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In reply to the discussion: Do you have a favorite quote or two? [View all]Les cimetières sont pleins de gens irremplaçables, qui ont tous été remplacés. -- Georges Clemenceau
(The cemeteries are full of irreplaceable people--all of whom have been replaced)
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"¡Éste es el templo de la inteligencia! ¡Y yo soy su supremo sacerdote!"
"Venceréis, pero no convenceréis. Venceréis porque tenéis sobrada fuerza bruta; pero no convenceréis, porque convencer significa persuadir. Y para persuadir necesitáis algo que os falta: razón y derecho en la lucha."--Miguel de Unamuno
A fascist general was ranting at the start of the brutal Spanish Civil War in 1936. He was yelling "¡Viva la muerte (long live death)!" and "¡Muera la inteligencia(death to intelligence)!"
Rector of the University of Salamanca, Unamuno, at 72, in poor health, responded: "This is the temple of intelligence! And I am its high priest!" and then followed, addressing the Fascist general: "You will conquer, but you will not convince. You will conquer because you have overwhelming brute force; but you will not convince, because to convince means to persuade. And to persuade, you need something you lack: reason and righteousness in the fight."
It is deceivingly difficult to translate "razón y derecho" exactly here. By themselves, they are not difficult, but Unamuno's context makes both words open to various ways of translating them. By the way, the Fascists DID win (with the help of Hitler and Mussolini). When Francisco Franco was named "Caudillo (sort of Führer)" of Spain, he called it the "culminating point in the history of the world." It wasn't. Thirty-six years after his "victory," Franco was gone, and so was Fascist rule in Spain.
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Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.--Thomas Jefferson
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And my own sig line from André Gide:
"Croyez ceux qui cherchent la vérité, doutez de ceux qui la trouvent"
Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it.