WE JUST WENT TOO FAR

By Roger Rosenblatt

Conventional wisdom would have it that things were always better in the past and that the present consists of social deteriorations at the hands of scoundrels and nincompoops. The following may be used to test that proposition:

LAWYERS

"The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it." --JOHN MARSHALL (1755-1835)

"I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure--that's all that agnosticism means." --CLARENCE DARROW (1857-1938)

"I said to O.J., 'Look, I'm sorry I got pissed at you, but I can't always make decisions just to please you.' 'No problem, Bob,' he said. 'Sometimes you just have to get in my face.'" --ROBERT SHAPIRO (1942- )

HISTORIANS

"All Hellas is the monument of Euripides." --THUCYDIDES (circa 460-400 B.C.)

"In every deed of mischief, Comnenus had a heart to resolve and a hand to execute." --EDWARD GIBBON (1737-94)

"Hitler was O.K. at the beginning. He just went too far." --MARGE SCHOTT (1928- )

LEES

"These colonies are, and of right ought to be, individual states." --RICHARD HENRY LEE, 1776

"It is well that war is so terrible, or one should get too fond of it." --ROBERT EDWARD LEE, 1862

"I pray every morning before I go on the air: Lord, please help me today. Don't let me hurt anyone with my mouth." --KATHIE LEE, 1992

DEES

"One for all and all for one." --D'ARTAGNAN (and three others), 1844

"Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men." --DE GAULLE, 1934

"I helped my cousin get a HUD house. Well, if you didn't help your cousin, who would you help?" --D'AMATO, 1994

CONNECTIONS

"There is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love." --The Bridge of San Luis Rey, 1927

"Robert, I'm not quite finished. If you took me in your arms and carried me to your truck and forced me to go with you, I wouldn't murmur a complaint. You could do the same thing just by talking to me. But I don't think you will. You're too sensitive, too aware of my feelings, for that. And I have feelings of responsibility here. Yes, it's boring in its way. My life, that is." --The Bridges of Madison County, 1992

LIVES

"Art is art because it is not nature." --The Autobiography of William Butler Yeats, 1916

"I was going through the hardest thing, also the greatest thing, for any human being to do; to accept that which is already within you, and around you." --The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1964

"I saved David Robinson's ass, I save everybody's ass. If people can't see that, they can kiss my ass." --Dennis Rodman, Bad As I Wanna Be, 1996

POLITICAL SCIENCE

"Political society exists for the sake of noble action." --ARISTOTLE, circa 375 B.C.

"Your every voter exercises a public trust." --GROVER CLEVELAND, 1882

"I think that the undecideds could go one way or the other." --GEORGE BUSH, 1988

PRESIDENTIAL ORATORY

"Let us have faith that right makes might." --A. LINCOLN, 1859

"Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate." --J.F. KENNEDY, 1961

"You know, if I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out. That's a good-looking mummy!" --B. CLINTON, 1996

ROYAL PROGRESS

"We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat." --VICTORIA, 1899

"How's the Empire?" --GEORGE, 1936

"I want to be reincarnated as your tampon." --CHARLES, 1991

COURTING

"It's very clear, our love is here to stay." --IRA GERSHWIN, 1938

"I love you, hums the April breeze./ I love you, echo the hills." --COLE PORTER, 1945

"I see this ho, yeah what's up bitch." --THA DOGG POUND, 1995

MYSTERY

"Now I lay me down to sleep,/ I pray the Lord my soul to keep; If I should die before I wake,/ I pray the Lord my soul to take." --ANONYMOUS, 12th century

"O Come, all ye faithful/ Joyful and triumphant. O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem." --ANONYMOUS, 18th century

"I would like to thank some people who don't know who I am." --ANONYMOUS, 20th century

PEACE IN OUR TIME

Sarajevo, 1914 Sarajevo, 1996