The Art of Tetman Callis

“The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him […]

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“After a hasty lunch we made off to Dinant, still following the Meuse. The thin line of houses down the course of the river were thinner than they were a few months ago, and there were signs of suffering and distress everywhere. I had never been to Dinant before, but had seen pictures of it […]

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“The Burgomaster came into the restaurant to find us, and offered to go on with us to Visé, to show us the town, and we were glad to have him, as he knows the place like the palm of his hand. I had been through Visé twice, and had marvelled at the completeness of the […]

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“Marshal Langhorne came in to-day from The Hague to effect formal delivery of the first bargeload of food, and had weird tales to tell of his adventures by the way. Thank goodness, the first of the food has arrived in time, and if the flow can be kept up, the worst of our troubles will […]

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“As soon as we had got through, I had to start back for my audience of the Queen. W.—– took me out to la Panne, where we found the Villa on the sand dunes, a little way back of the lines. There were a couple of gendarmes on duty, the King’s Secretary, and the Countess […]

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“In the course of a visit to General von Lüttwitz to-day, one of the colleagues remarked that the Germans must keep the Belgians alive, and could not allow them to starve. Lüttwitz was not at all of that mind, for he said with some show of feeling: ‘The allies are at liberty to feed the […]

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“The way the German army cleaned out the wine of the country was a revelation to everybody. They would not take what they needed for the day’s drinking but would clear out whole cellars at a time and load what was not drunk onto carts to be carried away. The result was that people who […]

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“Count and Countess de X—– had an interesting story to tell of their experiences when the first armies went through. When the war broke out they were at their château and were caught by the first onrush of troops. Their fine cellars were emptied for the benefit of the invader, but nothing more serious happened […]

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“When I got back to the Legation, I found a nice Belgian who had no request to make of us, but wanted to tell his story to somebody, and a terrible story it was, too. He had fitted up his château near Mons as a Red Cross hospital. During the battle there a week ago, […]

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“There are two extremes equally dangerous to liberty. These are tyranny and anarchy. The medium between these two is the true government to protect the people.” – James Iredell, July 30, 1788 (quoted in Debate on the Constitution, Part Two, ed. Bailyn; emphases in original) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“I see no reason why I should be consciously wrong today because I was unconsciously wrong yesterday.” – Justice Robert Jackson, Massachusetts v. United States, 333 U. S. 611 (1948) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“A corporation is simply a form of organization used by human beings to achieve desired ends. An established body of law specifies the rights and obligations of the people (including shareholders, officers, and employees) who are associated with a corporation in one way or another. When rights, whether constitutional or statutory, are extended to corporations, […]

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“The boulevards were deserted save for the troops coming back into the town [Louvain]. New houses were burning that had been intact in the afternoon. After passing the Porte de Tirlemont, we began to see people again—little groups that had come out into the streets through a craving for company, and stood huddled together listening […]

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“I stopped at the Palace to sign the King’s book, and ran into General Jungbluth, who was just starting off with the Queen. She came down the stairs and stopped just long enough to greet me, and then went her way; she is a brave little woman and deserves a better fate than she has […]

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“Both squadrons were now steaming southward on slightly converging courses—the British to seaward with the setting sun behind them, and the Germans nearer the land. And now began the saddest naval action in the war. Of the officers and men in both the squadrons that faced each other in these stormy seas so far from […]

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“The first rule of war is to concentrate superior strength for decisive action and to avoid division of forces or engaging in detail.” – Winston Churchill, The World Crisis Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.” – William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“Every person in the least conversant in the history of mankind, knows what dreadful mischiefs have been committed by religious persecutions. Under the colour of religious tests the utmost cruelties have been exercised. Those in power have generally considered all wisdom centered in themselves, that they alone had a right to dictate to the rest […]

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“In war all repetitions are perilous. You can do many things with impunity if you do not keep on doing them over and over again.” – Winston Churchill, The World Crisis Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“You must maintain your composure in the airplane or you will die. You learn that from your first day flying.” – Captain Alfred C. Haynes, United Airlines Flight 232 (1989) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“Those who govern should be the last people to help decide who should govern.” – Chief Justice John Roberts, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, 572 U.S. ___ (2014) (emphases in original) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“No instrument of writing ought to be construed absurdly, when a rational construction can be put upon it.” – James Iredell, July 25, 1788 (quoted in Debate on the Constitution, Part Two, ed. Bailyn) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“A man can still control a small part of his environment, his house; he can retreat thence from outsiders, secure in the knowledge that they cannot get at him without disobeying the Constitution. That is still a sizable hunk of liberty—worth protecting from encroachment. A sane, decent, civilized society must provide some such oasis, some […]

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“The ability to wait while conditions develop is a requisite of practical policy.” – Otto von Bismarck, Die gesammelten Werke (trans. Craig) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“The world on the verge of its catastrophe was very brilliant. Nations and Empires crowned with princes and potentates rose majestically on every side, lapped in the accumulated treasures of the long peace. All were fitted and fastened—it seemed securely—into an immense cantilever. The two mighty European systems faced each other glittering and clanking in […]

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“The First World War is a mystery. Its origins are mysterious. So is its course. Why did a prosperous continent, at the height of its success as a source and agent of global wealth and power and at one of the peaks of its intellectual and cultural achievement, choose to risk all it had won […]

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“It is difficult today not to sympathize with the condemnations, worse or better informed as they have been, of the generals of the First World War. In no way—appearances, attitude, spoken pronouncement, written legacy—do they commend themselves to modern opinion or emotion. The impassive expressions that stare back at us from contemporary photographs do not […]

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“There is nothing more poignant in British life than to visit the ribbon of cemeteries that marks the front line of 1 July 1916 and to find, on gravestone after gravestone, the fresh wreath, the face of a Pal or Chum above a khaki serge collar staring gravely back from a dim photograph, the pinned […]

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“There are two objects in forming systems of government—Safety for the people, and energy in the administration. When these objects are united, the certain tendency of the system will be to the public welfare. If the latter object be neglected, the people’s security will be as certainly sacrificed, as by disregarding the former. Good constitutions […]

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“It is a harsh doctrine, that men grow wicked in proportion as they improve and enlighten their minds. Experience has by no means justified us in the supposition, that there is more virtue in one class of men than in another. Look through the rich and the poor of the community; the learned and the […]

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