Murdered People

"I don’t believe there will be a military solution to this conflict but I do believe there will be a military component to it. The vast majority of the fighting will be done by people from the region and by Syrians themselves, but that doesn’t mean that the UK shouldn’t play a role."

"I always back UN action where we can find it, but I do not think it should be a limit to our help. There have been multiple UN resolutions that say [to] Assad: stop killing indiscriminately your own citizens."

"We now face five years of an unbridled Conservative government that is intent on swingeing cuts, further attacks on society’s most vulnerable and on our NHS. This will severely limit what can be achieved but I am determined to work tirelessly to do what I can to make sure local people are heard in Parliament and protected from the worst of what is to come."

"Many people don’t realise just what a valuable lifeline libraries can be."

"They are a lifeline for job hunters without their own computer, slimmers, walkers, discussers, knitters and natterers."

"It was the realisation of a lifelong ambition to be the MP for my home town. It was by no means the end of a journey, but rather the beginning of a new chapter both for me and for the people of Batley and Spen."

"If we can find the will I strongly believe we can still make Britain’s approach to talent a bit more X-factor (without Simon Cowell) and a bit less Downton Abbey."

"We both nominated Corbyn for leader last year. We have never had cause to doubt his commitment to society’s most disadvantaged and to Labour’s values – a commitment we all share. But we have come to regret that decision."

"British policy on Syria has wandered aimlessly, a deadly mix of timidity and confusion. The lack of a coherent response, not just by Britain but by the wider international community, has allowed the situation in Syria to fester into the greatest humanitarian crisis of our lifetime. … We can and should do much more to help."

"On the military side, we need to get two things right if we only talk about limited air strikes against Isil [Isis] – and I back international action against Isil – it will be counterproductive. We have to look at the conflict dynamic in Syria, and that is 75% of civilian deaths and causalities are caused by the Assad regime due to his aerial bombardment of civilians."

"What many of our businesses are lacking is confidence: confidence to expand; confidence to borrow; confidence to grow; and the confidence to fuel a real economic recovery that benefits everybody, offering decent jobs, paying decent wages and bridging the skills gap."

"I have fought a really local and positive campaign full of energy and enthusiasm and I think that came across. I’m not nervous, I’m honour and humbled to be elected, I appreciate the big challenge ahead, I have two children aged two and four so I am used to the challenge."

"BBC Interviewer: Mr. Prime Minister, the introduction as Sinhalese as the official language by your government [Sri Lankan Government], appears to have damaged the good relations, which previously existed between Sinhalese and Tamils, how do you justify this act? S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike: Well, when our country became independent, naturally the question aroused... of national language. superseding English as the official language of the country. Sinhalese, we decided upon, as the official language, because 70% of the people of Ceylon are Sinhalese. At the same time, we naturally realized that the Tamil minority had a language that was also old, very rich language, literature... so on, and therefore we decided, also, to give a reasonable use to the Tamil language, as a language of a national minority. In such matters, and education, examinations, and the public service, and so on: We fear that that is the fairest way, for a problem to be settled."

"Ra ra Rasputin Lover of the Russian queen There was a cat that really was gone Ra ra Rasputin Russia's greatest love machine It was a shame how he carried on"

"What eyes he has! You cannot endure his gaze for long."

"God has seen your tears and heard your prayers. Fear not, the child will not die."

"This devil who was dying of poison, who had a bullet in his heart, must have been raised from the dead by the powers of evil. There was something appalling and monstrous in his diabolical refusal to die."

"On December 16, 1916, the royal couple's charismatic and corrupt holy man Rasputin was murdered by the Tsar's own cousin, Grand Duke Dmitry, aided and abetted by the effete Prince Felix Yusupov and a right-wing politician named V. M. Purishkevich, in the belief that the monk was exerting a malign influence on the Tsar and on Russian foreign policy. But things did not improve. Deserted by his own generals in what amounted to a mutiny in early March 1917, Nicholas agreed to abdicate, complaining bitterly of 'treachery, cowardice and deceit'."

"There lived a certain man in Russia long ago He was big and strong, in his eyes a flaming glow Most people looked at him with terror and with fear But to Moscow chicks he was such a lovely dear He could preach the bible like a preacher Full of ecstasy and fire But he also was the kind of teacher Women would desire"

"I write and leave behind me this letter at St. Petersburg. I feel that I shall leave life before January 1st. I wish to make known to the Russian people, to Papa, to the Russian Mother and to the children, to the land of Russia, what they must understand. If I am killed by common assassins, and especially by my brothers the Russian peasants, you, Tsar of Russia, have nothing to fear, remain on your throne and govern, and you, Russian Tsar, will have nothing to fear for your children, they will reign for hundreds of years in Russia. But if I am murdered by boyars, nobles, and if they shed my blood, their hands will remain soiled with my blood, for twenty-five years they will not wash their hands from my blood. They will leave Russia. Brothers will kill brothers, and they will kill each other and hate each other, and for twenty-five years there will be no noblers in the country. Tsar of the land of Russia, if you hear the sound of the bell which will tell you that Grigory has been killed, you must know this: if it was your relations who have wrought my death then no one of your family, that is to say, none of your children or relations will remain alive for more than two years. They will be killed by the Russian people...I shall be killed. I am no longer among the living. Pray, pray, be strong, think of your blessed family."

"An illiterate itinerant peasant, Rasputin was monk able to wield considerable influence over Russia’s autocratic rulers. He rose to prominence as an enigmatic mystic, finding a ready audience for his peculiar brand of religious devotion at a time when many Russian aristocrats were fixated by mysticism and the occult. He appears to have embraced a distorted version of the ‘Khlysty’ creed, reworking its emphasis on flagellation to advocate sexual exhaustion as the surest path to God."

"God has seen your tears and heard your prayers. Do not grieve. The Little One will not die. Do not allow the doctors to bother him too much."

"Introduced to the royal family in 1905, Rasputin eased the suffering of Tsarevich Alexei — the heir to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and a sufferer from haemophilia. He swiftly became the confidant and personal adviser of Tsarina Alexandra (a German by birth), and when, in September 1915, Tsar Nicholas made himself commander-in-chief of the Russian armies following the outbreak of the First World War — spending much of his time at the front — fears grew that Rasputin was effectively running the country. Alexandra heeded Rasputin’s advice in sacking several ministers and appointing new ones — but ultimately authority lay with her and the tsar, who ratified all decisions and, indeed, had rebuffed Rasputin’s advice to stay out of the war."

"Nicholas and Alexandra were actually inept, cruel, rigid and obtuse reactionaries. Nicholas, in a speech made in 1895, had deplored the ‘senseless dreams’ of those seeking democracy, and had helped fund the murderous anti-Semitic Black Hundreds movement after crushing the 1905 Revolution. The country’s problems, then, were firmly down to the incompetence of the tsar and tsarina, but Rasputin provided a scapegoat. Rasputin’s close relationship with the tsarina provoked rumours of sexual deviance at the Russian court led by the ‘Mad Monk’, and before long his position had become a national scandal. He came to symbolize the perceived corruption of the tsar’s rule — with stories widespread about Alexandra’s supposed lesbianism and Nicholas’ impotence. Finally, in December 1916, a high-level plot involving senior politicians, noblemen and members of the imperial family - desperate to safeguard the regime — succeeded in eliminating the cleric. Rasputin was poisoned, shot (twice), beaten and eventually dumped into the River Neva, where he finally drowned. His astonishing resistance to poison and bullets suggested to some the mysterious potency of his powers."

"I have always responded to challenges, followed apocalyptical personalities, apostles, Rasputins, Joan of Arcs who hear voices that come from Heaven, illuminated guides of humanity, holders of truth, priests."

"Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem."

"Nulla iniuria est, quæ in volentem fiat."

"Princeps legibus solutus est."

"It is well known that certain colonies have Italian rights, as, for example, the magnificent colony of Tyre, in Syria of Phoenicia, my birthplace. This city, with its commanding position, great antiquity, and prowess in arms, held tenaciously to the treaty which she had made with the Romans. The divine Severus, our emperor, granted Italian rights to this city as a reward for its signal loyalty toward the republic and the empire of Rome."

"Iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius suum cuique tribuendi."

"Honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere."

"... Finally, one whom I took to be the voivoda (leader) spoke rapidly and roughly, telling us that they were highwaymen, that among them were many nationalities (my glance involuntarily wandered from his face to those of his companions; one, with dark, shaggy hair and beard, I thought might be of Spanish extraction, while he of the thick, light-hued curls might be a Jew, and the voivoda himself a Macedonian Parmak). He told us that they had taken us for money, and should hold us until the ransom was forthcoming."

"The head of the leaders of the Bulgarian çetes, famous Sandanski, will come to Salonica within a few days. Sandanski is a captain famous for his patriotism and conscience. It is known that the Bulgarian Committee which had caused the awakening of the Macedonian Question was later split into two fractions, named Centralists and Vrhovists. The first of these fractions adopted the idea of Macedonia for the Macedonians and opposed the aim of unifying Macedonia with Bulgaria; it began to follow the aim of reforming the fatherland, and gaining freedom and equality.He has been living in the mountains for ten years and led this party with great success. He succeeded in killing Sarafov and many other famous leaders working to unify [Macedonia] with Bulgaria, against whom the weak [Ottoman] government was powerless.There is no doubt that Sandanski will be greeted with great acclamations, as he deserves it."

"Today, all of us, Turks, Bulgarians, Greeks, Albanians, Jews and others, we have all sworn that we will work for our dear Fatherland and will be inseparable, and we will all sacrifice ourselves for it, and, if necessary, we will even shed our blood.""

"As I worked in the mountains, I will continue to work for the sacred fatherland with heart and soul in any kind of duty for which the fatherland employs me and any kind of task the fatherland expects from me."

"Come, let us sow together the seed of revolution, to awaken the spirit of the sleeping. Come. Let there be no more Bulgar, Greek, Serb or Vlach but only the oppressed serf."

"To live means to struggle, the slave for freedom and the free man for perfection."

"We are being accused of cruelty, ferocity and ruthlessness. Yes, we are cruel, we are fierce and ruthless, but only towards spies, towards the enemies of the Cause of Liberation. There is no mercy and forgiveness for such people: for them there is only one punishment, only one reward—"Death". Death to the spies, death to the traitors, death to all who stand in the way of the Cause!"

"The loneliness of despotism, or the fear of violent death."

"Ah! that was a fine Emperor."

"It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for it to abolish itself from below."

"From my activity in the camps of Treblinka and Sobibor, I remember that Wirth in brutality, meanness, and ruthlessness could not be surpassed. We therefore called him 'Christian the Terrible' or 'The Wild Christian'. The Ukrainian guardsmen called him 'Stuka'. The brutality of Wirth was so great that I personally see it as a perversity. I remember particularly that on each occasion, Wirth lashed Ukrainian guardsmen with the whip he always kept..."

"Wirth was a gross and florid man. My heart sank when I met him. He stayed at Hartheim for several days that time and often came back. Whenever he was there he addressed us daily at lunch. And here it was again this awful verbal crudity: when he spoke about the necessity of this euthanasia operation, he was not speaking in humane or scientific terms, the way Dr. Werner at T-4 had described it to me. He laughed. He spoke of 'doing away with useless mouths', and that 'sentimental slobber' about such people made him 'puke'."

"If only someone had had the courage to kill Christian Wirth — then Aktion Reinhard would have collapsed. Berlin would not have found another man with such energy for evil and nastiness."

"If you do not like it here, you can leave, but under the earth, not over it."

"Though it was the most efficient, Auschwitz was not necessarily the cruellest of the Nazi death camps. The first people to be gassed by the Third Reich were, as we have seen, German mental patients; they had been asphyxiated with pure carbon monoxide gas. This method was then exported to Eastern Europe, but using exhaust fumes, first in specially converted vans, then in static gas chambers equipped with large diesel engines. This was how people were killed at Sobibor, Treblinka and Belzec, the camps set up to implement the 'Action Reinhard' in the autumn of 1941. Compared with inhaling Zyklon B, which killed most victims within five to ten minutes, this was a slow way to die. Rudolf Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz, regarded his own methods as 'humane' compared with those of his counterpart at the last of these camps, the notoriously sadistic Christian Wirth."

"To tell the truth, one did become used to it... they were cargo. I think it started the day I first saw the Totenlager [extermination area] in Treblinka. I remember Wirth standing there, next to the pits full of black-blue corpses. It had nothing to do with humanity — it could not have. It was a mass — a mass of rotting flesh. Wirth said 'What shall we do with this garbage?' I think unconsciously that started me thinking of them as cargo."

"The site where the Statue of Good Henri had been located, belongs unquestionably to this people of the French, whom he called his children, who still cherish him as their father: they wish to raise again this fine monument; I have no doubt, I am convinced that you can all be assured that such an honorable plan will receive the support of every heart, and of all the authorities, by consequence, that of the superior authority."

"Throughout the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830), Henri IV enjoyed a unique status in contemporary popular culture. Personification of royal authority, military hero, gallant lover, friend to the common man, this historical figure charmed many factions of the Restoration public. The widespread fascination with the monarch was manifest in virtually every form of creative production during this period, including the decorative arts. Henri IV was portrayed frequently and in a variety of media, ranging from ceramics and clocks to tapestries and printed textiles. Such diversity is indicative of the popularity of the first Bourbon as well as the range of his appeal."

"Henri IV was a gifted commander who saw more potential in mounted troops than any other captain of his day and was able to derive most advantage from them in combat, despite his limited resources. His special genius for new ways of employing his mounted troops both in armament and deployment forced even recognized military figures, such as the duke of Parma, to be respectful or even fearful of his skill. The king's contribution to the tactical development of the mounted arm was not unique, for he borrowed widely from the ideas of Gaspard de Coligny, Francois de La Noue, and other soldiers of his day; yet he was innovative in the way he modified and further developed these ideas to make his mounted troops a formidable tactical force. Indeed, he had a special talent for recognizing in the military theories and practices of other commanders what would work or not work on the battlefield, and what had promise but needed some alteration to become effective. This ability, when combined with Henri's imaginative leadership, made his cavalry the envy of late sixteenth-century Europe."