Russell Freedman > Quotes

“I have mo prejudice against the Southern people... They are just what we would ben in their situation. If slavery did not now exits amongst them, they wld not inrtoduce it. If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly give it up... I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. (p52)”
― Russell Freedman, Lincoln: A Photobiography

“Marco reported that homeless children [in Kublai Kahn's city of Daidu] were cared for and educated. While he says little about the system of education in China, we know from records of the time that Kublai Khan created thousands of public schools to provide a basic education for all children, including those of poor peasants. Until then, only the wealthy were literate. Kublai's bid at 'universal education' had never been attempted by any country on Earth. In the western world, nearly 500 years would pass before governments began to take responsibility for the public education of all children.”
― Russell Freedman

“We have a large circle—all of them anti-Hitler,” one participant told Inge. “And each of these friends has his own separate circle which is anti-Hitler, and so on and so forth: a great underground network against Hitler. If only someone could get them to act collectively.”
― Russell Freedman, We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler

“The Fuhrer himself was the target of the fourth leaflet: "Every word that comes from Hitler's mouth is a lie. When he says peace, he means war, and when he blasphemously uses the name of the Almighty, he means the power of evil, the fallen angel, Satan. His mouth is the foul-smelling maw of Hell, and his might is at bottom accursed." This leaflet ended with the words "We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace.”
― Russell Freedman, We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler – Sibert Honor History of Hans and Sophie Scholl for Kids

“These students were taking part in an experiment that had never been tried before. They wanted to prove that blind youngsters were capable of being taught, that they could master their handicap and lead useful, productive lives. Founded in 1784,”
― Russell Freedman, Out of Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille

“Germany was an ambitious young nation.”
― Russell Freedman, The War to End All Wars: World War I

“A crowd of fifteen thousand had assembled in front of the speaker’s platform, which faced the unfinished cemetery’s temporary graves and the famous battlefield beyond. Edward Everett spoke for two hours as many in the crowd grew restless and wandered off to explore the battleground. Finally it was Lincoln’s turn. He rose from his seat, took two bits of paper from his pocket, put on his spectacles, and in his reedy voice said: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” A photographer in the crowd fiddled with his camera, preparing to take a picture of the president as he spoke. But before he could get the camera ready, the speech was finished.”
― Russell Freedman, Lincoln: A Photobiography

“When I think of the sacrifice yet to be offered and the hearts and homes yet to be made desolate before this dreadful war is over, my heart is like lead within me, and I feel at times like hiding in a deep darkness.”
― Russell Freedman, Lincoln: A Photobiography

“In August, President Truman made the decision that death had spared Roosevelt from having to make. Truman ordered the dropping of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9).”
― Russell Freedman, Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“And Sophie wrote: “We carry all our standards within ourselves, only we don’t look for them closely enough. Perhaps because they are the severest standards.”
― Russell Freedman, We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler

“In 1826, while Louis was still a student, both he and his friend Gabriel Gauthier became teaching assistants at the Institute. When Louis graduated in 1828, Dr. Pignier asked him to stay on as a full-time instructor of grammar, geography, and arithmetic.”
― Russell Freedman, Out of Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille

“By the end of 1914, after less than five months of combat, more than 600,000 soldiers on both sides had been killed on the Western Front.”
― Russell Freedman, The War to End All Wars: World War I

“Batteries of machine guns firing point-blank at assaulting troops could turn an infantry attack into a mass suicide.”
― Russell Freedman, The War to End All Wars: World War I

“In the first days of mobilization there was of course a lot of enthusiasm,” recalled Robert Poustis, who was a French student at the time.”
― Russell Freedman, The War to End All Wars: World War I

“In this sunshine,” wrote Max Plowman in his memoir of the war, “it seems impossible to believe that at any minute we in this trench, and they in that, may be blown to bits by shells fired from guns at invisible distances by hearty fellows who would be quite ready to stand you a drink if you met them face to face.”
― Russell Freedman, The War to End All Wars: World War I

“In Belgian Flanders, the scene of savage fighting since October, the year 1914 ended with a remarkable display of fellowship and goodwill. On Christmas morning near the ruins of Ypres, German troops in their trenches opposite the British began to sing carols and display bits of holiday evergreen. The British soldiers replied by singing in return. Gradually, unarmed soldiers from either side began to show themselves atop their trenches, and cautiously, one by one, then in groups, soldiers from both sides walked out into no man’s land and exchanged gifts of food and cigarettes. “I think I have seen one of the most extraordinary sights today that anyone has ever seen,” Second Lieutenant Dougan Chater wrote to his mother from his trench on the Western Front. “About 10 o’clock this morning I was peeping over the parapet when I saw a German, waving his arms, and presently two of them got out of their trenches and some came towards ours. We were just going to fire on them when we saw they had no rifles so one of our men went out to meet them and in about two minutes the ground between the two lines of trenches was swarming with men and officers of both sides, shaking hands and wishing each other a happy Christmas.” Christmas 1914 brought a temporary lull in the fighting on the Western Front. This German snowman is equipped with a spiked helmet and a Mauser 98 rifle. For the rest of the day, not a shot was fired, and similar scenes were repeated in a number of places along the front. The British commander, Sir John French, was not pleased. “I issued immediate orders to prevent any recurrence of such conduct,” he wrote, “and called the local commanders to strict account.” A general order was issued, directing that “such unwarlike activity must cease.” It did not happen again.”
― Russell Freedman, The War to End All Wars: World War I

“If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.—”
― Russell Freedman, Lincoln: A Photobiography

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.”
― Russell Freedman, Lincoln: A Photobiography