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. . . INDEPENDENCE see: "BACHELORS" see: "DEMOCRACY" see: "FREE" see: "FREEDOM" see: "INDIVIDUALITY" see: "LIBERTY" see: "RIGHTS" The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illustrations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore. --John Adams (1735—1826) First VP and second President of the United States. Letter to Abigail Adams [3 July 1776]. I've lived a life that's full, I've traveled each and ev'ry highway, And more, much more than this, I did it my way. --Paul Anka (b. 1941) Canadian singer and composer. "My Way" [1969 song] Voyage upon life's sea, To yourself be true, And, whatever your lot may be, Paddle your own Canoe. --Sarah Tittle Bolton in Harper's Magazine [May 1854], in _Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_. To drive men from independence to live on alms, is itself great cruelty. --Edmund Burke (1729—1797) Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters. _Reflections on the Revolution in France_ [1790] To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. --E.E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894—1962) American poet. _A Miscellany_ [1958] I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances. --Albert Einstein (1879—1955) German-American physicist. In a letter acknowledging award of a membership card in a plumber's union [November 1954]. - It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own. But the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) American philosopher and poet. "Ethics" Lecture at the Masonic Temple, Boston, MA [17 February 1837]. We walk alone in the world. Friends, such as we desire, are dreams and fables. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) American philosopher and poet. "Friendship" _Essays_, First Series [1841] When I was introduced [to Abraham Lincoln], he said, 'Oh Mr. Emerson, I once heard you say in a lecture that a Kentuckian seems to say by his air and manners, 'Here I am; if you don't like me, the worse for you.' --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) American philosopher and poet. Referring to his recent meeting in Washington with the Kentucky-born president; in _Journal_ [31 January 1862]. - Content to live, content to die unknown, Lord of myself, accountable to none. --Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. _Poor Richard's Almanack_ [September 1742] As far as I can see, the greater amount of education which a part of the working class has enjoyed for some years past is an evil. It is dangerous, because it makes them independent. --J. Geddes [1865] British glassworks owner, quoted in Karl Marx "The Structure of Society." Independence: An achievement, not a bequest. --Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915) American editor, publisher, and author who died in the sinking of the "Lusitania". _The Roycroft Dictionary Concocted by Ali Baba and the Bunch on Rainy Days_ [1914] His brow is wet with honest sweat, He earns whate'er he can, And looks the whole world in the face, For he owes not any man. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882) American poet. "The Village Blacksmith" 2, [1839] Were the countries [of Africa] ready for independence? Of course not. Nor was India, and the bloodshed that followed the grant of independence there was incomparably worse than anything that has happened since to any country. Yet the decision of the Attlee Government was the only realistic one. Equally we could not possibly have held by force to our territories in Africa. We could not, with an enormous force engaged, even continue to hold the small island of Cyprus. General de Gaulle could not contain Algeria. The march of men towards their freedom can be guided, but not halted. Of course there were risks in moving quickly. But the risks of moving slowly were far greater. --Iain Macleod (1913—1970) British Conservative Party politician and government minister. In _The Spectator_, p.127 [13 January 1964]. If ye would go up high, then use your own legs! Do not get yourselves carried aloft; do not seat yourselves on other people's backs and heads! --Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900) German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture. _Thus Spake Zarathustra_, part IV, ch. 73 [1883—1885] But now I know the things I know, And do the things I do; And if you do not like me so, To hell, my love, with you! --Dorothy Parker (1893—1967) American critic and humorist. "Indian Summer" _Enough Rope_ [1927] It is easy to be independent when all behind you agree with you, but the difficulty comes when nine hundred and ninety-nine of your friends think you wrong. --Wendell Phillips (1811—1884) American abolitionist and reformer. _Speeches, Lectures, and Letters_ [1863] Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd. --Dame Edith Sitwell (1887—1964) British poet and critic. _Taken Care Of: The Autobiography of Edith Sitwell_, ch. I [1965] It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment — independence now and independence forever. --Daniel Webster (1782—1852) American orator and politician. Eulogy for John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, Faneuil Hall, Boston, Massachusetts [2 August 1826]. There is something better, if possible, that a man can give than his life. That is his living spirit to a service that is not easy, to resist counsels that are hard to resist, to stand against purposes that are difficult to stand against. --Woodrow Wilson (1856—1924) American Democratic statesman and President [1913—1921]. In a speech at Suresnes Cemetery, France [30 May 1919].  . . . see "POLITICS" for related links The old parties are husks, with no real soul within either, divided on artificial lines, boss-ridden and privilege-controlled, each a jumble of incongruous elements, and neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly what should be said on the vital issues of the day. --Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919) American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909]. Speech accepting the nomination of the National Progressive Party [6 August 1912]. Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by traffic from both sides. --Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925) British conservative stateswoman and Prime Minister [1979—1990]. Quoted in Kenneth Harris _Thatcher_ [1988]. - Clowns to the left of me Jokers to the right Here I am Stuck in the middle with you. --Stealers Wheel ----- mugwump (noun) Independent person: somebody who takes an independent or neutral position, especially in politics ;void(0)) INDIA . . see "PLACES" for related links If a wife loses her husband by death, she cannot marry another man. She has only to choose between two things — either to remain a widow as long as she lives or to burn herself; and the latter eventuality is considered the preferable, because as a widow she is ill-treated as long as she lives. As regards the wives of kings, they [Hindus] are in the habit of burning them, whether they wish it or not, by which they desire to prevent any of them by chance committing something unworthy of the illustrious husband. They make an exception only for women of advanced years and for those who have children; for the son is the responsible protector of his mother. --Alberuni (973—1048) _Kitab-al-Hind_ (Book on India) [1030] One of my high-school teachers in India liked to say, "If Hitler had been ruling India, Gandhi would be a lamp shade." This man was not known for his sensitivity, but he had a habit of speaking the truth. His point was that the success of Gandhi and of the Indian protesters, who prostrated themselves on the train tracks, depended on the certain knowledge that the trains would stop rather than run over them. With tactics such as these, Gandhi and his followers hoped to paralyze British rule in India, and they succeeded. But what if the British had ordered the trains to keep going? This is certainly what Hitler would have done. I don't see Genghis Khan or Attila the Hun being deterred by Gandhi's strategy. Even as the Indians denounced the West as wholly unprincipled and immoral, they relied on Western principles and Western morality to secure their independence. --Dinesh D'Souza (b. 1961) American author. _What's So Great About America?_ [2002] The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within. The Hindus had failed to organize their forces for the protection of their frontiers and their capitals, their wealth and their freedom, from the hordes of Scythians, Huns, Afghans and Turks hovering about India's boundaries and waiting for national weakness to let them in. For four hundred years (600-1000 A.D.) India invited conquest; and at last it came. ... The bitter lesson that may be drawn from this tragedy is that eternal vigilance is the price of civilization. A nation must love peace, but keep its powder dry. --Will [William James] Durant (1885—1981) & Ariel Durant (1898—1981) American husband and wife writing collaborators. _Our Oriental Heritage_ [1935] Even if I died in the service of the nation, I would be proud of it. Every drop of my blood ... will invigorate India and strengthen it. --Indira Gandhi (1917—1984) Prime Minister of India [1966-77] and [1980-84]. (Speech at Bhubaneshwar on 30 October 1984. She was assassinated by Sikh militants the following day.) - "Where do you come from?" It is the Indian question, and to people who think in terms of the village, the district, the province, the community, the caste, my answer that I am a Trinidadian is only puzzling. "But you look Indian." "Well, I am Indian. But we have been living for several generations in Trinidad." "But you look Indian." Three or four times a day the dialogue occurs, and now I often abandon explanation. "I am a Mexican, really." "Ah." Great satisfaction. Pause. "What do you do?" "I write." "Journalism or books?" "Books." "Westerns, crime, romance? How many books do you write a year? How much do you make?" So now I invent: "I am a teacher." "What are your qualifications?" "I am a B.A." "Only a B.A.? What do you teach?" "Chemistry. And a little history." "How interesting!" said the man on the Pathankot-Srinagar bus. "I am a teacher of chemistry too." He was sitting across the aisle from me, and several hours remained of our journey. In this vast land of India it is necessary to explain yourself, to define your function and status in the universe. It is very difficult. --V.S. Naipaul (b. 1932) Trinidadian novelist and travel writer. "In the Middle of the Journey", [1962], in _The Writer and the World_ [2002]. - The burning of widows is your custom. Prepare the funeral pile. But my nation also has a custom. When men burn women alive, we hang them and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs. --Sir Charles James Napier (1782—1853) British general, conqueror [1843] and governor [1843-47] of Sindh [India, now in Pakistan]. In M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 689 [2004]. Cohan & Major note: The conqueror of Sindh reacts to the Hindu practice of suttee, whereby a man's widow was expected to throw herself on to her late husband's funeral pyre. ... A city that was familiar: it matched a stereotype in my memory. My image of the Indian city derives from Kipling, and it was in Lahore that Kipling came of age as a writer. Exaggerating the mobs, the vicious bazaar, the color and confusion, the Kipling of the early stories and _Kim_ is really describing Lahore today... --Paul Theroux (b. 1941) American novelist and travel writer. _The Great Railway Bazaar_ [1975] In India, "cold weather" is merely a conventional phrase and has come into use through the necessity of having some way to distinguish between weather which will melt a brass door-knob and weather which will only make it mushy. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. _Following the Equator_, ch. LIV [1897] ----- puggree (noun) [ 'pê-gree] 1. Turbans worn in India or the drill (cloth) they are made from. 2. A thin scarf wound around a sun-helmet and falling down the back to shade the neck. . . see "PLACES" for related links Oh the moonlight's fair tonight along the Wabash, From the fields there comes the breath of new-mown hay; Thro' the sycamores the candle lights are gleaming, On the banks of the Wabash, far away. --Paul Dressner (1857—1906) "On the Banks of the Wabash Far Away" [1898 song] Note: Fred R. Shapiro (ed.) in _The Yale Book of Quotations_, [2006] claims that the lyrics were written by Dressner's brother, Theodore Dreiser (1871—1945) When an Eastern man is cheated by a Hoosier he is said to be *Wabashed.* --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) American philosopher and poet. [Entry in _Journals_written in 1860.] I come from Indiana, the home of more first- rate second-class men than any state in the Union. --Thomas R. Marshall (1854—1925) American politician and 28th vice-president of the United States [1913—1921]. _Recollections__ [1925] Edwin Goodwin, a doctor living in Solitude, Indiana in 1897, "supernaturally" discoved that pi was equal to 3.2376. Goodwin had his "solution" published in the "American Mathematical Monthly,' then set about getting government approval for his own private pi. He convinced his local legislators to introduce a bill before Indiana's House offering state schools free use of his "new mathematical truth." The bill, chocked full of math jargon, fooled the House and passed by a 67-0 vote. (It later failed to pass the Indiana Senate.) --Bruce Watson _Smithsonian Magazine_ end page | IDAHO - IDIOTS | IDLENESS - ILLEGAL ALIENS | ILLNESS - IMMATURITY | IMMIGRATION & IMMORALITY | IMMORTALITY - IMPOSTORS | IMPRESSIONABLE - INDECISION | INDEPENDENCE - INDIANA | INDIFFERENCE - INDIVIDUALITY | INDOCTRINATION - INFORMATION | INGRATITUDE - INNOVATION | INNUENDO - INSPIRATION | INSULTS - INTEGRITY | INTELLECTUALS - INTENTIONS | INTERESTED(ING) - INTUITION | INVENTIONS - ITALY | IRAQ | ISLAM | JAIL - JOGGING | JOHNSON (LYNDON) - JOY | JOURNALISM | JUDGE (TO) - JUSTICE | | H | I - J | K - L | M | N - O | P - Q | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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