Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Well, the verbs are more complex. On the other hand, the orthography is quite phonetic. I can read anything aloud in Spanish and be understood by the Spanish-speakers, just not by myself. I think English is the only language whose orthography is so messed-up that we have spelling bees.
Bad advice, I think. There are still places in Florida where English is spoken, just as there are in Texas. I sure as hell hope the rest of the country preserves the English language, the beautiful English language, as it used to be spoken and written.
Marianne
Years ago, in 1966, while in pilot tng in Del Rio, TX, and on a weekend in San Antonio, several of us in my class were making the obligatory visit to the Alamo. As we stood across the street and waited for the light to change, one of the guys swiveled his head looking around from left to right and mused out loud to no one in particular:
“Hell, I don’t know why Jim Bowie and the others bothered to fight to the last man for this place –”they” own it all now anyway.” Forty-three yrs ago…….
Frank is an Annapolis grad. Mmm… class of ’74 maybe? He’s a pretty liberal guy, but he’s got some funny columns. (It’s my home newspaper… I don’t stalk him.)
I seem to recollect Tallyrand saying that English was a great language because it did not concern itself with the non-existent gender of tables.
I don’t think Spanish is any better than French in that regard.