Category: Quote of the Day

Aphorisms, proverbs, wise sayings and other witty, pithy stuff

08JUN2026 – Quote of the Day

photog Quote of the Day ,

I saw a steady stream of men covered with mud, soaked through with rain, who were pouring irregularly, without any semblance of order, up Pennsylvania Avenue towards the Capitol. … I ran down-stairs and asked an “officer,” who was passing by, a pale young man, who looked exhausted to death, and who had lost his sword, for the empty sheath dangled at his side, where the men were coming from. “Where from? Well, sir, I guess we’re all coming out of Virginny as fast as we can, and pretty well whipped too.” “What! the whole army, sir?” “That’s more than I know. They may stay that like. I know I’m going home. I’ve had enough of fighting to last my lifetime.”

Why Beauregard does not come I know not, nor can I well guess. … The inmates of the White House are in a state of the utmost trepidation, and Mr. Lincoln… in despair…

My Diary: North and South (1863), ch. 51, pp. 467, 470, describing the aftermath of First Manassas

William Howard Russell

06JUN2026 – Quote of the Day

photog Quote of the Day ,

It is my persuasion, that the liberties of Englishmen, being founded upon the general consent of all, must remain upon that basis, or must altogether cease to have any existence. We cannot confine liberty in this country to one class of men: we cannot erect here a senate of Venice, by which a small part of the community is enabled to lord it over the majority; we cannot in this land, and at this time make liberty the inheritance of a caste.

John Russell