torch quotes

Man is a torch borne in the wind; a dream But of a shadow, summed with all his substance.

- George Chapman
  Bussy d'Ambois, act1, sc.1.

Wer in Europa die Brandfackel des Krieges erhebt, kann nur das Chaos wu« n schen. Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos.

- Adolf Hitler
  Speech in the Reichstag, Berlin, 21 May.

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined bya hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall payany price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.

-John F(itzgerald) Kennedy
  Inaugural address, Washington, 20  Jan.

It is almost impossible to bear the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing someone's beard.

- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
c.1779^1783  Aphorisms, Notebook G (translated by R  J Hollingdale,1990).

I am imbued with two deep impressions; the first, that science knows no country; the second, which seems to contradict the first, although it is really a direct consequence of it†that science is the highest personification of the nation. Science knows no country because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.

- Louis Pasteur
  Toast at the banquet of the International Congress of Sericulture (translated by Rene   Dubois).