufman (18891961) American playwright, director, and producer. His proposed epitaph, quoted in Robert E. Drennan _The Algonquin Wits_ [1968]. Free at last, free at last Thank God almighty We are free at last. (Epitaph of Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968.) --anon., spiritual with which he ended his "I Have a Dream" speech. Here lies the bones of Richard Lawton Whose death alas! was strangely brought on. Trying his corns one day to mow off. His razor slipped and cut his toe off. His toe or rather what it grew to, An inflimation quickly grew to. Which took alas! to mortifying And was the cause of Richard's dying. --gravestone in Plymouth, Massachusetts [Epitaph for a waiter:] By and by God caught his eye. --David McCord (18971997) American poet and essayist. "Remainders" [1935] John Le Mesurier wishes it to be known that he conked out on November 15th. He sadly misses family and friends. --John Le Mesurier (19121983) Obituary notice in "The TImes" [16 November 1983]. Here lies the body of John Julius MacFarlane Drowned in the waters of Leith By a few affectionate friends. Here lies Anne Mann; she lived an Old maid and died an old Mann. --At Bath Abbey. If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me amd have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (18801956) American journalist and literary critic. His own proposed epitaph, in "Smart Set" (mag.) [December 1921]. I told you I was ill. --Spike [Terence Alan] Milligan (19182002) Irish novelist, poet, musician, and comedian. Headstone at his grave, St. Thomas's Church, Winchelsea, East Sussex. - Boothill Cemetary, Tombstone, Ariz.: Here lies Lester Moore, Four shots from a forty four No les, no more. - Here lies the remains of James Pady, Brickmaker, in hope that his clay will be remoulded in a workmanlike manner, far superior to his former perishable materials. --At Addiscombe Church, Devonshire, England. Excuse My Dust. --Dorothy Parker (18931967) American critic and humorist. Suggested epitaph for herself. Quoted in "Vanity Fair" [June 1925]. Warm summer sun, shine friendly here; Warm western wind, blow kindly here; Green sod above, rest light, rest light Good-night, Annette! Sweetheart, good-night. --Robert Richardson, _Willow and Wattle_ "Annette" M.S. Donald Robertson Born 1st of January 1785 Died 4th of June 1848 Aged 65 years He was a peaceable man, and to all appearance a sincere Christian. His death was much regretted which was caused by the stupidity of Lawrence Tulloch of Clotherton who sold him nitre instead of Epsom salts by which he was killed in the space of three hours after taking a dose of it. --epitaph on gravestone in Cross Kirk, Shetland Here lies Johnny Yeast Pardon me For not rising. --Johnny Yeast, Ruidoso, New Mexico - It is so soon that I am done for, I wonder what I was begun for. --For a child aged three weeks, Cheltenham Churchyard, England - Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. --Song of Songs 8:7, epitaph (engraved on memorial in a Bronx cemetary) for Isidor and Ida Straus who died on the Titanic. Ida (63) twice had the opportunity to take a place on a lifeboat but chose to stay with her husband instead. She insisted that her maid take her place on the lifeboat and handed the young woman her fur coat saying, "I won't need this anymore." Here lies one who meant well, tried a little, failed much. --Robert Louis Stevenson (18501894) Scottish essayist, poet, and novelist. "A Christmas Sermon" I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona. It says: Here lies Jack Williams. He has done his damnedest. I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have when he gives everything that is in him to do the job he has before him. That is all you can ask of him and that is what I have tried to do I studied the lives of great men and famous women; and I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy, enthusiasm and hard work. --Harry S. Truman (18841972) American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [19451953]. In Meiji Stewart _Shoot for the Moon_, p. 150 [2000]. He first deceased; she for a little tried To live without him, liked it not, and died. --Henry Wotton (15681639) English poet and diplomat. _Upon the Death of Sir Albertus Morton's Wife_ - Here I lies, and no wonder I'm dead, For the wheel of a wagon went over my head. Here lies Cynthia, Steven's wife She lived six years in calm and strife. Death came at last and set her free, I was glad and so was she. --gravestone in Hollis, New Hampshire Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal. --From a headstone in Ireland Lelio is buried here; He was born, He lived, He died. My time was come! My days were spent! I was called away and away I went! A thousand ways cut short our days, None are exempt from death. A honey-bee by stinging me Did stop my mortal breath. --gravestone in Orange County, New York To all my friends I bid adieu, A more sudden death you never knew As I was leading the old mare to drink, She kicked, and killed me quicker'n a wink. It was a cough That carried me off, But it was a coffin They carried me off in. His foot did slip and he did fall help help he cried and that was all. --on a smuggler's gravestone near PenArrow Beach, Cornwall Played five aces Now playing the harp --Boot Hill, Dodge City Rest in peace. The mistake shall not be repeated. --anon., inscription on the cenotaph at Hiroshima, Japan Here lies one Wood Enclosed in Wood One Wood within another. One of these Woods is very good: We cannot praise the other. --Epitaph Epitaph: Irritating reminder that someone else always has the last word. --anon. You who come my grave to view, A moment stop and think, That I am in eternity, And you are on the brink. --Unknown  ;void(0)) EQUAL RIGHTS / EQUALITY . . see: "BIGOTRY" see: "BROTHERLY LOVE" see: "CLASS" see: "JUSTICE" see: "PREJUDICE" see: "SLAVERY" see: "TOLERANCE" see: "WOMEN'S LIB" see: "WOMEN'S RIGHTS" see: "FREEDOM" for other related links - In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I would desire you remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. --Abigail Adams (17441818) American first lady [17971801], the wife of John Adams, second president of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States. Letter to John Adams [31 March 1776]. It is really mortifying, sir, when a woman possessed of a common share of understanding considers the difference of education between the male and female sex, even in those families where education is attended to .... Nay, why should your sex wish for such a disparity in those whom they one day intend for companions and associates? --Abigail Adams (17441818) American first lady [17971801], the wife of John Adams, second president of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States. Letter to John Thaxter [15 Februarry 1778]. - In every society where property exists, there will ever be a struggle between rich and poor. Mixed in one assembly, equal laws can never be expected. They will either be made by numbers, to plunder the few who are rich, or by influence, to fleece the many who are poor. --John Adams (17351826) First VP and second President of the United States. _A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America_ [17871788] - Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less. --Susan B(rownwell) Anthony (18201906) American crusader for the woman suffrage movement. Motto of "The Revolution" (woman suffrage newspaper) [8 January 1868]. Join the union, girls, and together say 'Equal Pay for Equal Work.' --Susan B(rownwell) Anthony (18201906) American crusader for the woman suffrage movement. In "The Revolution" (woman suffrage newspaper) [18 March 1869]. - There is no method by which men can be both free and equal. --Walter Bagehot (18261877) British economist and essayist. In "The Economist" [5 September 1863]. The sole equality on earth is death. --Philip James Bailey (18161902) English poet. _Festus_ [1839] What makes equality such a difficult business is that we only want it with our superiors. --Henry Becque (18371899) French dramatist. _Querelles litteraires_ [1890] - Frank: Anything you can do, I can do better. Annie: I can do any thing better than you. F: No you can't. A: Yes I can. F: No you can't. A: Yes I can. F: No you can't. A: Yes I can, yes I can. . . . F: I can shoot a partridge with a single cartridge. A: I can get a sparrow with a bow and arrow. F: I can do most anything. A: Can you bake a pie? F: No. A: Neither can I. --Irving Berlin (18881989) American songwriter. "Anything You Can Do" Song from the 1946 play _Annie Get Your Gun_. - All men are created equal. Some, it appears, are created a little more equal than others. --Ambrose Bierce (18421914) American newspaperman, wit, and satirist. "Wasp" (San Francisco) [16 September 1882] If the wife should say to her husband, 'I no longer want you for my husband,' she is to be thrown into the water with her hands and feet tied. On the other hand, if he should say, 'I no longer want you for my wife,' he is to pay her 80 grams of silver. --marriage contract [c. 1700 B.C.], in Jean Bottιro _Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia_, p. 115 [2001]. The freedom women were supposed to have in the Sixties largely boiled down to easy contraception and abortion: things to make life easier for men, in fact. --Julie Burchill (b. 1959) English journalist. _Damaged Goods_ "Born Again Cows" [1986] A woman's place is in the House, and the Senate, too. --"Burlington Daily Times News" (N.C.) [7 May 1973] Is it better to have equality at the price of poverty or well-being at the price of inequality? --Winston Churchill (18741965) British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister [19401945, 19511955]. In James C. Humes _The Wit and Wisdom of Winston Churchill_ [1994]. He once sailed into the Newport, California, harbor and took his skipper along with him into the yacht club bar. An official beckoned him aside and intimated that a respectable yacht club was no place to bring his "paid hands." [Humphrey] Bogart called for his bar check and on the back of it wrote out his resignation. --Alistair Cooke [Alfred Cooke] (19082004) British-born American broadcater and journalist. _Six Men_ [1977] Equality, in a social sense, may be divided into that of condition and that of rights. Equality of condition is incompatible with civilization, and is found only to exist in those communities that are but slightly removed from the savage state. in practice, it can only mean a common misery. --James Fenimore Cooper (17891851) American novelist. _The American Democrat_ [1838] Everybody has asked the question . . . "What shall we do with the Negro?" I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! --Frederick Douglass [Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey] (c.18181895) American abolitionist, reformer, and writer. Quoted in "What the Black Man Wants" _Negro Social and Political Thought 18501920_, edited by Howard Brotz_, p. 283 [1962]. Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias. For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies. Leave men free, and their natural inequalities will multiply almost geometrically, as in England and America in the nineteenth century under laissez-faire. To check the growth of inequality, liberty must be sacrificed, as in Russia after 1917. Even when repressed, inequality grows; only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom, and in the end superior ability has its way. --Will Durant (18851981) American philosopher and writer. _The Lessons of History_ [1968] If the boy passes the examinations he will be admitted; and if the white students choose to withdraw, all the income of the college will be devoted to his education. --Edward Everett (17941865) American statesman and orator. Responding to protest against admission of a black student at Harvard [1848]. The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. --Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault] (18441924) French novelist, man of letters, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921. Quoted in Georg Brandes _Anatole France_ [1908]. A society that puts equality in the sense of equality of outcome ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. --Milton Friedman (19122006) American laissez-faire economist; winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economics. _Free to Choose_ [1980] w/ Rose Friedman Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion. --William Lloyd Garrison (18051879) American abolitionist and reformer. In Wendell Phillips Garrison & Francis Jackson Garrison _William Lloyd Garrison 18051879: The Story of His Life ..._ [1889]. When every one is somebodee, Then no one's anybody. --W. S. Gilbert (18361911) English writer of comic and satirical verse. "The Gondoliers" [1889] We are not all equal, nor can we be so. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (17491832) German poet, novelist, and playwright. Attributed in _Day's Collacon: An Encyclopaedia of Prose Quotations_ [1884]. Inequality will exist as long as liberty exists. It unavoidably results from that very liberty itself. --Alexander Hamilton (1755or571804) New York delegate to the Constitutional Convention, major author of the _Federalist Papers_, and first secretary of the Treasury of the United States [1789-1795]. Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they have invariably wound up with the dirty end of the stick. What they are and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic is to demand special privileges, all the traffic will bear. They should never settle merely for equality. For women, "equality" is a disaster. --Robert Heinlein (19071988) American science-fiction writer. _Time Enough for Love_ [1973] There are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers, and they are entitled to a little representation [on the Supreme Court], aren't they? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters, and Cardozos. --Roman L. Hruska (19041999) American politician. Quoted in "N.Y. Times" [17 March 1970]. The struggle for equal opportunity in America is the struggle for America's soul. The ugliness of bigotry stands in direct contradiction to the very meaning of America. --Hubert H. Humphrey (19111978) 38th vice-president of the United States [19651969] and liberal senator [19491965] & [19711978]. _Beyond Civil Rights A New Day of Equality_ [1968] HELMER: First and foremost, you are a wife and mother. NORA: That I don't believe any more. I believe that first and foremost I am an individual, just as much as you are. --Henrik Ibsen (18281906) Norwegian playwright. _A Doll's House_ [1879], Act III - We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. We have talked for a hundred years or more. It is time now to write the next chapter, and to write it in the books of law. --Lyndon B. Johnson (19081973) American Democratic statesman, President [19631969]. Address to Congress [27 November 1963]. But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying, "Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please." You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "You are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates. And this is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom, but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity, but human ability; not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and equality as a result. --Lyndon B. Johnson (19081973) American Democratic statesman, President [19631969]. Commencement Address at Howard University [4 June 1965]. - The urge to distribute wealth equally, and still more the belief that it can be brought about by political action, is the most dangerous of all popular emotions. It is the legitimation of envy, of all the deadly sins the one which a stable society based on consensus should fear the most. The monster state is a source of many evils; but it is, above all, an engine of envy. --Paul Johnson (b. 1928) British historian. _The Recovery of Freedom_ [1980] - So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791] "15 February 1766." Sir, your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves. They would all have some people under them; why not then have some people above them? --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ "21 July 1763" [1791]. compare: In America everybody is of opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards. --Bertrand Russell (18721970) British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate. _Unpopular Essays_ [1950], ch. X, "Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind" - - Government action is not the whole answer to the present crisis, but it is an important partial answer. Morals cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. The law cannot make an employer love me, but it can keep him from refusing to hire me because of the color of my skin. --Martin Luther King, Jr. (19291968) American civil rights leader. _Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story_ ch. II [1958] I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable netwrok of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever effects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. --Martin Luther King, Jr. (19291968) American civil rights leader. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" [16 April 1963] - Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions it only guarantees equality of opportunity. --Irving Kristol (19202009) American founder of the neoconservative movement. Attributed in Daniel Taddeo _Matters That Matter..._ [2006]. Women who insist upon having the same options as men would do well to consider the option of being the strong, silent type. --Fran Lebowitz (b. 1946) American humorist. _Metropolitan Life_ [1978] Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy. --Abraham Lincoln (18091865) American Republican statesman, President [18611865]. Letter to Joshua F. Speed [24 August 1855]. We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, my brothers and sisters Plymouth Rock landed on us. --Malcolm X (19251965) American civil rights campaigner. _The Autobiography of Malcolm X_ , ch. 12 [1964] Many women, particularly young women, have claimed the right to use the most explicit sex terms, including extremely vulgar ones, in public as well as private. But it is men, far more than women, who have been liberated by this change. For now that women use these terms, men no longer need to watch their own language in the presence of women. But is this a gain for women? --Margaret Mead (19011978) American anthropologist. Attributed in "Reader's Digest" [1987]. The principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes the legal subordination of one sex to the other is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and ... it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other. --John Stuart Mill (18061873) English philosopher and social reformer. _The Subjection of Women_, ch. I [1869] Equality for women? That is madness. Women are our property; we are not theirs. They give us children ... and belong to us as the fruit-bearing tree belongs to the gardener. --Napoleon I (17691821) Emperor of France [18041815]. _In the Words of Napoleon_ p. 104, tr. Daniel Savage Gray [1977]. - Attorney addressing the Supreme Court: I would like to remind you gentlemen of a legal point. Justice O'Connor: Would you like to remind me, too? --Sandra Day O'Connor (b. 1930) American lawyer, politician, and first woman to become a United States Supreme Court justice [19812006]. Format adapted; quoted in "Newsweek" [1991]. - - All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. --George Orwell [Eric Blair] (19031950) English novelist. _Animal Farm_ [1945] Throughout recorded time, and probably since the end of the Neolithic Age, there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle, and the Low. They have been subdivided in many ways, they have borne countless different names, and their relative numbers, as well as their attitude toward one another, have varied from age to age; but the essential structure of society has never altered. Even after enormous upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern has always reasserted itself, just as a gyroscope will always return to equilibrium, however far it is pushed one way or the other. The aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable. The aim of the High is to remain where they are. The aim of the Middle is to change places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim for it is an abiding characteristic of the Low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal. Thus throughout history a struggle which is the same in its main outlines recurs over and over again. For long periods the High seem to be securely in power, but sooner or later there always comes a moment when they lose either their belief in themselves, or their capacity to govern efficiently, or both. They are then overthrown by the Middle, who enlist the Low on their side by pretending to them that they are fighting for liberty and justice. As soon as they have reached their objective, the Middle thrust the Low back into their old position of servitude, and themselves become the High. Presently a new Middle group splits off from one of the other groups, or from both of them, and the struggle begins over again. Of the three groups, only the Low are never even temporarily successful in achieving their aims. It would be an exaggeration to say that throughout history there has been no progress of a material kind. Even today, in a period of decline, the average human being is physically better off than he was a few centuries ago. But no advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimeter nearer. From the point of view of the law, no historic change has ever meant much more than a change in the name of the masters. --George Orwell [Eric Blair] (19031950) English novelist. _Nineteen Eighty-Four_, pt. 2, ch. 9 [1949] - I believe in the admission of women to the full rights of citizenship and share in government, on the express grounds that few women keep house so badly or with such wastefulness as Chancellors of the Exchequer keep the state. --Theodore Parker (18101860) American minister of the Unitarian church. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Notable Thoughts About Women_, p. 295 [1882]. In one generation we have moved from denying a black man service at a lunch counter to elevating one to the highest military office in the nation, and to being a serious contender for the presidency. This is a magnificent country and I am proud to be one of its sons. --Colin L. Powell (b. 1937) Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff [19891993]; Secretary of State [20012005]. At a news conference in Alexandria, VA, where he announced his decision not to seek the presidential nomination [8 November 1995]. Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, Had a wife and tried to beat her; But his wife was a suffragette, And Peter's in the hospital yet. --Progressive era jingle, in Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster _The Century_, p. 27 [1998]. I fought beside the colored troops at Santiago, and I hold that if a man is good enough to be put up and shot at, then he is good enough for me to do what I can to get him a square deal. --Theodore Roosevelt (18581919) American Republican statesman and President [19011909]. In M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 642. Cohan & Major add: The phrase 'square deal' became the hallmark of Roosevelt's presidency. On 16 Oct. 1901, shortly after becoming president, Roosevelt had Booker T. Washington to dinner in the White House, the first black man to be entertained there. Roosevelt could do little, however, to improve the plight of blacks in general during his time in office. The president had, as head of his volunteer cavalry squadron of 'Rough Riders', taken part in the Battle of Santiago in the Spanish-American war of 1898. It is a matter of the simplest demonstration, that no man can be really appreciated but by his equal or superior. --John Ruskin (18191900) English art and social critic. _Modern Painters_, vol. I, pt. i [1848, 4th ed.] From the equality of rights springs identity of our highest interests; you cannot subvert your neighbor's rights without striking a dangerous blow at your own. --Carl Schurz (18291906) German-born American politician, journalist, and reformer. "True Americanism" Speech in Faneuil Hall, Boston, Ma. [18 April 1859]. Shylock: I am a Jew. Hath now a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooked by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _The Merchant of Venice_, III, i [1596-1598] - The Declaration of Independence states unequivocally that all men are created equal. Yet every day I find reason to believe this to be untrue. I run in a race and half the field beats me. I attend a seminar and can't follow the reasoning of the speaker. I read a book and I am unable to understand what is evident to others. Daily I am instructed in my deficiencies. I do something, physical or mental, and realize how far I fall short of what other people accomplish. Despite the Declaration, we are apparently not born equal. I cannot aspire to win the Boston Marathon. I most certainly will not receive the Nobel Prize for literature. I am surrounded by people who know more, do more, and make more than I do. But, like many others, I identify myself with my performance. I become my marathon time. I become my latest book. I become the last lecture I gave. . . . But I am more than a body-mind complex. I am a soul as well. I share with everyone on this planet one power infinitely more important than talent: willpower. In this power of the soul, all of us are created equal. . . . The will considers the question, Will you or won't you have it so? And in that decision you can be the equal of anyone else. "Effort is the measure of a man," wrote [William] James. How well we know that. I am never content with contentment. I am uneasy when things go easy. "Don't take things easy," said a great physician, "take things hard." Doing one's absolute best becomes the criterion. --George Sheehan, M.D. (19181993) _Personal Best_ [1989], "The Many Levels of Motivation" - Woman once made equal to man becomes his superior. --Socrates (470?399 B.C.) Greek philosopher. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Notable Thoughts About Women_, p. 49 [1882]. Women are not going to be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. --attributed to Gloria Steinem (b. 1934) American feminist, jounalist, and founder of "Ms." magazine. The sole condition which is required in order to succeed in centralizing the supreme power in a democratic community, is to love equality, or to get men to believe you love it. Thus the science of despotism, which was once so complex, is simplified, and reduced, as it were, to a single principle. --Alexis de Tocqueville (18051859) French historian and politician. _Democracy in America_, vol. II, bk. 4, ch. 4 [1840] The mind of the thinker and the student is driven to admit, though it be awe-struck by apparent injustice, that this inequality is the work of God. Make all men equal to-day, and God has so created them that they shall be all unequal to-morrow. --Anthony Trollope (18151882) English novelist [son of Frances Trollope]. _An Autobiography_, vol. 1, ch. XVI [1883] From the fact that people are very different it follows that, if we treat them equally, the result must be inequality in their actual position, and that the only way to place them in an equal position would be to treat them differently. Equality before the law and material equality are therefore not only different but are in conflict with each other; and we can achieve either the one or the other, but not both at the same time. --Friedrich A. von Hayek (18991992) Austrian-born British economist; co-winner of the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. _The Constitution of Liberty_ [1960] To separate [black children] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone. . . . In the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. --Earl Warren (18911974) American jurist, the 14th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court [19531969]. Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education [1954]. You can't hold a man down without staying down with him. --attributed to Booker T. Washington (18561915) African-American educator. Women have the right to work wherever they want, as long as they have the dinner ready when you get home. --John Wayne [Marion Michael Morrison] (19071979) American motion-picture actor. Attributed in Michael Turback _The John Wayne Code_ [2006]. The condition of women affords in all countries the best criterion by which to judge the character of men. --Frances Wright [Fanny Wright] (17951852) Scottish-born American social reformer. _Views of Society and Manners in America_ [1821] TOPICAL Last month, several thousand women took to the streets of Tehran protesting their unequal status under a constitution which gives them no right to divorce and deems the value of a woman's testimony in the courtroom as half of a man's. --Roya Hakakian "The Real Iranian Threat" _The Wall Street Journal_ [15 July 2006] - ^ "Skirt Steak" By Quentin Letts _The Wall Street Journal_ [9 January 2007] LONDON -- These being liberated times we should maybe not be too surprised about a former warrant officer slipping into stockings, frilly collar, gorgeously braided coat and an elaborate bonnet. Have the British not always had a leaning towards, ahem, that type of behavior? Yet the appointment of 38-year-old Moira Campbell as a "Member of the Sovereign Body Guard of the Yeomen Guard Extraordinary" -- otherwise known as the Beefeaters of old London town -- has been reported around the world. Since their foundation over half a millennium ago the Beefeaters have been exclusively male. Moira Campbell, in other words, is about to become the first "yeowoman," even if she won't be called that. Beefeaters date back to 1485 when Henry VII, father of the bottom-pinching, wife-beheading Henry VIII, occupied the English throne. The Tudor dynasty, we may conclude, had an old-fashioned attitude to women. Manhattan psychotherapists might say the Tudors had "issues." The etymology of "Beefeater" is unclear. It may have something to do with a meat ration the royal body guard received or it may owe its origins to buffetier, a French word for an aristocrat's security detail. All-chap was the way things remained with the Beefeaters until a recent retirement created a vacancy in the 35-strong corps. The supposition may have been that another bearded, plump man would be appointed but ex-soldier Ms. Campbell applied for the job and beat five other candidates on merit. The only qualification needed to become a Beefeater is a minimum of 22 years in the British armed forces. There is nothing in the rules about gender. Hence the breaking of centuries of tradition. In Britain itself the news has created little comment (we long ago snapped to the inevitability of female world domination) but newspapers around the globe have been seized by the story. Beefeaters, perhaps thanks to the brand of gin, seem to symbolize much that was once Britain. A Beefeaterene was news. Beefeaters started as a 15th-century equivalent of the square-jawed, heat-packing heavies who shield the modern U.S. president from (in no particular order of priority) would-be assassins, autograph hunters and lobbyists. From those early days Beefeaters were equipped with "partisans," a form of sharp-pointed stick which was the medieval world's must-have piece of defense kit. If there had been a Northrop Grumman in the mid-1480s it would, rest assured, have had a flourishing sales division specializing in partisans. These days the Yeomen Guard Extraordinary still carry the partisans but their role is more peaceful. Little more than glorified tourist guides, they can be found most days talking to tourists at the Tower of London. Beefeaters also tend to pop up at smart civic occasions and, most notably, at Westminster's State Opening of Parliament, when they stand near the throne to hear the queen lay forth the British government's legislative program for the year. Scary, they are not. Some light marching is involved at the state opening but having watched them over the years I'd say it more closely resembles mincing. Moira Campbell may well find, when she takes up office in September, that although she is the first dame yeoman ever, she is by no means the most ladylike of her colorfully attired new colleagues. Mr. Letts is parliamentary sketch-writer for the Daily Mail of London. ^ ----- commensurate [kuh-MEN(T)S-uhr-it], adjective: 1. Equal in measure, extent, or duration. 2. Corresponding in size or degree or extent; proportionate. 3. Having a common measure; commensurable; reducible to a common measure; as, commensurate quantities. end page | EARS - ECONOMY (THE) | EDUCATION | EFFORT - ELEPHANTS | ELOQUENCE - EMOTION | EMOTIONS & FEELINGS | EMPIRE - ENERGY | ENGLAND - ENGLISH (THE) | ENGLISH (LANGUAGE) | ENLIGHTENMENT - ENVY | ENTERTAINMENT, HOBBIES, & LEISURE ACTIVITIES | EPITAPHS - EQUAL RIGHTS | ERROR - EVIDENCE | EVIL - EXECUTIONS | EXERCISE - EYES | | 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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