I do not know what is true.I do not know the meaning of the universe.
But in the midst of doubt, in the collapse of creeds,
there is one thing that I do not doubt,
that no man who lives in the same
world with most of us can doubt, and
that is that the faith is true and adorable
which leads a soldier to throw away his life
in obedience to a blindly accepted duty,
in a cause which he little understands,
in a plan of campaign of which he has little notion,
under tactics of which he does not see the use.
Oliver Wendell Holmes,
Memorial Day Address: May 30, 1895
Give us courage, gaiety and the quiet mind.
Spare us to our friends, soften to us our enemies.
Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors.
If it may not, give us the strength to encounter
that which is to come, that we be brave in peril,
constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath,
and in all changes of fortune and down to the gates
of death, loyal and loving to one another.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Give Us Courage
3 comments:
amen.
Cate Meaningful!!!!
When I was very young I was struck by the faith of the young people who went to the first war. I think many went because it was expected of them. They brought to their decision all the energy and laughter of youth. I think that it was much the same in the second world war. Their courage in remaining and seeing things through on arrival at the front is still deeply moving.
Now that I am getting old I know that we must never waste young lives like that again.
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