John Edward Williams Quotes

“I do not have the freedom of the historian, my friend; you may recount the movements of men and armies, trace the intricate course of state intrigues, balance victories and defeats, relate births and deaths—and yet still be free, in the wise simplicity of your task, from the awful weight of a kind of knowledge that I cannot name but that I more and more nearly apprehend as the years draw on.”

“No-Emperors may let their memories lie even more readily than poets and historians.”

“My uncle once told me that too much caution may lead to death as certainly as too much rashness.”

“The power shall become what we make it to be.”

“And now you must choose. Whoever returns with me commits his fortune to my own. There is no other way, and there can be no turning back. And I can promise you nothing, except my own chance.”

“We have seen murder, theft, and pillage in the name of the Republic- and call it the necessary price we pay for freedom.”

“We are not fighting for victory; we are fighting for our lives.”