Selected Quotations, Authors with names starting M

"At least the judge didn't find the dead guilty of committing suicide." Comment by Nationalist Party leader after the Bloody Sunday inquest.

"What does it mean to be Irish? .. Distilled to the raw spirit it means to be dispossessed, to live on ground which isn’t ours .. Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter, the whole motley crue of us planted together in this soil to which we have no proper title .. Look at my [great grandfathers] .. persecuted, the pair of them driven here from the shores of home, their home, but not my home, because I am Henry Joy McCracken and here to stay, a natural son of Belfast, as Irish a bastard as all the other incomers blown into this port by the storm of history, Gaelic or Danish, or Anglo-Norman, without distinction it makes no odds. Every mothers son of us, children of nature on this sodden, glorious patch of earth, unpossessed of deed of inheritance, without distinction, for the only distinction that matters is between the power and wealth on the one hand and the bent knee on the other - from which we all suffer. They ebb and flow from the one source - always - the island of hope and glory across the water." United Irishman leader.

"Our position is clear and it will never, never, never change. The war against British rule must continue until freedom is achieved."

"Commitment is the enemy of resistance, for it is the serious promise to press on, to get up, no matter how many times you are knocked down."

"It was hard being respected by our captors - they treated us very well - and then arriving in our country and feeling there was no respect for us there. There were seven years of trials until we were absolved. But I have never stopped asking myself: was I a good military man? Was I a good general?"

"When you get involved in undercover work you lie and cheat because the end justifies the means, to penetrate the organisation. You're brought up this way. It creates a certain psyche within your head, and if you don't have any internal - any strong moral fibre, this becomes part of your personality.
You get people who are very adept at making black look white. They're the best salesmen and con men in the world, because when you work undercover you turn into a con man, this is your forte, this is your stock in trade. It's a macho image. The newspapers and TV glorify it. You can put away your personality, middle-class, and get involved in this criminal world. It's very attractive to a lot of people. It becomes a way of life, and it taints the way they look at their job. They use the same techniques in competing against their fellow agents." Marty Pera, director of Centac, DEA. pp. 120-121

"The army turned out to be just what he was looking for. It encouraged his belief that his path through life was fated to be more richly landscaped than the tiresome asphalt turnpike his fellows travelled." p. 135.

"I liked the army, the pomp and circumstance, but I would not want to spend my life doing it. There's not much room for ingenuity in the army." DEA Agent Dick Mangan, p. 173.

"Just take your turn, give it your best shot, look in the mirror, go to bed at night, Don't bang your head against walls and don't worry about things you have no control over. Do what you can. And never go to a bald barber, he has no respect for your hair." p. 703.

"Not everybody who gets away is getting away from something. Sometimes they're getting away to something." p. 920. Underground Empire

"If we believe a thing to be bad, and if we have a right to prevent it, it is our duty to try to prevent it and damn the consequences."

Lord Milner

Before start of conflict: "Where Serbs live, that is Serbia."

Slobodan Miloševic

"They also serve who only stand and wait."

Milton

"A thing which no one in all the world, not even the big powers,dared to do, was done by small and forlorn Hungary." 28.10.1956

"Die Sozialhilfe für Asylbewerber muß gestrichen werden. Wer in seinem Heimatland wirklich verfolgt wird, der ist zufrieden, wenn er bei uns zunächst Nahrung, Kleidung und Unterkunft bekommt." FDP Economics Minister, forced to resign after corruption scandal.

"Gentlemen, you may be sure that of the three courses open to the enemy, he will always choose the fourth."

"Wir einigen keine Staaten, wir bringen Menschen zusammen." Schumann declaration, ECSC founding treaty, 1950.

"Habe ich deutlich gemacht, daß die von uns gegründete Gemeinschaft kein Selbstzweck ist? Sie ist ein Umwandlungsprozeß, der sich an die geschichtlich gewachsenen Formen des nationalen Lebens anschließt. Wie gestern unsere Provinzen, so müssen heute unsere Völker lernen, nach gemeinsamen Regeln und unter gemeinsamen, frei verfaßten Institutionen zusammenzuleben, wenn sie die für ihren Fortschritt und für die Beherrschung ihres Schicksales erforderliche Dimensionen erreichen wollen." [Errinerungen eines Europäers]

"The union of Europe cannot be based on goodwill alone. The tragic events we have lived through and are still witnessing may have made us wiser. But men pass away; others will take our place. We cannot bequeath them our personal experience. But we can leave them institutions. The life of institutions is longer than that of men; if they are well built, they can accumulate and hand on the wisdom of succeeding generations." (1952)

"Peace is not just a matter of treaties and undertakings. It depends essentially on the creations of conditions which, although they will never change human nature, give a peaceful direction to human relationships."

Jean Monet

"It is the mark of the cultured man that he is aware of the fact that equality is an ethical and not a biological principle."

Ashley Montagu

There are many brave and strong-minded people whom one wouldn't follow on any account - because one doesn't know what they stand for, or where they are going.

Leadership should be properly exercised by people in authority. When they have no power to enforce their will, [] much will depend on their personality.

A leader must be one who can be looked up to, whose personal judgement is trusted, who can inspire those he leads, gaining their trust and confidence.

Intellectual definition of leadership is the capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose, and the character which will inspire confidence.

Leadership can be developed by training. Soldiers are more likely to follow those in whose miltiary knowledge they have confidence, rather than one with much greater personality but not with the same obvious knowledge of his job. Responsibility brings courage; one has less time to think of one's own fears and thus a greater degree of resolution. Training received from superiors gives confidence in one's ability to deal with any situation.

Leadership is based on truth and character. A leader must have the force of characer necessary to inspire others to follow him with confidence.
Character is knowing what you want to do and having the determination to do it, in a way which will inspire confidence in those around you or for whom you are responsible.

A leader must :
   · have infectious optimism,
   · show determination to persevere in the face of difficulties,
   · radiate confidence, relying on principles and resources to work out rightly even when he himself is not too certain of the material outcome,
   · possess sound judgement in which others will have confidence,
   · have a good knowledge of human nature,
   · be able to see his problems truly and whole,
   · have self-control,
   · be a good judge of character, a picker of men,
[ · pre-eminence in sport is in no way a necessity. There is no need to be a gladiator in sport to be a leader ]
   · be able to dominate and finally to master the events which surround him.
The final test is how you feel when leaving an interview or conference with him. Have youa feeling of uplift and confidence? Are you clear as to what is to be done, and what is your part of the task? Are you determined to pull your weight in achieving the object?

THE FOUR CARDINAL VIRTUES
Prudence. On which hinge wisdom, impartiality and tact.
Justice. Giving everybody their due, on which hinge the duties of religion, obedience, gratitude, integrity and goodwill to others.
Temperance. Self-control, for personal and social ends, on which hinge purity, humility and patience.
Fortitude. The spirit which resists, endures and triumphs over the trials and temptations of life, on which hinge moral courage, industry and self-discipline.

Theological virtues amount to this : get your major purpose clear, take off your plate all which hinders that purpose and hold hard to all which helps it, and then go ahead with a clear conscience, courage, sincerity and selflessness.

The ability to concentrate is essential in a leader; the constant exercise of this ability makes him a disciplined human being, enabling him to simplify a problem, to discover the essentials upon which all action must be based and the details which are unimportant.

A leader's private life must be above all reproach. The most powerful factor is the sincerity of the man, his example and influence. If a man's private life is not above reproach, those he leads will cease to respect him, will withdraw their confidence so that his leadership loses its effectiveness.

Characteristics of the leader
   · genuine sincerity - natural, not conscious sincerity.
   · selflessness. Absolute devotion to the cause he serves, with no though of personal reward.
   · the ability to dominate events and master events which encompass him.
   · the power of decision. "captaincy".
   · a bit of luck.
   · a genuine interest in and real knowledge of humanity - the raw material of his trade.

It is always a good thing to persuade the soldier that what you want him to do is right.

Military command is much easier when the final decision, political and military, lies in one hand - that of the military commander himself. Today, the higher direction of war is in political hands. The Service Chief has to learn the techniques of politics - appeal, persuasion, manoeuvre (intrigue) and compromise - and the foibles and phobias of his political chief in whom lies the overall and final responsibility.
The soldier and the politician have got to learn to understand each other.

Military command has always required technical skill and spiritual power and quality. Great commanders have had a profound knowledge of the mechanics of war and the stage-management of battle.

War must have a political objective, it must result in a more peaceful world. If it does not, we merely substitute one enemy for another.

"Military command is, fundamentally, a great human problem and no good results will follow unless there is mutual confidence and sympathy between the known commander and the regimental officers and men - the former being seen frequently in the forward area by the soldiery. If follow that the technique of command today demands that the general who is in overall control of the battle must direct operations with a very small staff from a Tectical headquarters well forward in the battle area - and not 'Plaza Toro-it' behind with his large staff, the bulk of whom have of necessity to be well to the rear."

One can be a very good manager with very little leadership ability. A leader can have excitement, vision and emotion, but lack the management abilites to carry out his vision. Leadership is motivation to create business, management the skill to retain it. You manage things, you lead people.

Field-Marshal Montgomery

"In addition to being right most of the time, a good intelligence officer must also have two other qualities to help him sublimate the ugly aspects of his calling: a deep love of his country and an unshakeable belief in his principles. To be a master of spies, a man must be above all a master of himself and must be convinced of the intrinsic goodness of his cause. "
Head of Czechoslovak Military Intelligence before, during and immediately after the Second World War. Also writer of Spión, je muz neverilí, The Spy who people didn’t believe

"In the [GCHQ-NSA] relationship everything is meant to be shared, but even then the Americans were holding back a bit. It didn't happen on the central area of the Soviet Bloc, but more where they had particular interests." (UK Eyes Alpha )

"If the cavalry were not very valuable in trench warfare, they did bring a little social tone to the battlefield."

". . . I was deluded by the conventional wisdom which maintains that it is the personal linkages that give a group its unity. I was slow to comprehend the truth; that comrades-in-arms unconsciously create from their particulate selves an imponderable entity which goes its own way and has its own existence, regardless of the comings and goings of the individuals who are its constituent parts. . . . Once out of it, it ceases to exist for you - and you for it." And No Birds Sang

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."

"I want to be seen as beautiful because of my disability, not in spite of it." [fashion model]

Aimee Mullins

"To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful."

Edward R Murrow