“Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” – Samuel Johnson

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

February 22

‘At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step across the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reaches us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.'

- Abraham Lincoln

'Every man who can be a first-rate something has no right to be a fifth-rate something, for a fifth-rate something is no better than a first-rate nothing.'

- Josiah Holland