people-from-massachusetts

"One can live there and feel quite at home because one can lose his heart to any country, and it is a commonplace that "home is where the heart is.""

"No single personality, excepting the carpenter's son of Nazareth, has done so much to make the world of civilisation we live in what it is as Alexander of Macedon. He leveled the terrace upon which built. Whatever lay within the range of his conquests contributed its part to form that Mediterranean civilisation which, under Rome's administration, became the basis of European life."

"There was no priestly hierarchy either for Greece as a whole or for single cantons; not even among priests of the same in different cantons was there organized coöperation. Some popular or oracle might win more than local prestige and secure the protection and support of various neighboring states, but there the drift toward centralization and organization found its limit. At no time did there exist an organized authority which could formulate standards of faith or dictate the usages of religious etiquette. Ritual, seeking that which in matter and manner was believed to be well pleasing to the , followed the traditions of the individual shrines, and there were no better theologians than the poets."

"Viewing history in the large, we cannot fail to see that the world we live in is essentially a . All its fundamental forms and moulds for law and government, art, architecture, and literature, thought and faith., were created beside the Mediterranean; all its political and religious struggles, all its wars, were the fighting over of old Mediterranean questions; and as a system of types and forms, it never can be really understood and known except as it be reduced to Mediterranean terms, and studied in the perspective of a Roman, Greek, or Syrian horizon."

"The rate at which your knowledge will ripen into wisdom depends in considerable part upon your distinguishing what is important and what is relatively unimportant. Some people seem never to know any difference between the s and the s."

"... those refinements of civility which formed what was in that age called courtesy."

"If no other knowledge deserves to be called useful but that which helps to enlarge our possessions or to raise our station in society, then Mythology has no claim to the appellation. But if that which tends to make us happier and better can be called useful, then we claim that epithet for our subject. For Mythology is the handmaid of literature; and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and promoters of happiness."

"What have you to do with warlike weapons, saucy boy? Leave them for hands worthy of them. Behold the conquest I have won by means of them over the vast serpent who stretched his poisonous body over acres of the plain! Be content with your torch, child, and kindle up your flames, as you call them, where you will, but presume not to meddle with my weapons." Venus's boy heard these words, and rejoined, "Your arrows may strike all things else, Apollo, but mine shall strike you."

"As to the doctrine of slavery and the right of Christians to hold Africans in perpetual servitude, and sell and treat them as we do our horses and cattle, that (it is true) has been heretofore countenanced by the Province Laws formerly, but nowhere is it expressly enacted or established. It has been a usage — a usage which took its origin from some European nations and the regulations of the British government respecting the then Colonies, for the benefit of trade and wealth. But whatever sentiments have formerly prevailed in this particular or slid in upon us by the example of others, a different idea has taken place with the people of America, more favorable to the natural right of mankind, and to that natural, innate desire of Liberty, with which Heaven, (without regard to color, complexion or shape of noses, features) has inspired all the human race. And upon this ground our Constitution of Government, by which the people of this Commonwealth have solemnly bound themselves, sets out with declaring all men are born free and equal — and that every subject is entitled to liberty, — and to have it guarded by the laws, as well as life and property — and in short is totally repugnant to the idea of being born slaves. This being the case I think the idea of slavery is inconsistent with our own conduct and Constitution; and there can be no such thing as perpetual servitude of a rational creature, unless his liberty is forfeited by criminal conduct or given up by personal consent or contract."

"Our work is not for the learned, nor for the theologian, nor for the philosopher, but for the reader of English literature, of either sex, who wishes to comprehend the allusions so frequently made by public speakers, lecturers, essayists, and poets, and those which occur in polite conversation."

"He saw her eyes bright as stars; he saw her lips, and was not satisfied with only seeing them."

"The service of his mistress was the glory and occupation of a knight, and her smiles, bestowed at once by affection and gratitude, were held out as the recompense of his well-directed valor. Religion united its influence with those of loyalty and love, and the order of knighthood, endowed with all the sanctity and religious awe that attended the priesthood, became an object of ambition to the greatest sovereigns."

"The Greeks believed the earth to be flat and circular, their own country occupying the middle of it, the central point being either Mount Olympus, the abode of the gods, or Delphi, so famous for its oracle."

"The first writer who disclaimed a belief in the existence of the Phoenix, was Sir Thomas Browne, in his “Vulgar Errors”, published in 1646. He was replied to a few years later by Alexander Ross, who says, in answer to the objection of the Phoenix so seldom making his appearance, “His instinct teaches him to keep out of the way of the tyrant of the creation, man, for if he were to be got at, some wealthy glutton would surely devour him, though there were no more in the world”."

"Alas! for shame," said Sir Launcelot, "that ever one knight should betray another! but it is an old saw, a good man is never in danger, but when he is in danger of a coward."

"The scientific method consists of the use of procedures designed to show not that our predictions and hypotheses are right, but that they might be wrong. Scientific reasoning is useful to anyone in any job because it makes us face the possibility, even the dire reality, that we were mistaken. It forces us to confront our self-justifications and put them on public display for others to puncture. At its core, therefore, science is a form of arrogance control."

"The western mind — and perhaps the American mind in particular — has been trained to equate success with victory, to equate doing well with beating someone."

"It seems strange to us now, but it is a fact that the disciples never seemed to have realized the mission of their Master. To the last they hoped He would redeem Israel, not from its iniquities, but from the rule of a foreign power. When He died their faith in Him died too. It looked as if His cause was lost forever. Is it not strange that the enemies of Jesus remembered better than His followers the words He said? Yet, is it not the way of the world? The hatred of an enemy outlasts the love of a friend."

"Holding then to science with one hand — the left hand — we give the right hand to religion, and cry: "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things, more wondrous than the shining worlds can tell." Obedient to the promise, religion does waken faculties within us, does teach our eyes to the beholding of more wonderful things. Those great worlds blazing like suns die like feeble stars in the glory of the morning, in the presence of this new light. The soul knows that an infinite sea of love is all about it, throbbing through it, everlasting arms of affection lift it, and it bathes itself in the clear consciousness of a Father's love."

"Men, you are all marksmen — don't one of you fire until you see the white of their eyes."

"College Lesson Number Three: If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

"Had I gone to my other option, Boston College, this opportunity wouldn't have come my way, because there was no Navy ROTC program there and, consequently, no recruiter to goad me into following my dream. As mentioned, the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy had all rejected me. Backing up a bit, while attending one of those schools had been my dream, I chose Holy Cross over B.C. partly because of what the school's symbol and nickname- the Crusader- meant to me. The Crusader image is that of a knight mounted on an armored horse. Imagine having beliefs so strong- religious beliefs or otherwise- that you would sacrifice the daily comforts and security of ordinary life. Imagine having beliefs so strong that you would be willing to give your life to uphold them. Of course, the early Christian martyrs also gave their lives for their faith, but knights held a special pull on me. They drew strength and courage from their beliefs, but also from miliary service. Would I ever have that kind of courage? Becoming a modern-day knight appealed to me as a way to stand up for what I believed in, even if it was unpopular and resulted in personal sacrifice. Serving others and doing unto them as you would have done unto yourself seemed like a good life motto."

"Okay, Mr. Kelley, everything looks good. We'll send this package to Boston, and you should be hearing from us in a few days." I thanked the sailor and walked out with mixed emotions. What had I gotten myself into? Was my dream of being a sailor and my desire for naval service, after many setbacks along the way, finally going to be realized? I could now tell my parents I had an opportunity to serve my country, and they'd be proud of me. I was ecstatic. Finally, a week or so before graduation, the door opened for me, and a path lay ahead. Life gave me a second chance, and I took it."

"As I stared at the grass under which my great-grandfather was buried, a single question ran through my mind: Was it worth it? The same question strikes me every time I visit the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., that honors the 58,000 who died in one of the longest and most controversial wars in the history of this country. Although 620,000 lives were lost in the Civil War, it brought us the emancipation of slaves and the preservation of the Union. There is no similar weighty statement I can make for the Vietnam War."

"College Lesson Number Two: It's dangerous to step outside of your comfort zone, particularly when mobsters are involved."

"College Lesson Number One: You find out who your true friends are when you stop doing favors for them."

"It may sound as though I joined the Navy on a whim because I didn't have any other career options, and that wouldn't be entirely false, but it's not entirely true either. My love of the sea began in early childhood, and a sense of adventure had pushed me to join the sea service even before college. I'd been imbued with the importance of service by my parents and church my entire life. This was simply the inevitable coming to fruition."

"I don't consider the Medal my personal property. As a recipient, I feel I am wearing it to represent all the men and women who have served over the years with the same dedication and courage. Having said that, it did make me very awre of my responsibilities as a recipient, talking to kids, trying to instill the values of service, courage, honor, and duty, so it's been a very good part of my life. Personally and professionally it added a dimension. I certainly don't dwell on events of thirty-one years ago. That was thirty minutes out of my life and it came and went and life goes on. I've led a wonderful life since then."

"There's a tradition in Massachusetts, starting with the North Bridge in Concord, with U.S. history starting here, a history of service. We take care of our own. When you think of John Adams, people like that who just embody service. Abe Lincoln's family was from here, right out near where Tom Hudner lives in Concord. There's a tradition here. The first Vietnam veterans' memorial in the U.S. was built in South Boston in 1982. The towns here seem to have paid more than their proportion in sending sons off to war."

"Before me stood a Marine recruiting poster come to life. Tall and with an athletic build and a dozen medals pinned to his chest, Marine Corps Major Kelly oozed confidence. Even his firm handshake and the way his eyes locked onto mine conveyed a no-nonsense attitude. I was about to graduate from the College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, Massachusetts, with an economics degree and no clue how to use it. I was looking for the next step. Several of my classmates who had been in the Navy ROTC program spoke with such reverence about Major Kelly, I was sure they'd stake their lives on his ability to walk on water. One day I bumped into him on campus and decided to introduce myself. My heart skipped a beat as Major Kelly uttered the words that would ultimately change the course of my life. "It's a shame that you couldn't be one of us," he said, referring to my failed attempt to get into the ROTC program due to my poor eyesight. Major Kelly congratulated me on my forthcoming graduation, wished me luck, and disappeared from my life. But his words stayed. They created a picture in my mind of a team that I knew I wanted to be a part of."

"I've found in this job something I never stopped to think about before: Someone who serves in the military has no control over whether there's a war or no, so this state and all states treat their wartime vets different from how they treat their peacetime vets, which I think is fundamentally unfair. I'm trying to get that changed, so that anybody who serves is treated the same way when it comes to benefits. The Cold War was won by men and women who were not considered wartime veterans, tracking their subs, doing sonar, playing cat-and-mouse type of games."

"I downplayed the fact that I was a Medal recipient until recently. I was too busy being a naval officer, and I certainly did not want to let having the Medal of Honor give me any special advantage when it came to accomplishing certain things, okay? I bent over backward to avoid that, so I ended up downplaying the Medal completely. But now I found that it does permit me to have doors opened here in the state of Massachusetts to help veterans, and for that reason alone I am probably more active than I used to be."

"Eventually Tom and I found our way to one another. We married in 2005. I moved to another agency. Temporarily, Tom moved into my house, but we both yearned for our own single-family home. Cambridge was too expensive, so after our marriage, we looked next door in Somerville and found a lovingly cared for Victorian that needed a little work. It's where we live today. We have great neighbors, and the gentrification that's taking place ensures a happy future with more young families moving in. Not even a winning lottery ticket could take the place of the life Tom and I now lived. Home, marriage, even my new job were blessings. We were a team. We thought alike in many ways, yet respected each other's differences. We were determined that nothing would get in the way of our new happiness. We planned to keep the stress out of our lives by realizing that certain events were beyond our control, looking for silver linings, keeping a sense of humor, and focusing on the gift of our great love. Unfortunately, large dark clouds were gathering that would negatively impact us both. But life never stays the same. Nothing is forever. Change is constant and all we can do is adapt."

"[About September 11, 2001] We agreed earlier that this was a wakeup call, but I think the pain is being felt by other people. The American public is not going to have a sense that hey're at war. We still have an all-volunteer force fighting our wars, so different from the way it was during World War II whene very block had sons and daughters overseas. I'd love to see not necessarily a return to the draft as much as some sort of national service involving everybody. I think that would give us all a sense of sharing and belonging to the crisis we're in right now. I mean, it's almost business as usual: People are inconvenienced, revenues are down because of dot-com companies going out of business, but nobody is really feeling the pain yet except those who lost loved ones in the events of September eleventh and now overseas in Afghanistan."

"A couple of years after high school is a good time, and it should be mandatory. In the Vietnam era there were so many ways to avoid service, college deferments, this, that, and the other thing, so that notion of service fell on the shoulders of those who were less advantaged and were unable to do college and things like that. I just don't think that's the way it should be. I like to think back to the way it was when this country was formed. When people like John Adams and George Washington led the way, men of substance, means, and intellect. Yet they were the ones who sacrificed the most to make this country what it is today."

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in the afternoon while serving as commander of River Assault Division 152 during combat operations against enemy aggressor forces. Lt. Comdr. (then Lt.) Kelley was in charge of a column of eight river assault craft which were extracting one company of U.S. Army infantry troops on the east bank of the Ong Muong Canal in Kien Hoa Province, when one of the armored troop carriers reported a mechanical failure of a loading ramp. At approximately the same time, Viet Cong forces opened fire from the opposite bank of the canal. After issuing orders for the crippled troop carrier to raise its ramp manually, and for the remaining boats to form a protective cordon around the disabled craft, Lt. Comdr. Kelley, realizing the extreme danger to his column and its inability to clear the ambush site until the crippled unit was repaired, boldly maneuvered the monitor in which he was embarked to the exposed side of the protective cordon in direct line with the enemy's fire, and ordered the monitor to commence firing. Suddenly, an enemy rocket scored a direct hit on the coxswain's flat, the shell penetrating the thick armor plate, and the explosion spraying shrapnel in all directions. Sustaining serious head wounds from the blast, which hurled him to the deck of the monitor, Lt. Comdr. Kelley disregarded his severe injuries and attempted to continue directing the other boats. Although unable to move from the deck or to speak clearly into the radio, he succeeded in relaying his commands through one of his men until the enemy attack was silenced and the boats were able to move to an area of safety. Lt. Comdr. Kelley's brilliant leadership, bold initiative, and resolute determination served to inspire his men and provide the impetus needed to carry out the mission after he was medically evacuated by helicopter. His extraordinary courage under fire and his selfless devotion to duty sustain and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service."

"A nation is to be congratulated when it has many illustrious men in its history, to whom the people may look back with reverential love. Happy the people possessing among their dead a Washington, a Lincoln, a Grant. Each such name helps to hold the passing generations, with all their new problems and revolutionary impulses, in allegiance to the ideals of the past. One must believe that Westminster Abbey is a perpetual incentive to true patriotism; that beneath the constant influence of its noble monuments demagogues should not flourish. As one walks beneath those arches and reads the records of heroes who have died in various climes for England and mankind, of the statesmen and the authors who have for so many centuries been making the English language and ideas the most precious literary heritage of the world, one gets a profound impression of the solidity of English institutions, a firm confidence that widespread, deeply-penetrating roots will keep the English oak green for centuries to come."

"The complete results of Bishop Allen's pro sperous administration are best noticed by a comparison between the standing of the diocese when he assumed control and its existing admirable state."

"Unity is secured by the hierarchical organization of the ministry and the due submission of inferiors to authority. On this point the teaching of the Apostolic Fathers seems to stand for a marked development in advance of the practice of the Apostolic period. But it is to be noted that the familiar tone in which episcopal authority is treated precludes the possibility of its being a novelty."

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a pilot in Fighter Squadron 32, while attempting to rescue a squadron mate whose plane, struck by antiaircraft fire and trailing smoke, was forced down behind enemy lines. Quickly maneuvering to circle the downed pilot and protect him from enemy troops infesting the area, Lt. (j.g.) Hudner risked his life to save the injured flier who was trapped alive in the burning wreckage. Fully aware of the extreme danger in landing on the rough mountainous terrain, and the scant hope of escape or survival in subzero temperature, he put his plane down skillfully in a deliberate wheels-up landing in the presence of enemy troops. With his bare hands, he packed the fuselage with snow to keep the flames away from the pilot and struggled to pull him free. Unsuccessful in this he returned to his crashed aircraft and radioed other airborne planes, requesting that a helicopter be dispatched with an ax and fire extinguisher. He then remained on the spot despite the continuing danger from enemy action and, with the assistance of the rescue pilot, renewed a desperate but unavailing battle against time, cold, and flames. Lt. (j.g.) Hudner's exceptionally valiant action and selfless devotion to a shipmate sustain and enhance the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service."

"This year, our call as Catholics to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free is more important than ever before."

"I wrecked an airplane and I didn't even get the guy out of the wreckage. I happened to be an aviator but an infantryman can dig deep enough or fast enough to get away from the gunfire, but he'll jump up and pull a buddy to safety. It's an attitude that is latent for the most part in normal life but comes out when you are suddenly confronted with life or death in a situation like that. And I don't think a lot of kids recognize the love one person can have for another that sometimes comes out only in time of war. That's why veterans always want to get together for silly, stupid reunions. It's memories of times when these people would do anything for one another, groveling around, or being shot at four thousand feet, trying to get something accomplished for absolutely nothing at all but the satisfaction that they maintained what freedom they could for the country- because freedom for the U.S. means freedom for the whole world. If we weren't out there, the world would be absolute chaos."

"Bishop Beaven is an organizer. He has applied to the temporal affairs of the Church sound business principles. He has developed the charitable institutions of his diocese."

"Open to all parties, but influenced by none."

"His reputation in future time will rest, as a patriot, on the manly independence which gave through the initiatory stage and progress of the Revolution the strong influence of the press he directed toward the cause of freedom, when royal flattery would have seduced and the power of government subdued its action."

"It's not as if the Catholic church can do whatever it wants. As Catholics, we believe that God gave us some things and left some things are for us to figure out on our own. Ultimately, it makes no apologies because it's an object of faith. It's not just another club."

"We have to take some responsibilities as Christians for what was done by our brothers and sisters, and that's the idea of it. When we rejoice in what our forefathers and foremothers have done, we have to think also of the indignities and injustices that were committed by those who were our brothers and sisters."

"The Holy See has always just sent me where they needed me, it's been a very beautiful experience. It hasn't always been easy, being so far from home and family, but I will miss it. At the same time, direct pastoral ministry has always been my first love. Human beings are very similar, but we're not all the same. Throughout my ministry, I've been able to see the beauty of all these different cultures, and the beauty of the Church in all these different places. It's been a very enriching experience."

"I find that my life is a circle -- I keep coming back to a point where I was before, but in a different way. That's the way God has worked with me, I guess."

"As a general proposition, we may say that the drive that carries forward any activity, when it is running freely and effectively, is inherent in that activity. It is only when an activity is running by its own drive that it can run thus freely and effectively; for as long as it is being driven by some extrinsic motive, it is subject to the distraction of that motive."