Immortal Words is an anthology of history's most memorable uplifting or thought-provoking"ations from all ages & nations. The texts are drawn not only from the works & words of great writers thinkers & orators but also from less well-known sources such as gravestones book dedications speeches & political manifestos letters & diaries inscriptions & chance remarks. Each of the 370"ations is accompanied by an extended annotation that tells the story of the speaker or explains the circumstances that gave rise to the"ation. The words & sentiments expressed have been used to encapsulate the human condition to inspire great works or deeds in times of hardship or simply reflect the spirit of the time
- they will live with you & inspire you day by day from one year's end to the next. Sample entries include: Marcus Aurelius
- ' Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.. .'. Martin Luther King
- 'I have a dream.. .'. John F. Kennedy
- ' Ask not what your country.. .'. John Gillespie Magee Royal Air Force pilot 1941
- ' High Flight'. Ronald Reagan
- ' Tear down his wall.. .'. Isadora Duncan
- on her sickbed writes a feverishly passionate letter to her lover the actor Gordon Craig. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
- ' Life is.. .'. Colonel Tim Collins of the Royal Irish Regiment March 19 2003
- ' We come not to conquer.. .. Emma Lazarus
- ' The New Colossus' (plaque on Statue of Liberty). Joseph Stalin
- first broadcast to the Russian people after the German invasion July 3 1941. Mahatma Gandhi
- 'I am a man of peace.. .'. Abraham Lincoln
- on leaving Springfield Illinois to take the oath as President. February 11 1861. Cicero
-"ing Cato the Elder in De Senectute (On Old Age) 44 BC. Charles Lindbergh
- describing the last minutes of his pioneering non-stop flight from New York to Paris in 1927. Nelson Mandela
- 'I am the First Accused'. Buddha
- ' All acts of living creatures become bad by ten things.. .'. Benjamin Franklin
- writes a first draft of his own epitaph. Thomas Jefferson
- ' Force cannot change right.. . Winston Churchill
- ' Never in the field of human conflict.. .'. Adolf Hitler
- ' My patience is now at an end'. Edward Everett
- President of Harvard on the protest of the student body against the admission of a Negro student. Francis Bacon
- ' This world's a bubble; & the life of Man Less than a span.. .'. Horatio Nelson
- ' Separated from all I hold dear in this world.. .'. Charlotte Cushman
- inscription on the curtain of Ford's Opera House Baltimore. Shakespeare
- ' Once more unto the breach.. .' Henry V. Marie Antoinette
- letter to her sister on the day of her execution. Ludwig Van Beethoven
- 'I carry my ideas about me for along time often a very long time...'. Aldous Huxley 1920- 'A million million spermatozoa.. .'. Eleanor Roosevelt
- speaking on the function of hatred in a just cause. Indira Gandhi
- ' Women's education is almost more important than the education of boys & men.'"