Charles L. Mee Jr. > Quotes

“That Russia would become such a power in the world had been foreseen as long ago as the 1830s by Alexis de Tocqueville, who said, in a famous passage from Democracy in America, that even then, “There are on earth today two great peoples, who, from different points of departure, seem to be advancing toward the same end. They are the Anglo-Americans and the Russians. . . . All the other peoples appear to have attained approximately their natural limits, and to have nothing left but to conserve their positions; but these two are growing. . . . To attain his end, the first depends on the interest of the individual person, and allows the force and intelligence of individuals to act freely, without directing them. The second in some way concentrates all the power of society in one man. The one has liberty as the chief way of doing things; the other servitude. Their points of departure are divergent; nevertheless, each seems summoned by a secret design of providence to hold in his hands, some day, the destinies of half the world.”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Saving a Continent: The Untold Story of the Marshall Plan

“The moon cant stay without the night.life cant be life without problems.i cant be myself without you. everything is destined to be together. i wish we r destined to be together”
― Mee

“Lincoln asked his cabinet’s advice on the Emancipation Proclamation everyone voted no, except for Lincoln, who voted “aye” and then announced, “The ayes have it.”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Saving a Continent: The Untold Story of the Marshall Plan

“advice to work hard, keep his mouth shut till he knew the ropes, and answer his mail.”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Saving a Continent: The Untold Story of the Marshall Plan

“رامبراند بر این نظر بود که راهنمای هنرمند فقط باید طبیعت باشد و نه هیچ قاعده و ضابطه ای دیگر، منظور رامبراند از این گفتار همان بود که پیش از وی کاراوادجو و لاستمن نیز بیان داشته بودند: پرهیز از پیکرهای زیبای آرمانی که مطلوب سنت سبک ایتالیا بود، پرهیز از نقاشی هایی که از ایده های تناسب کامل و ترسیم درست فضایل عالی نشأت گیرد. هنرمند باید به دنیای واقعی پیرامون خویش و مردمی که در کوچه و بازار بر گرد خویش می بیند بنگرد و مدل های تابلوهای خویش را از بین مردم ساده و خامدست و معمولی برگزیند نه صرفا به قصد آن که توصیف واقعگرایانه ی صحیحی را ارائه دهد بلکه بدان منظور که به هنر نقاشی جنبه ای دموکرات وار و‌ مردمی ببخشد و حالت نجیب زادگی و اشرافیت تصنعی را از فضای تابلوها بزداید، به آثار نقاشی خاصیت تاثیرگذاری دراماتیکی بدهد، و با این عمل، از درک دنیای پیرامون خویش و آنچه واقعا در آن می گذرد لذتی واقعی ببرد.”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Rembrandt: A Life

“In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant Apprehension of War has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body.” This was why republics must always hate war: Whatever happened on the battlefield, they always lost their liberty, in part if not in whole, and if the state of tension was permanent, so, too, was the loss of liberty. “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive, will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger have always been the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans, it was a standing maxim to excite a war as a ruse to keep the people enslaved. Should the states separate entirely from one another, these would be the consequences,” and anyone who had been accessory to such historic consequences “could never be forgiven by their Country, nor by themselves.”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Genius of the People

“Most of the localists agreed with Franklin, who said: “We discover some errors in our general and particular constitutions; which it is no wonder they should have, the time in which they were formed being considered. But these we shall mend.” What was needed was not a whole new government, but only some modest alterations in the old one, and the localists arrived in Philadelphia with that limited aim in mind. “We”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Genius of the People

“Britain, in the memorable phrase of another young State Department officer, “was like a soldier wounded in war who, now that the fighting was over, was bleeding to death.”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Saving a Continent: The Untold Story of the Marshall Plan

“Such is the basis of humanism, a view of humanity that informs all of Western civilization today, a view of humanity that underlies our political freedoms, our liberal philosophies, and even, in an age in which organized religion has lost some of its hold, a view of humanity that justifies many of our moral beliefs.”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Lorenzo de Medici

“none wanted him to use the war-making power, the assumed ultimate responsibility for the nation’s security, as a ruse to transform his office into that of an elective monarch, with all the inevitable consequences which would finally reduce citizens to mere petitioners whose needs and wisdom would be commonly sacrificed in the name of national defense, and whose criticisms would bring charges of disloyalty against them.”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Genius of the People

“They were a devout family to whom religion was a source of comfort and hope, not anxiety. Their religious feelings did not instantly reform Martin’s own thoughts, but they must at least have intrigued him and given him some notion that religion might be something other than frightening.”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., White Robe, Black Robe: Pope Leo X, Martin Luther, and the Birth of the Reformation

“Yet, trust in the individual gives us one of our most prized ideals as well, for belief in individualism implies tolerance for all individuals - the very basis of humanness. That trust, if we can believe Marsilio Ficino, created a golden age in Florence:”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Lorenzo de Medici

“چرا تابلوهای رامبراند برای همیشه این شهرت فراوان را به همراه خواهند داشت که این سان تیره و ابرآلود می نمایند؟ چرا چهره ها و اندامها یا از درون تاریکی سر بر می آورند یا در ژرفنای تاریکی مدفون می شوند؟ چرا سطح بوم در تابلوهای هنرمند این چنین خشن و ناهموار و آغشته به رنگ های تیره است، چنانکه گویی هنرمند با این کار می خواهد تاکید کند که سطح بیرونی و ظاهر چیزها واجد اهمیت نیست، چنانکه گویی هنرمند قصد دارد بیننده را وادارد که در فراسوی دنیای صرفا مرئی به آنچه نامرئی است بنگرد .”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Rembrandt: A Life

“Nor did the idea of a central government seem compatible with sentiment. After all, the states had histories that went back two centuries, and each state had its distinctive character and qualities that its citizens were loath to see diminished. Franklin, back in the 1750s and 1760s, when he had been deputy postmaster general, had traveled up and down the coast on visits of inspection and seen the tremendous variety of the colonies. Even a brief catalogue of them suggests some of the proud distinctiveness they cherished. Massachusetts, settled by Puritans, was populated by middle-class farmers, tradesmen, and artisans, without extremes of wealth and poverty. Its economy was stable (save for the temporary postwar dislocations that led to Shays’ Rebellion). Massachusetts was”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Genius of the People

“رامبراند در عالم نقاشی شور و هیجانی پدید آورده بود. می توان گفت که نقاشی را از قید و بندهای سنتی آزاد ساخته و به این هنر جلوه ای دموکرات مآب و مردمی وار بخشیده بود. می توان گفت بالاترین موهبتی که هنر می تواند نصیب ما بسازد این است که ما را از قیود و محدودیت های سنتی و کهن در عرصه ی فهم و درک و احساس و اندیشه رهایی بخشد.”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Rembrandt: A Life

“یکی از شیوه های تعلیم رامبراند چنین بود که شاگردانش را در برابر آینه ای می نشاند ، کاغذ و قلم نقاشی به دستشان می داد، و از آنان می خواست از چهره ی خود طرح ها و تابلوهایی بپردازند و در این کار ممارست کنند تا تبحرشان مورد تأیید استاد قرار گیرد. از این روست که در گوشه و کنار دنیا و در مجموعه های خصوصی و‌ موزه ها به تابلوهای چهره نگاری متعددی از شاگردان جوان و نامدار رامبراند بر می خوریم.”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Rembrandt: A Life

“اهل تئاتر غالبا رامبراند را شکسپیر نقاشان می نامند، زیرا استعداد و توانایی این صورتگر در نمایاندن عمق ذات شخصیت های گوناگون، شفقتی که نسبت به شخصیت های هر یک از تابلوهایش نشان می دهد، چیره دستی حیرت آور او در دریافت لحظه های بسیار حساس و چشمگیر و مجسم ساختن بسیار دقیق و زیرکانه ی آن لحظه ها بر پرده ی نقاشی، آن چنان است که وی را به آسانی با شکسپیر قابل مقایسه می سازد، با این تفاوت که شکسپیر در کار خود از کلمات یاری می گیرد و رامبراند از قلم مو و رنگ ها مدد می جوید.”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Rembrandt: A Life

“After Piero died, the cardinal abruptly changed the Medici tactics toward Florence. He and his other brother, Giuliano, decided, as Francesco Guicciardini wrote, “that the best way to facilitate their return was not to use force and violence, but to show love and benevolence, benefitting the citizens and never offending them either in public or in private. They never overlooked an opportunity to do a favor to any Florentine citizen, whether he lived in Rome or was just passing through. . . . Soon it became quite clear that the entire house, possessions, resources, and reputation of the Cardinal were at the disposal of any Florentine who cared to use them. The effectiveness of all this was enhanced by the fact that the greedy and self-seeking Cardinal Soderini [also a Florentine] never did anything for any Florentine. By comparison with him, the liberality and generous deeds of the Medici”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., White Robe, Black Robe: Pope Leo X, Martin Luther, and the Birth of the Reformation

“It is a central characteristic of the American political system that a wheelbarrow fetishist could be mayor of Omaha.”
― Charles L. Mee Jr.

“No doubt, some of the champions of local government hoped to preserve such unsavory local customs as slavery or the local rule of a small group of privileged men, but many of the defenders of local government argued honestly that the states presented the best hope of securing liberty. Liberty, in the eighteenth century, meant not simply liberty from some intrusive outside power. It meant the active exercise of control over one’s life, the possession of power in one’s own hands. It meant government small enough and close enough to home to be directly accountable and responsive. It meant self-government, not government handed over to some remote rulers. Strictly understood, the principle of local self-government meant a share of power more or less equal to everyone else’s share of power, a citizenry more or less equal in wealth and status, not one dominated by one small group or another; that is to say, it meant democracy”
― Charles L. Mee Jr., Genius of the People