Happy 4th!

In honor of the holiday today, here are some relatively random, but somewhat related quotes that I have been thinking about and have found interesting in the past few weeks. All emphasis is mine.

War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things;
the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings
which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.
A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight,
nothing which is more important than his own personal safety,
is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free
unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
~John Stuart Mill~

That was what, ultimately, war did to you.
It was not the physical dangers--the mines at sea,
the bombs from the air, the crisp ping of a rifle bullet
as you drove over a desert track.
No, it was the spiritual danger of learning
how much easier life was if you ceased to think.
~Agatha Christie~

We talk a great deal about patriotism. What do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility which will enable America to remain master of her power — to walk with it in serenity and wisdom, with self-respect and the respect of all mankind; a patriotism that puts country ahead of self; a patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. The dedication of a lifetime — these are words that are easy to utter, but this is a mighty assignment. For it is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.
~Adlai Stevenson~

The New Colossus
Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles.  From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips.  "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.
Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government,
they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it,
or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it."
~Abraham Lincoln~

And from the book that I'm currently reading, Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death:

[The great figures of American jurisprudence]
believed that democracy, for all of its obvious virtues,
posed the danger of releasing an undisciplined individualism.

For countless Americans, seeing,
not reading, became the basis for believing.

Americans are the best entertained
and quite likely the least well-informed
people in the Western world.

Finally, from the other book I'm currently reading, G.K. Chesterton's What's Wrong With the World:

The principle is this: that in everything worth having, even in every pleasure, there is a point of pain or tedium that must be survived, so that pleasure may revive and endure. The joy of battle comes after the first fear of death; the joy of reading Virgil comes after the bore of learning him; the glow of the sea-bather comes after the icy shock of the sea bath; and the success of the marriage comes after the failure of the honeymoon....In everything on this earth that is worth doing, there is a stage when no one would do it, except for necessity or honor.