Frederick Russell Burnham quotes

“As far as we can look back into history, the downfall of any nation can be traced from the moment that nation became timid about spending its best blood.”
-- Frederick Russell Burnham

Source : Frederick Russell Burnham, Mary Nixon Everett (1944). “Taking chances”

#Blood Quotes #Historical Quotes #Looks Quotes

“There is nothing that sharpens a man's senses so acutely as to know that bitter and determined enemies are in pursuit of him night and day.”
-- Frederick Russell Burnham

Source : Frederick Russell Burnham (2016). “Scouting on Two Continents”, p.37, Pickle Partners Publishing

#Night Quotes #Men Quotes #Enemy Quotes

“Anyone who meets you and doesn't want to get to know you and be part of your life is stupid. I saw it when I was just a kid." "No. You thought I was a vampire and you wanted to be my friend so I wouldn't eat you." "Well, that too. But I found out soon enough you weren't a blood sucker and I still licked you.”

“Dear friends, have you begun to sing the "new song? " Loved ones are singing it in the heavenly home, and we may sing it here; and by and by we shall join them, gaze with them on the risen, glorified Lord, and our voices will mingle in the "new song" "unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.”

Source : "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 555, 1895.

“In the Spanish people there is a mixture of Gothic, Frankish and Moorish blood. One can speak of the Spaniard as one would speak of a brave anarchist. The Arabian epoch-the Arabs look down on the Turks as they do on dogs-was the most cultured, the most intellectual and in every way best and happiest epoch in Spanish history. It was followed by the period of the persecutions with its unceasing atrocities.”

“I am not a pessimist but a pejorist (as George Eliot said she was not an optimist but a meliorist); and that philosophy is founded on my observation of the world, not on anything so trivial and irrelevant as personal history.”

“Every time some new huckster of angst-ridden metaphor is appointed by Art Forum, the congregation genuflects, stroking the catalog like a handful of Rosary beads, and starts spreading that old gospel according to Hyperbole. No questions asked... And thus the bill of goods is sold, all along the line. An art historical snake, swallowing its own tale.”

“For the sake of historical truth I must verify that only the Greeks, of all the adversaries who confronted us, fought with bold courage and highest disregard of death.”

“I invented the historical spy novel.”

“Purely historical thought is nihilistic; it wholeheartedly accepts the evil of history.”

“Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act.”

“Look for the enemies of Medicare, of higher minimum wages, of Social Security, of federal aid to education and there you will find the enemy of the Negro, the coalition of Dixiecrats and reactionary Republicans that seek to dominate the Congress.”