But we had with us, to keep and to care for, more than five hundred bruised bodies of men- men made in the image of God, marred by the hand of man and must we say in the name of God? And where is the reckoning for such things? And who is answerable? One might almost shrink from the sound of his own voice, which had launched into the palpitating air words of order- do we call it? - fraught with such ruin. Was it God's command we heard or His forgiveness we must forever implore?
Interpretation
This quote contemplates the moral implications of war and the suffering it causes, questioning divine command and human responsibility.
In this quote, Joshua Chamberlain reflects on the devastating reality of war, emphasizing the tragedy of human suffering among soldiers who, despite being made in God's image, have been wounded and scarred by human conflict. He grapples with the moral dilemmas of warfare, pondering whether the orders given were truly divine commands or if they instead require a plea for forgiveness, highlighting the profound ethical questions surrounding the devastation caused by such actions.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the consequences of war during a remembrance ceremony.
There is a way of losing that is finding. When soul overmasters sense. When the noble and divine self overcomes the lower self. When duty and honor and love immortal things bid the mortal perish. It is only when a man supremely gives that he supremely finds
Heroism is latent in every human soul - However humble or unknown, they (the veterans) have renounced what are accounted pleasures and cheerfully undertaken all the self-denials - privations, toils, dangers, sufferings, sicknesses, mutilations, life-long hurts and losses, death itself - for some great good, dimly seen but dearly held.
I am not of Virginia blood; she is of mine.
In great deeds, something abides. On great fields, something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls… generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream; and lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls.
In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence.
Time is the brush of God, as he paints his masterpiece on the heart of humanity.
Blind submission in women is considered a virtue, while submission to wrong is itself wrong, and resistance to wrong is virtue alike in women as in man.
Let them think what they liked, but I didn't mean to drown myself. I meant to swim till I sank -- but that's not the same thing.
Believing in the good of humanity is a revolutionary act - it means that we don't need all those managers and CEO's, kings and generals. That we can trust people to govern themselves and make their own decisions.
In the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth, truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists.
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