"... liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith."Good Day to You, Sir
--Alexis De Tocqueville (Democracy in America, Vol. I)
"Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." --George Washington
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. --John Adams
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." --Thomas Jefferson
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Great Quotes
I'll be busy doing inspection fixes on my house so we can begin packing up in order to move to the new house. In the meantime, here are some more great quotes from history; these addressing the issue of religion in our government and society:
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15 comments:
Well, the first quote is wrong. I have a morality and I dont have faith.
On a related note, do you have an opinion on this story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/us/26atheist.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Well, minor Shakespearean character, I do have an opinion of anyone who reads the thoroughly discredited New York Times.
Well done. You succesfully avoided any sensible comment and instead went for a logical fallacy. Have a cookie.
I love cookies.
Mr. C.
I thought you might like this lesson I did last fall regarding presidential quotes. Hope you don't mind. Feel free to use it or abuse it.
Pick Two Quotes and give a 5-7 sentence response to each quote. I want to know why you like it and what it means to you. Be descriptive in your writing. “I like it because I agree with it” is not going to be acceptable for this assignment. Put your responses (1 for each quote) on a separate piece of paper and staple it to this sheet. Each response will be worth 15 points so there is a total value of 30 points for this assignment. It will be due when you return to class.
George Washington: "Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder."
Thomas Jefferson: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
James Madison: "The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted."
James Monroe: "National honor is the national property of the highest value."
John Quincy Adams: "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."
Martin Van Buren: "It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't."
Abraham Lincoln: "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."
Theodore Roosevelt: "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
John F. Kennedy: "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie--deliberate, contrived, and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic."
Lyndon B. Johnson: "You ain't learnin' nothin' when you're talkin'."
Gerald Ford: "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."
Ronald Reagan: "America is too great for small dreams."
George W. Bush: "We will bring the terrorists to justice; or we will bring justice to the terrorists. Either way, justice will be done."
PS Guess which quote was the most popular with the students!
What if the students DIDNT like the quotes? I am wary of any assignment that tells a student what opinion to hold on a matter.
Gosh donalbain, Lord forbid we should ask the students to think!
Huh? The problem wasnt about them THINKING. Read again. I asked "What if they DONT like the quotes. They were asked to explain why they like the quote. I can easily imagine a superb essay being written about any of those quotes explaining why a student DOESNT like them, or heartily disagrees with them, and that would be a matter of thinking, wouldn't it? As I said, I have a problem when a question tells a student the OPINION they should hold on a matter.
Again, Lord forbid we should ask the students to think. For my students, just asking them what they *like* about the quotes would be taxing enough.
Baby steps, donalbain, baby steps.
OK. I will ask once more. You try to read it this time.
"What if they DONT like the quotes".
Would the teacher accept an essay on why they DONT like the quote? If not then I have a problem with an assignment that demands a student express a particular opinion.
OK, I will ask you once more:
What is wrong with having a student analyze a quote in any capacity? I only wish I could more of my students to do even that.
I have a problem with teachers like you who are willing to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Donald,
They picked two quotes and wrote about them. Nobody complained that they all sucked. Most enjoyed the assignment to be honest.
Any guesses yet as to which quote was the most popular with the kids?
(PS it was for 9th grade social studies)
What baby do you think I am throwing out? I am simply saying the question should have been written so that the students were free to offer a positive OR a negative opinion on the quotes rather than just a positive one.
Nobody hated all the quotes Donald and most of the students really enjoyed the assignment, even the ones who never turned anything in did this one. And at that school I had about 220 or so students in 6 classes.
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