Perrymecium

Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

-David Farragut

Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking.

-Ferdinand Foch

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.

-Invictus by William Ernest Henley

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

-inscription on the base of his statue

“Don’t worry about genius and don’t worry about not being clever. Trust rather to hard work, perseverance, and determination. The best motto for a long march is ‘Don’t grumble. Plug on.’

You hold your future in your own hands. Never waver in this belief. Don’t swagger. The boy who swaggers - like the man who swaggers - has little else that he can do. He is a cheap-Jack crying his own paltry wares. It is the empty tin that rattles most. Be honest. Be loyal. Be kind. Remember that the hardest thing to acquire is the faculty of being unselfish. As a quality it is one of the finest attributes of manliness.

Love the sea, the ringing beach, and the open downs.

Keep clean, body and mind.”

-Sir Frederick Treves

Invincibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory in the attack.

-Sun Tzu

Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.

-Miyamoto Musashi

I am convinced that, in the United States, a program that deals only with the poor will end up being a poor program.
-Wilbur Cohen

The ultimate test of the validity of a theory is not conformity to the canons of formal logic but the ability to deduce facts that have not yet been observed, that are capable of being contradicted by observation, and that subsequent observation does not contradict.

-Milton Friedman

Upon seeing his first ocean steamship:

“Why, the thing looks as if it was propelled by the force of circumstances!”

-Lieutenant Sidney Smith