Video Summary
© 2026 MMM
This is One for the Road 1776
Introduction and Commentary
We’re in the middle of a debate with the president as to the direction the country will be heading in the next decade. Given the divisions in the country and the uncertainty as to where the next administration or two may take us, it’s hard to make concrete predictions beyond that point.
It’s obviously important to support and plan for the long term, but if the Trump Administration taught us anything, it’s that nothing is certain. We used the Bizarro World example from Superman, in earlier postings, in reference to where we stand today. In Bizarro World, up is down and down is up, similar to Trump World, where bad is good and what’s good is considered bad.
We’re living through a convoluted mess, but it’s also a mess that we have to untangle else the Trumps, the Vances and the Millers of the world will be dictating our future. And that’s one hell I want to avoid and won’t accept.
Good Words Part 1
Centuries ago, Plutarch wrote The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. His biographies were meant to provide moral instruction and were, in a sense, morality plays that could be viewed as models as to how you should live your life. *
It’s tempting to use Plutarch as a guide to write a modern-day version of his work. But given the tenor of our times, it would star Trump and select acolytes with, of course, the word “noble” struck from the title.
As Senator Lloyd Bentsen famously told Dan Quayle during the 1988 vice-presidential debate, “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy,” and just as surely, I’m no Plutarch.
So, as an alternative, I would like to present a small collection of works, words, that might help get us through the Trump era. These are quotes and passages from writers, among others, that have special meaning to me. We all have such a collection, and I hope you may find one or two from mine that may resonate with you.
I’ve known some of the works, such as those from T.E. Lawrence and Marcus Aurelius, for years; others, more recently. They’re also reminders, I think, of who we are as individuals and can be as a people. Ultimately, when needed most, they can be a good swift kick to help keep us going.
But before I introduce them, I want to make note that some of the works are fairly old, and language conventions may reflect not our time but the time in which they were written. The term presentism plays a role in this discussion.
It can be defined as
the practice of interpreting historical events and figures through the lens of contemporary values and understandings, often leading to anachronistic judgments that do not align with the norms of the past. This bias can manifest in various ways, such as viewing historical practices with modern moral standards, which can distort the true context of those events. (1)
In essence, presentism occurs when we examine and evaluate past events and individuals primarily according to contemporary values rather than exploring them within the context of their own time.
When applied to language, what we would consider sexist by modern standards may have been acceptable writing conventions in the past. For example, the term men may have also included women and may have referred to humanity as a whole. Or, at other times, men might simply mean men. And as you’ll hear, given the age of some of the works, the language situation plays out a number of times. Bill Maher, the comedian, writer, and host of HBO’s Real Time, has covered presentism and the problems with judging the past by contemporary standards.
Finally, I‘m going to present the pieces without comment. They stand on their own. And like Plutarch’s Lives, they can support us through tough times, especially when it seems that evil may prevail.
But they also present us with hope. Light still pierces the darkness, but it’s a light that we must be willing to fight to attain and, ultimately, sustain.
I hope this podcast may inspire you to share some of the works on your own lists.
Great Words Part 2
Some of the quotes come from books, of which there may be various editions. When possible, I’ve listed free versions that are available through Project Gutenberg. You’ll find this information in the podcast’s Notes section.
The quotes are also listed in no particular order, except the first one from Edward R. Murrow. He brought home World War 2’s London Blitz to a US radio audience. He also took on Joe McCarthy in 1954. George Clooney dramatized Murrow’s integrity and courage about this incident in a movie and on stage.
I thought this would be an appropriate start, for as you read Murrow’s words from his TV program, See it Now, you may be struck by the similarities with the Trump era. More important, his words still ring true about how we, as citizens, should act.
And now, the quotes.
1. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men -- not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.
This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it -- and rather successfully. Cassius was right. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” (2)
Good night, and good luck.
Edward R. Murrow
CBS studios, See It Now, March 9, 1954
2. It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. (3)
Theodore Roosevelt
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
3. There was one of two things I had a right to: liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would take the other, for no man should take me alive. (4)
Harriet Tubman
4. All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did. (5)
T.E. Lawrence
Severn Pillars of Wisdom
5. Love the art, poor as it may be, that you have learned, and be content with it; and pass through the rest of life like one who has entrusted to the gods with his whole soul all that he has, making yourself neither the tyrant nor the slave of any man. (6)
The Meditations
Marcus Aurelius
6. I like cigarettes, Miss Taggart. I like to think of fire held in a man’s hand. Fire, a dangerous force, tamed at his fingertips. I often wonder about the hours when a man sits alone, watching the smoke of a cigarette, thinking, I wonder what great things have come from such hours. When a man thinks, there is a spot of fire alive in his mind - and it is proper that he should have the burning point of a cigarette as his one expression. (7)
Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged
7. You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do. (8)
Eleanor Roosevelt
Diplomat and Human Rights Advocate
8. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today…. (9)
Dr. Martin Luther King
“I Have a Dream” speech, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
August 28, 1963.
9. We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again. (10)
General Nathanael Greene
Revolutionary War
10. An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
Attributed to Mohandas Gandhi
11. I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member.
Groucho Marx
Notes:
* Plutarch’s works are still widely available today.
(1) “Presentism and Cultural Bias,” EBSCO. 2021. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/sociology/presentism-and-cultural-bias#full-article
(2) Edward R. Murrow. CBS studios, See It Now, March 9, 1954 https://speakola.com/political/edward-r-murrow-on-mccarthy-1954
(3) “It Is Not the Critic Who Counts,” by TRCP Staff, TRCP. https://www.trcp.org/2011/01/18/it-is-not-the-critic-who-counts/
(4) From goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/59710.Harriet_Tubman
(5) Seven Pillares of Wisdom. A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook, eBook No.: 0100111h.html, by T.E. Lawrence. https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100111h.html#intro-ch
(6) Meditations. A Stoic Breviary: Classical Wisdom in Daily Practice. Liam Milburn. https://stoicbreviary.blogspot.com/2018/05/marcus-aurelius-meditations-433.html#:~:text=Love%20the%20art%2C%20poor%20as,like%20one%20who%20has%20entrusted Please Note: You can download a copy of Meditations from Project Gutenberg: Translated by George W. Chrystal. The Project Gutenberg Book. Updated October 23, 2024. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/55317/pg55317-images.html
(7) Atlas Shrugged. Ayn Rand. https://books.google.com/books/about/Atlas_Shrugged.html?id=bVyCd7da8OcC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false
(8) “62 Uplifting Quotes from Famous Women,” Business.com https://www.business.com/articles/40-inspiring-quotes-from-trailblazing-women-we-admire/
(9) “Read Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in its entirety.” Updated January 16, 2023. Heard on Talk of the Nation. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety
(10) Nathanael Greene. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/39335-we-fight-get-beat-rise-and-fight-again
