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Eloquent Elis
March 2001—Special Tercentennial Edition
Many Yale alumni are remembered for their careers or their contributions to society. A few are recalled as well for the way they summed things up. Here is how some of them put it:
[1701]
I give these books for the founding of a College in this colony.
Attributed by Thomas Clap to Yale’s founding fathers.
[1754]
The heart is like a viper, hissing and spitting poison at God.
Jonathan Edwards 1720, 1723MA, writing in The Freedom of the Will.
[22 September 1776]
I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
Nathan Hale, Class of 1773, as he stood on the gallows.
[1870s]
Go to your room.
Traditional admonition given by Senior Society members to new recruits on Tap Day.
[24 November 1923]
Gentlemen, you are now going out to play football against Harvard. Never again in your life will you do anything so important.
T.A.D. Jones, Class of 1908 and head football coach, getting his players ready for The Game.
[1926]
A poem should not mean, but be.
Archibald MacLeish, Class of 1915, in “Ars Poetica.”
[1927]
Winning isn’t worthwhile unless one has something finer and nobler behind it.
Amos Alonzo Stagg, Class of 1888, recounting his philosophy in his autobiography, Touchdown!
[1927]
If two New Hampshire men aren’t a match for the Devil, we might as well give the country back to the Indians.
Stephen Vincent Benet, Class of 1919, 1920MA, in The Devil and Daniel Webster.
[1930]
I don’t remember that I ever was President.
William Howard Taft, Class of 1878, talking about his time in Washington.
[1934]
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Reinhold Niebuhr, Class of 1914BD, 1915MA, in “The Serenity Prayer.”
[1936]
It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely.
Cole Porter, Class of 1913, a line from “It’s De-lovely,” a song in the musical, Red, Hot, and Blue.
[1940]
Although war is evil, it is occasionally the lesser of two evils.
McGeorge Bundy, Class of 1940, in his Yale College senior essay.
[1942]
Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools, and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.
Thornton Wilder, Class of 1920, in The Matchmaker.
[1946]
Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.
Benjamin Spock, Class of 1925, in Baby and Child Care.
[1949]
When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
Aldo Leopold, Class of 1909MF, in A Sand County Almanac.
[2 July 1963]
Every day, in every way, things are getting worse and worse.
William F. Buckley Jr., Class of 1950, in the National Review.
[1964]
I know it when I see it.
Potter Stewart, Class of 1937, 1941LLB, attempting to define hard-core pornography in the Supreme Court case Jacobellis v. Ohio.
[1969]
Who are those guys?
Paul Newman, Class of 1954DRA, as Butch Cassidy, in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
[23 April 1970]
I am appalled and ashamed that things should have come to such a pass that I am skeptical of the ability of black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the United States.
Kingman Brewster, Class of 1941, President of Yale, in a statement to the faculty.
[21 June 1970]
The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull. This is not always easy to achieve.
Dean Acheson, Class of 1915, in The Observer.
[1971]
Miami is more American than America.
Garry Wills, Class of 1961PhD, in Nixon Agonistes.
[9 August 1974]
Our long national nightmare is over. Our constitution works.
Gerald Ford, Class of 1941LLB, in his inaugural statement upon taking over as president when Richard Nixon resigned.
[November 1977]
It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.
A. Bartlett Giamatti, Class of 1960, 1964PhD, writing about baseball in the Yale Alumni Magazine.
[18 August 1988]
We are a nation of communities … a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.
George H. W. Bush, Class of 1948, in his nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in New Orleans.
[October 1991]
This is a circus! A national disgrace! … a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves.
Clarence Thomas, Class of 1974JD, reacting to charges of sexual harassment by Anita Hill, Class of 1980JD, at his Senate confirmation hearing as a Supreme Court justice.
[26 January 1998]
I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.
Bill Clinton, Class of 1973JD, in remarks to the nation.
[6 November 2000]
They misunderestimated me.
George W. Bush, Class of 1968, speaking in Bentonville, Arkansas, the day before the election.
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