The two most touching memorial quotes I've ever heard

As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:
'Some men see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say, 'Why not?'

- Edward Kennedy's eulogy to RFK


The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."

- Ronald Reagan's Challenger memorial speech

I'm not sure why, but those two quotes are the most heart-wrenching words I've ever heard. Both men are great orators, and both subjects of those eulogies would have been even greater, had they continued their lives.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Reagan's can be more properly credited to John Gillespie Magee whose poem "High Flight" was the basis for that quote.

Magee wrote that poem when he volunteered to serve for the RAF during the Battle of Britain. He was an American and at the time we were not in the war, so he went to Canada and joined the RCAF and then went to England to fight. He wrote that poem at age 19 and was killed in a plane crash 3 months later.

 

[NogginBoink]

My favorite is still, Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!

 

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
Reagan's can be more properly credited to John Gillespie Magee whose poem "High Flight" was the basis for that quote.

Magee wrote that poem when he volunteered to serve for the RAF during the Battle of Britain. He was an American and at the time we were not in the war, so he went to Canada and joined the RCAF and then went to England to fight. He wrote that poem at age 19 and was killed in a plane crash 3 months later.

Wow, interesting info...I guess that's why the two excerpts from that poem are in quotes.

 

[sillymofo]

"...insert any random Dubbya quote here, from any speech..."

 

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
"...insert any random Dubbya quote here, from any speech..."

I don't know if I'd call our current president a great orator.

 

[Amorphus]

Originally posted by: jumpr

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
"...insert any random Dubbya quote here, from any speech..."

I don't know if I'd call our current president a great orator.

Any president can be a great orator, with a good speechwriter behind them.

plus, public address speeches don't lend themselves well to touching quotes...

:wine:

 

[Amorphus]

Originally posted by: jumpr

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
"...insert any random Dubbya quote here, from any speech..."

I don't know if I'd call our current president a great orator.

Any president can be a great orator, with a good speechwriter behind them.

plus, public address speeches don't lend themselves well to touching quotes...

:wine:

 

[sillymofo]

Originally posted by: Amorphus

Originally posted by: jumpr

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo "...insert any random Dubbya quote here, from any speech..."

I don't know if I'd call our current president a great orator.

Any president can be a great orator, with a good speechwriter behind them. plus, public address speeches don't lend themselves well to touching quotes... :wine:

I dont' know he realizes that his sarcasm meter has no batteries in it.

 

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: Amorphus

Originally posted by: jumpr

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo "...insert any random Dubbya quote here, from any speech..."

I don't know if I'd call our current president a great orator.

Any president can be a great orator, with a good speechwriter behind them. plus, public address speeches don't lend themselves well to touching quotes... :wine:

I dont' know he realizes that his sarcasm meter has no batteries in it.

Haha, I just put fresh ones in. I got a quote from GWB now:

"Strategery."

 

[ThePresence]

Some of Winston Churchill's really hit the spot:

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most times he will pick himself up and carry on.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

 

[Rogue]

Abraham Lincoln:

"I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom."

 

[tk149]

...a decree, that the said negroes be and are hereby declared to be free, and that they be dismissed from the custody of the court, and be discharged from the suit, and go thereof quit, without delay.

Part of the last sentence from the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in THE AMISTAD, 40 U.S. 518 (1841).

Former President John Quincy Adams argued the defendants' case. Link

 

[badmouse]

In the interests of strict accuracy, I need to point out that the Kennedy quote is from George Bernard Shaw.

From quotationspage.com :

You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw, "Back to Methuselah" (1921), part 1, act 1

It's a great sentiment, and Kennedy used it very effectively.