Quotes January 15, 2021

Shouldering the duffel bag with the Marine Corps bulldog, Old Man knocked Jan’s photo off the bed table. He turned to stone staring down at the photo. His face then splintered into hurt. Tears seeped into his eyes. He grappled for the nearest bedpost and slumped forward on extended arms. His shoulders jerked and head sagged a little while his heart broke. Old Man cried the mute cry of men of his generation.
Ed Lynskey, The Blue Cheer
 
 
 
 
“Yet a part of you still believes you can fight and survive no matter what your mind knows. It’s not so strange. Where there’s still life, there’s still hope. What happens is up to God.”
Louis Zamperini, Devil at My Heels: A Heroic Olympian’s Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II
 
 
 
 
The fruits of victory are tumbling into our mouths too quickly.
Emperor Hirohito of Japan, April 29, 1942
 
 
 
 
“When you go home
Tell them of us, and say
For your tomorrow,
We gave our today.”
Patrick O’Donnell, Into the Rising Sun: In Their Own Words, World War II’s Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat
 
 
 
 
Your name is unknown. Your deed is immortal.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Moscow)
 
 
 
 
“We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.”
President Lyndon Johnson in a speech at Akron University on October 21, 1964, two weeks before the presidential election.
 
 
 
 
“Well, Lyndon, they may be every bit as intelligent as you say, but I’d feel a whole lot better if just one of them had run for sheriff once.”
House Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX) speaking to Lyndon B. Johnson in January 1961 after the newly inaugurated vice president extolled the brilliance of the members of President John F. Kennedy’s new cabinet.
 
 
 
 
“You have a row of dominoes set up; you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is that it will go over very quickly.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower speaking at a press conference on April 7, 1954.