American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Sir Robert Baden-Powell (February 22, 1857-January 8, 1941) was a British General who founded of the Boy Scout movement. Educated at Charterhouse, London, he joined the English hussars in 1876, and served as adjutant in India, Afghanistan, and South Africa.  In 1895 he commanded native troops in Ashanti, and later served in the Matabele campaign. During the South African War, his force of 1,200 men was besieged for 217 days by a large Boer army of 8,000 at Mafeking.  In spite of famine and sickness, he succeeded in defending his position until help arrived on May 12, 1900. He was then...

Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856-November 14, 1915) was an African American educator, writer and reformer. Born in a slave hut on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia, April 5, 1856, Booker Taliaferro Washington taught himself to read and write, stating: <In all my efforts to learn to read, my mother shared fully my ambition and sympathized with me and aided me in every way she could.> 1856BW001 In dire poverty after the Civil War, he moved to West Virginia and worked in salt furnaces and coal mines during the day and attended school at night. At age sixteen, he walked nearly...

Francis Bellamy (May 18, 1855-August 28, 1931) was a minister from Boston who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance. He was ordained in the Baptist Church, 1879, and served as the pastor of the First Baptist Church, Little Falls, New York. He was a member of the staff of The Youth's Companion, which first published his Pledge of Allegiance on September 8, 1892. At the dedication of the 1892 Chicago World's Fair, October 12, 1892, public school children first recited the Pledge of Allegiance during the: <National School Celebration on the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America.> 1855FB001 The Pledge was...

Pope Benedict XV (November 21, 1854-January 22, 1922) whose given name was Giacomo Della Chiesa, was the Pontiff during World War I. On August 1, 1917, Pope Benedict XV, in his offer of mediation to the European Powers wrote from the Vatican: <Do not, then, turn a deaf ear to our prayer, accept the paternal invitation which we extend to you in the name of the Divine Redeemer, Prince of Peace. Bear in mind your very grave responsibility to God and man; on your decision depend the quiet and joy of numberless families, the lives of thousands of young men,...

Oscar Wilde (October 16, 1854-November 30, 1900) was an Irish poet whose works include: Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892; A Woman of No Importance, 1893; An Ideal Husband, 1895; and The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895. He edited the journal Woman's World. In the Ballad of Reading Gaol, 1898, Pt. V, st. 14, Oscar Wilde stated: <How else but through a broken heart May the Lord Christ enter in?> 1854OW001 -- American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement. Endnotes: 1854OW001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, 1898, in...