lutherans

"Die Warheit zu sagen, so höret oder siehet man selten einen Streit swischen ihnen; es trauen die fremdesten Leute einander mehr, als in Europa die Bekannten. Man ist auch viel aufrichtiger und liebreicher gegeneinander als in Teutschland, darum leben unsere Americaner viel ruhiger und friedsamer als die Europäer zusammen, und dieses alles macht die Freyheit, worinnen alle einander gleich sind."

"Our country, when you grew very old, your head was crowned with white hair. You carried steadfast your children in your arms and gave them what belonged to your coastland.We who here grew up with you as an immature people, as small children, we want to call ourselves kalâtdlit in front of your honorable head!And making use of all that belongs to you, we feel a desire to advance: bettering the conditions, which hold you back, we are firmly resolved to go forward, forward.We want very much to follow the mature people. We are longing to use the freedom of speech and press!There is not at all the slightest reason for holding back. Greenlanders, stand up on your feet, forward! It is well worth to live as men. Show that you can think for yourselves!"

"I hate equality. It is the lie of the prophets. No people is equal to another. No man is equal to another. I love the exceptional precisely because they are the exception."

"My name is surrounded with such hate and fear that no one can judge what is the truth and what is false, what is history and what myth."

"They cannot understand as yet that we are not fighting a political party but a sect of murderers of all contemporary spiritual culture."

"Haidar’s palace is a fine building in the Indian style. Opposite to it is an open place. On both sides are ranges of open buildings where the military and civil servants have their offices and constantly attend and Haidar Naik can overlook them from his balcony . . . Although Haidar sometimes rewards his servants the principal motive is fear. Two hundred people with whips stand always ready to use them. Not a day passes on which numbers are not flogged. Haidar applies the same cat to all transgressors alike, gentlemen and horse- keepers, tax-gatherers and his own sons and when he has inflicted such a public scourging upon the greatest gentlemen, he does not dismiss them. No! they remain in the same office and bear the marks of stripes on their backs as public warnings. For he seems to think that almost all people who seek to enrich themselves are devoid of all principles of honour . . . the most dreadful punishments were daily inflicted. Many who read it may think the account exaggerated, but the poor man was tied up, two men came with their whips and cut him dreadfully and with sharp nails was his flesh torn asunder and then scourged afresh, his shrieks rending the air. Although the punishments are so dreadful, yet there are people enough who seek employments and outbid each other and the Brahmins are by far the worst in this traffic."

"When I sat near Haidar Naik, I particularly observed in what a regular succession and with what rapid dispatch his affairs proceeded one after the other. Whenever he made a pause in speaking, an account was read to him of the districts and letters received. He heard them and ordered the answers immediately. The writers ran, wrote the letters, read them and Haidar affixed his seal. Thus, one evening a great many letters were expedited. Haidar can neither read nor write but his memory is excellent. He orders one man to write a letter and read it to him. Then he calls another to read it again. If the writer has in the least deviated from his orders, his head pays for it. What religion people profess or whether they profess any at all, that is perfectly indifferent to him. He has none himself and leaves everyone to his choice. His army is under the care of four chief officers called Bakshis. One might call them paymasters. But they have to do not only with the pay but also with the recruiting services and other things which belong to an army. There are also judges that settle differences. With these men I had frequent discourses. Some spoke Persian, others only Hindustani, but all were Mahomedans. They asked what the right prayer was and to whom we ought to pray. I declared to them how we being sinful men and therefore deserving God’s curse and eternal death could not come before God but in the name of our mediator Jesus Christ. I explained to them also the Lord’s prayer. To persons who understood Tamil, I explained the doctrines in Tamil, to the others in Hindustani language. As the ministers of Haidar’s court are mainly Brahmins, I had many conversations with them. Some answered with modesty and others did not choose to talk on so great a subject and only hinted that their noble pagodas [temples] were not built in vain. I said the edifices may indeed serve for some use but not the idols which they adored. Without the fort were some hundred Europeans commanded by a Frenchman and a squadron of Hussars under the command of Captain Budene, a German. Part of these troops were German, others Frenchmen. I found also some Malabar Christians. Every Sunday I performed Divine Service in German and in Malayalam without asking anybody’s leave . . . we sang, preached and prayed and nobody presumed to hinder us . . . In Haidar Naik’s palace the high and low come to me and asked what our doctrine was, so that I could speak as long as I had strength. Haidar’s youngest son saw and saluted me in the Durbar or hall of audience. He sent to request me to come into his apartment. I sent him word that I would gladly come if his father permitted it; without his father’s leave I might hurt both him and myself. Of this, he was perfectly sensible. The most intimate friends dare not speak their sentiments freely. Haidar has his spies everywhere. But I knew that I might speak of religion night and day without giving him the least offence. I sat often with Haidar in a hall that is open on the garden side. In the garden, trees were grafted and bore two sorts of fruit. He had also fine cypress trees, fountains, etc. I observed a number of young boys bringing some earth into the garden. On enquiry I was informed that Haidar had raised a battalion of orphans who have nobody else to provide for them and whom he educates at his expense, for he allowed no orphan to be neglected in all his dominions. He feeds and clothes them and gives little wooden firelocks with which they exercise . . ."

"When I came to Haidar, he desired me to sit down alongside of him. The floor was covered with the most exquisite tapestry. He received me very politely, listened in a friendly manner and seeming pleasure to all what I had to say. He spoke very openly and without reserve and said that the Europeans had broken their solemn engagements and promises but nevertheless he was willing to live in peace with them . . ."

"On the last evening when I took my leave from Haidar, he requested me to speak Persian as I had done with his people. I did so and explained the motive of my journey to him: ‘You may perhaps wonder,’ said I, ‘what could have induced me, a priest, who has nothing to do with political concerns to come to you and that on an errand which does not belong to my sacerdotal functions. But as I was plainly told that the sole object of my journey was the preservation and confirmation of peace, and having witnessed more than once, the misery and horrors attending on war, I thought within my own mind, how happy I should deem myself if I could be of service in cementing a durable friendship between the two Governments and thus securing the blessings of peace to this devoted country and its inhabitants . . .’ He said with great cordiality: ‘Very well, very well. I am of the same opinion with you and wish that the English may be as studious of peace as you are. If they offer me the hand of peace and concord, I shall not withdraw mine.’ I then took my leave of him. On reaching my palanquin, I found that Haidar had sent three hundred rupees for my travelling expenses . . ."

"Ach die Natur schuf mich im Grimme, Sie gab mir nichts — als eine schöne Stimme!"

"Am Rhein, am Rhein, da wachsen unsre Reben; Gesegnet sey der Rhein! Da wachsen sie am Ufer hin, und geben Uns diesen Labewein."

"Wenn jemand eine Reise thut, So kann er was verzählen."

"Greif' nicht leicht in ein Wespennest, Doch wenn du greifst, so stehe fest."

"Aus nichts wird nichts, das merke wohl, Wenn aus dir etwas werden soll."

"Der Winter ist ein rechter Mann, Kernfest und auf die Dauer."

"You the stakeholders must suggest how to effectively and sustainably drive a national wealth redistribution agenda, which points to high levels of skewedness with resources only vested in the handful few"

"Therefore, I thank the Office of the Governor and the entire team for your prompt actions to ensure that we bring changes to the lives of our people as we fight this war against hunger and poverty"

"I want to call upon each and every one present here, including the food bank street committee, to be poverty foot soldiers who join efforts and hands with the government in rooting out poverty from our homes and nation"

"We encourage you to keep building relationships with the relatives of these children"

"The party constitution is clear that every member shall be obliged to promote the unity in the party at all levels and shall refrain from any activity that creates disunity, sectarianism and disruption of the services of the party. Therefore, let’s leave this room as a united force"

"Numbers give you strength. Numbers give you power. Numbers contribute financially to the growth of the party. The more the numbers, the more seats in the National Assembly, and the more money you get from the treasury"

"After careful consideration of all facts and issues at our disposal, we as leaders have decided to call off our elective congress until further notice. This is to avert possible loss of lives and unnecessary harm that might befall our members because of the current situation prevailing there"

"Our position should not be how to get rid of X, Y and Z because if we do that, we are breaking the party. Our position should be: how do we work hard to increase our numbers so that we add A, B and C to X, Y and Z? Numbers are crucial"

"We plead with our members to remain calm while the leadership will deliberate and announce the way forward"

"When girls do not have adequate sanitation facilities, when they face challenges in getting sanitary pads and when they are surrounded by discriminatory social taboos about menstrual cycle, they will continue to be deprived of opportunities to participate freely and comfortably in school, at play or other social activities"

"Please use condoms and visit family planning clinics"

"Why allow yourself to get pregnant if you are not ready to have a child?"

"The youth should be encouraged to study social work to assist in dealing with GBV. There is a huge gap that needs to be filled in this regard"

"I was told that my community are the people that hold the table which I stood on, and because I had known them and had always looked after them from where I was, I know now that I will fall back into their open arms"

"Family planning is not only for women, it is for both men and women, and even for young boys"

"It is our goal that we shall improve the lives of all Africans through this partnership, as women need to drive the engine of partnership in order to achieve the maximum impact of growth needed in Africa"

"The Swapo Party has already implemented gender equality in its structures and soon it will be compulsory for all political parties to do so, according to the SADC Protocol on Gender"

"Yes, the prayer day did not help and things did not change, but the prayers will continue and we will give GBV cases to God to deal with, because He sees the inside of a person and can understand them better than we do,” said Nghidinwa"

"Sich," sprach der Greis, "hast du denn nicht gelesen: Wenn Menschen schweigen, werden Steine schreien? Nicht spotte ferner, Sohn, mit Gottes Wort! Lebendig ist es, kräftig, schneidet scharf, Wie ein zweischneidig Schwert, und sollte gleich Das Menschenherz sich ihm zum Trotz versteinen. So wird im Stein ein Menschenherz sich regen."

"Science christology suffers from a hitherto incurable evil: psychological conjecture."

"[They] lead a very quiet, honest and virtuous life infinitely outdoing our false Christians and superficial pretenders to a better sort of religion."

"Yet he considered it his duty to destroy idol worship, and wrote how he had destroyed idols in a prominent goddess temple. The Hindus were described as ‘being deeply affected with the sight so foppish a set of Gods’, and he proudly ‘threw some down to the ground, and striking off the heads of others’. He wanted to demonstrate to the ‘deluded’ Hindus that ‘their images were nothing but impotent and still idols, unable to protect themselves and much less their worshippers’. The most remarkable part of this incident was that the Hindus who gathered at the scene of destruction were agitated, but did not allow their agitation to turn violent. One man he described as a ‘pagan school teacher (upadhyayan )’ calmly entered into a theological debate and proceeded to show the missionary the folly of his actions. He concluded the debate by pointing out to the missionary that from the point of view of absolute being, all forms of matter are constructions of Maya, and that the pottery images the missionary broke were merely symbols."

"For the last category of religions, Ziegenbalg used the word ‘heathen’ as equivalent to ‘pagan’ or ‘gentile’. It denoted non-monotheistic people and connoted ‘ignorant’ and ‘uncivilized’. All heathens, Ziegenbalg said, are under the rule of the devil, whom they worship as a god. He leads them into idolatry and superstitious rites. The devil is the father of them all, but they have divided into many sects and in Africa, America, and East India, they differ in their gods and teachings. 7"

"It was neither the powerful English nor the Dutch, but the Danes who sent the first Protestant mission to India, — to Tranquebar, an insignificant locality which they possessed in India. Zeigenbalg, the first missionary who reached India in 1706, candidly confessed that his mission had little success. He pointed out that the Christians in India were “so much debauched in their manners”, and “so given to gluttony, drunkenness, lewdness, cursing, swearing, cheating and cozening” and “proud and insulting in their conduct”, that many Indians, judging the religion by its effect upon its followers, “could not be induced to embrace Christianity”. Only a few poor or destitute persons were converted, and they had to be fed and maintained by the mission. When Ziegenbalg wanted to convert the upper classes by argument, he failed miserably. “In a notable debate held under the auspices of the Dutch in Negapatam, Ziegenbalg disputed with a Brahmin for five hours, and far from converting the Brahmin, the missionary came away with an excessive admiration for the intellectual gifts of his adversary”.(150)"

"Zeigenbalg’s missionary effort was typical of Christian missionary enterprise in India during the eighteenth century. No doubt the number of converts steadily increased and churches were founded in different parts of India. But it was the remittance from Europe that supplied the cost of building churches and feeding the congregation. Abbe Dubois (1,765-1848) published, at the end of the eighteenth or beginning of the nineteenth century, his Letters on the State of Christianity in India . In these he “asserted his opinion that under existing circumstances there was no human possibility of so overcoming the invincible barrier of Brahminical prejudice as to convert the Hindus as a nation to any sect of Christianity. He acknowledged that low castes and outcastes might be converted in large numbers, but of the higher castes he wrote: ‘Should the intercourse between individuals of both nations, by becoming more intimate and more friendly, produce a change in the religion and usages of the country, it will not be to turn Christians that they will forsake their own religion, but rather to become mere atheists.” (150-1)"

"We serve our people when working with the United Nations, and each and every citizen needs to see a concrete impact on his or her daily life, and a positive change."

"We have to explain that we face serious threats to security, that terrorism needs a globally coordinated response, that proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery remain existential threats to global security."

"What the European Union does, from my perspective, is well done and it helps everyone. But as it happens in politics, good news are not news and we do not talk about these aspects."

"For me, people have always been more important than money. This is why I stressed this principle in my approaches towards the media, but also in the European Council. In some areas we feel the tendency to leave people behind and handle trade our industrial issues."

"We also need an integrated and innovative approach to respond simultaneously to a whole range of inter-related challenges, such as health, demographic changes, migration, scarce resources, climate change and biodiversity loss, extreme poverty and hunger."

"We have advanced the European Agenda in an inclusive manner, with Romania acting as an honest broker and succeeding to achieve impressive results."

"I am very proud of my country, and the two main priorities of my mandate addressed precisely these concerns. The first, to uphold the fight against corruption, to strengthen the rule of law and to preserve the independence of the judiciary. The second, to consolidate Romania’s role within the European Union and to represent our country in the European institutions with dignity. Close to the end of my term now, I can say I have succeeded in fulfilling both of these priorities."

"Since the beginning of my term, my vision for Romania was to build a strong and prosperous country, where the projects we have started are finalized, where the law is the same for everyone, and where people are appreciated and fairly paid for their work. Romanians want the same things as the Germans or any other European citizens do: to live a prosperous and safe life in a country able to provide all the necessary premises to build a good future for themselves and for their children."

"Through my actions, the ones of the parliamentary opposition and through the citizens’ mobilization, Romania succeeded in preserving its pro-European and democratic course and this seems to me the most important achievement of my term."

"Recently we have also witnessed the potential and the challenges of digital technologies. We must ensure meaningful and safe access to the Internet, strengthen cybersecurity and promote responsible behavior in the cyberspace, while addressing the digital spread of hatred and disinformation."