“Mankind as it is constituted,” Polynikes said, “is a boil and a canker. Observe the specimens in any nation other than Lakedaemon. Man is weak, greedy, craven, lustful, prey to every species of vice and depravity. He will lie, steal, cheat, murder, melt down the very statues of the gods and coin their gold as money for whores. This is man. This is his nature, as all the poets attest.
“Fortunately God in his mercy has provided a counterpoise to our species’ innate depravity. That gift, my young friend, is war.
“War, not peace, produces virtue. War, not peace, purges vice. War and preparation for war call forth all that is noble and honorable in a man. It unites him with his brothers and binds them in selfless love, eradicating in the crucible of necessity all which is base and ignoble. There in the holy mill of murder the meanest of men may seek and find that part of himself, concealed beneath the corrupt, which shines forth brilliant and virtuous, worthy of honor before the gods. Do not despise war, my young friend, nor delude yourself that mercy and compassion are values superior to andreia, to manly valor.”
-- Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire
Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT.
--
Abraham Lincoln, Cooper Union Address, New York, New York, February 27, 1860
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.
--
Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
--
TS Elliot, The Waste Land
The purpose of an open mind is to close it, on particular subjects. If you never do — you've simply abdicated the responsibility to think.
--
WFB
Kyle: ManBearPig?
Al Gore: It is a creature which roams the Earth alone. It is half man, half bear, and half pig. Some people say that ManBearPig isn't real. Well, I'm here to tell you now, ManBearPig is very real, and he most certainly exists--I'm cereal. ManBearPig doesn't care what you've done. ManBearPig just wants to get you. I'm super cereal. But have no fear, because I am here to save you. And someday, when the world is rid of ManBearPig, everyone will say, "Thank you Al Gore--you're super awesome!" The end.
--
South Park, Episode #145, "ManBearPig"
