Murdered People

"Surely, I have never brought to mind the martyrdom of the children of Fātimah (A.S.) except that I have been choked with tears due to it."

"There was no day like the Day of al-Husayn, when thirty thousand men advanced against him (while) they claimed that they belonged to this community, and that they (wanted) to seek proximity to Allah, the Great and Almighty, through (shedding) his blood. He (al-Husayn) reminded them of Allah, but they did not learn (from him) till they killed him out of (their) oppression and aggression."

"I shall not return to Constantinople until I have conquered Egypt!"

"There is nothing in the world that could make me turn from the law. With a clear conscience, I am prepared to answer for each and every one of my political and administrative orders and actions, and to do so before the court of public opinion..."

"Our sole aim was, by virtue of this war, to rid ourselves of the lot of them, however many international decisions there were. Each one represented a blow to our...independence...And, just as it was our dearly held goal to lift the Capitulations and the Mt. Lebanon concessions, we also desired to destroy the signed understanding concerning the reforms in Eastern Anatolia..."

"With us it is not a question of Bolshevism or democracy, but of life or death. A decision in favor of a Soviet could not be opposed by the Young Turks."

"In the program of the Turkish government, nothing is said of a Turkification of the Arabs. I have never intended anything like that nor even thought of it. Our sole purpose is to strengthen the feeling of fraternity between the Ottoman-Turkish and the Ottoman-Arab elements and to make the latter understand that the national interests of the Arabs are identical to those of the Turks and that any harm to one of them necessarily means harm to the other. The Ottoman-Turkish and the Ottoman-Arab elements have to rally to the caliphate without afterthoughts if they want to survive."

"Volgen Mohsen bestaat er-namelijk in feite geen apart Palestijns folk. Tussen Jordaniërs, Palestijnen, Syriërs en Libanezen bestaan er geen verschillen. Wij maken deel uit van één volk, de Arabische natie. Kijk maar, ik heb familieleden met het Palestijnse, Libanese, Jordaanse en Syrische staatsburgerschap. Wij zijn één volk. Alleen maar om politieke redenen onderschrijven wij zorgvuldig onze Palestijnse identiteit. Het is namelijk van nationaal belang voor de Arabieren om het bestaan van de Palestijnen aan te moedigen tegenover het zionisme. Ja, het bestaan van een aparte Palestijnse identiteit is er alleen om tactische redenen. De stichting van een Palestijnse staat is een nieuw middel om de strijd tegen Israel en voor de Arabische eenheid voort te zetten."

"Alexandre Soljenitsyne lui rend un vibrant hommage lors de son entretien avec Bernard Pivot : "Au XXème siècle, c'est de loin de plus grand homme d'Etat que nous ayons eu". (Apostrophe, Antenne 2, 1983)"

"After 1917 the most hardened followers of the Tsar would come to denounce Stolypin as an upstart bureaucrat whose dangerous reform policies had only served to undermine the sacred principles of autocracy. But to his admirers — and there are many of them in post-Soviet Russia — Stolypin was the greatest statesmen Russia ever had, the one man who could have saved the country from the revolution and the civil war."

"People sometimes forget about their national tasks; but such peoples perish, they turn into land, into fertilizer, on which other, stronger nations grow and grow stronger."

"You, gentlemen, are in need of great upheavals; we are in need of Great Russia."

"Een aparte Palestijnse entiteit moet voor de nationale rechten opkomen in de dan nog overgebleven bezette gebieden. De Jordaanse regering kan niet namens de Palestijnen in Israel, Libanon of Syrië spreken. Jordanië is een staat met bepaalde grenzen. Het kan geen aanspraak maken op bijvoorbeeld Haifa of Jaffa, terwijl ik wel recht heb op Haifa, Jaffa, Jeruzalem en Beërsheva. Jordanië kan alleen spreken namens de Jordaniërs en de Palestijnen in Jordanië. De Palestijnse staat zou het recht hebben om op te treden namens alle Palestijnen in de Arabische wereld en elders. Als wij eenmaal al onze rechten in geheel Palestina hebben verworven, moeten wij de hereniging van Jordanië en Palestina geen moment uitstellen."

"There have been politicians more successful, or more subtle; there have been none more tenacious or more tolerant … He is one of that small band of statesman whose service to humanity is greater than their service to their time or their people."

"Faithless traitor, it is thou who art the cause of this massacre of our brothers!"

"The wisest, gentlest, bravest man who ever led a nation."

"Better late than never."

"Never did arrogant or indiscreet word issue from his mouth, under the impulse of anger or other passion; if any of his servants committed a fault, he was satisfied to admonish them gently without resorting to menace or to abusive language. He was master of a sweet and winning power of persuasion, by means of which he gave form to the great ideas within him, and thus he succeeded in bending to his will the other lords about the court as he chose; beloved and in high favour above all men with the people, by reason of a gracious manner that he had of saluting, and addressing in a fascinating and familiar way all whom he met."

"As long as he lived, he was the guiding star of a whole brave nation, and when he died the little children cried in the streets."

"People everywhere ceased to trust him, and thought that the Prince must regret that he had ever left Holland at all. He had lost all authority in the Netherlands, after allowing so many thousands to be butchered. He cannot even withdraw with honor; he is not safe even in Antwerp, where his popularity is gone."

"They welcome him as the Jews would their Messiah."

"The people here, are bewitched by the Prince; they love him, they fear him, they desire him for their lord. They inform him of everything, and take no step but by his advice. That which the Prince most abhors in the world, is your Majesty. If he could, he would drink your Majesty’s blood."

"We need fear no more when the head is gone."

"Our godly Stadtholder has come to the communion, and therein has broken the Lord’s bread, and has submitted to discipline, which is no small event."

"If the Prince acted with spirit he would crush Alva; if Alva acted with spirit, he would crush the Prince."

"The Prince is a rare man, of great authoritie, universally beloved, verie wyse in resolution in all things, and voyd of pretences, and that which is worthie of speciall prayse in hym, he is not dismayed with any loss, or adversitie."

"Never did a man more weary go to eternal rest."

"It would be the greatest disaster which could befall our House if any untoward accident befall you, which may God avert! Do not hesitate to open letters addressed to me. Your love for me and the absolute confidence between us make me feel that I cannot have any secrets from you."

"This mercy will be your ruin; you will be at the bridge across which the Spaniards will enter this land."

"God save the King!"

"Would not the German princes at least intercede with Philip? Would they hinder the passage of the royal mercenaries from Germany? Saxony, Hesse, Wurtemburg, and the rest offer excellent advice, to beware of Philip, not to drive him to extremity, to avoid outrages."

"I am no Calvinist, but it seems to me neither right nor worthy of a Christian to seek, for the sake of differences between the doctrine of Calvin and the Confession of Augsburg, to have this land swarming with troops and inundated with blood."

"I have come to make my grave in this land."

"In all things there must be order, but it must of such a kind as is possible to observe … to see a man burnt for doing as he thought right, harms the people, for this is a matter of conscience."

"The end will show the whole truth."

"Tell the King, that whole cities are in open revolt against the prosecutions, and that it is impossible to enforce the decrees here. As for myself, I shall continue to hold by the Catholic faith; but I will never give any colour to the tyrannical claim of kings to dictate to the consciences of their people, and to prescribe the form of religion that they choose to impose. Call the King’s attention to the corruption that has crept into the administration of justice. Let the Government be reformed, the Privy Council and the Council of Finance, and increase the authority of the Council of State."

"I will say no more, than that I will act as I shall answer hereafter to God and to man."

"All in the world I have is yours; Next to God, you are the one I love best, and if I did not know that your love for me is the same, I could not be so happy as I am: May God give us both the grace to live always in this affection without any guile."

"Sire, have pity on the Spanish infantry, which, for lack of pay and out of sheer starvation, is scouring the low country round, plundering the peasantry in mere need of food. These disorders I cannot repress, much less can I punish them, for necessity has no law."

"He is the pilot who steers the ship; he alone can wreck it or save it. Peace, the Catholic religion, your Majesty’s rule, can only be established through him; we must make a virtue of necessity and come to terms with him, if we are not to lose all. I see no other way to prevent the ruin of the State but the defeat of this man, who exerts such an influence over the nation."

"O wondrous fate that joins Moses and Orange. The one fights for the law, the other beats the drum. And with his own arm, frees the Evangelium. The one leads the Hebrews through the Red Sea flood. The other guides his people through a sea … of tears and blood."

"To my mind, he builded better than he knew and the real worth of his character developed slowly."

"William the Silent, Prince of Orange, was a distinctive character, cast in a peculiar period of history. He was in thought and desire centuries ahead of the possibilities of his time, and had to contend with ideas among those he served that were as difficult to overcome as were the forces of the Spanish Crown, with which his life was spent in doing battle."

"The Prince very nobly hath travailed, both night and day, to keep this town from manslaughter and from despoil, which doubtless had taken place, if he had not been, — to the loss of 20,000 men; for that I never saw men so desperate willing to fight."

"For these causes we declare him traitor and miscreant, enemy of ourselves and of the country. As such we banish him perpetually from all our realms, forbidding all our subjects, of whatever quality, to communicate with him openly or privately — to administer to him victuals, drink, fire, or other necessaries. We allow all to injure him in property or life. We expose the said William of Nassau as an enemy of the human race, giving his property to all who may seize it. And if any one of our subjects or any stranger should be found sufficiently generous of heart to rid us of this pest, delivering him to us, alive or dead, or taking his life, we will cause to be furnished to him immediately after the deed shall have been done, the sum of twenty-five thousand crowns in gold. If he have committed any crime, however heinous, we promise to pardon him; and if he be not already noble, we will ennoble him for his valor."

"The very fear of it, will paralyze or kill him."

"The Prince has no head for such things; he writes too many manifestoes for a man of action."

"To have seized the Prince would have been more important than all the rest."

"The Prince is a dangerous man, subtle, politic, professing to stand by the people, and to champion their interests, even against your edicts, but seeking only the favour of the mob, giving himself out sometimes as a Catholic, sometimes as a Calvinist or Lutheran. He is a man to undertake any enterprise in secret which his own vast ambition and inordinate suspicion may suggest. Better not leave such a man in Flanders. Give him a magnificent embassy or a viceroyalty, or perhaps call him to your own court. As to Egmont, he has been led away by Orange but he is honest, a good Catholic, and can easily be brought round, by appealing to his vanity and his jealousy of the Prince."

"You have in American history one of the great captains of all times. It might be said of him, as it was of William the Silent, that he seldom won a battle but he never lost a campaign."