April 23, 2021

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”


THE FAMOUS EARTH DAY SLOGAN:

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”
      
Walt Kelly (1913-1973)
       American cartoonist best known for his
Pogo comic strip
       Kelly used this memorable line on a poster designed to help promote environmental awareness and publicize the first annual observance of Earth Day, held on April 22, 1970. It’s based on “We have met the enemy and they are ours” — the famous report made by American Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry on September 10, 1813, after defeating a British naval squadron on Lake Erie during the War of 1812. (For more background see the
April 22 Earth Day post on ThisDayinQuotes.com.)


THE ANTI-US KILLERS VERSION:

“We have met the enemy, and he is not us. He is a shadowy figure that hates the Western world, hates freedom, hates women, and hates liberty of the individual.”
      
A post on the “Evil Professor” blog about anti-American terrorists


THE KILLER KITTIES VERSION:

“We have met the enemy, and they are our cats. A report published in Nature asserts that cats might kill as many as 20 billion mammals — and possibly more than three million birds — every year.”
      
MSN news brief about a study that concluded cats that roam outdoors are one of the top threats to wildlife. The story noted one old-fashioned way of reducing the carnage your cat may cause (besides keeping it indoors): put a bell on its collar.


THE MOVIE BUZZKILL VERSION:
 
“A wasted opportunity to explore one of the last great moments of American dissent. We have met the enemy, and it is dull.”
       Alonso Duralde

       Movie critic for Reuters’ TheWrap.com
      
In his review of The Company You Keep, Robert Redford’s film about aging radicals who were members of the Weather Underground in the 1960s.

To read more “We have met the enemy…” variations, see this previous post on QuoteCounterquote.com…

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April 12, 2021

“None so blind as those that will not see.”



THE BIBLE-RELATED QUOTE THAT’S NOT IN THE BIBLE:
“None so blind as those that will not see.”
      
Matthew Henry (1662-1714)
       English Presbyterian minister and writer
       A saying
popularized by Henry’s use in his Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708)
       Contrary to common belief, this is not a quote from the Bible. It’s
a proverbial English saying with no clear origin. Matthew Henry helped popularize it by using it several times in his widely-read book of explanatory comments about the Bible. The saying was probably inspired by Bible verses, possibly Matthew 13:13 (“Therefore I speak to them in parables: because they seeing see not…”) or Jeremiah 5:21 (“Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not…”).
 

         

THE LAME EXCUSE VARIATION: “There are none so lame as those who will not walk.”
      
Sir James Marchant (1867-1956)
       British philanthropist and author
       In the book If I Had Only One Sermon to Preach (1928)

      


THE TRUE BELIEVER PRINCIPLE:

“There are none so positive as those who are but half right.”
      
William McDonnell (1814-1900)
       Canadian writer
       In his novel Family Creeds (1879)

           
          

                
SPURGEON’S VERSION:
       

“There are none so tender as those who have been skinned themselves.” 
      
Rev. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
       British Baptist preacher
       From a sermon included in his book Sermons: Volume 6 (1859)

  


THE UNWORTHY WISH LIST VERSION:

“There are none so bitterly disappointed as those who have got what they wanted, because human nature is so sadly prone to want such things as are unworthy.”
       Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler
(1860-1929)
       British poet and novelist
       In her novel Place and Power (1903)




THE IRRITATING BLOWHARDS PRINCIPLE:

“None so empty as those who are full of themselves.”
      
Benjamin Whichcote (1609–1683)
       British Puritan divine and scholar
       Quoted
in the book Moral and Religious Aphorisms Collected from the Manuscript Papers of the Reverend and Learned Doctor Whichcote (1753)

           

               
THE IRRITATING CRITICS PRINCIPLE:


“There’s none so bland as can’t see.”
       Editorial comment in
a 1994 issue of the Theatre Record
       Regarding a critic’s negative review of an avant-garde adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III

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Comments? Corrections? Questions? Email me or post them on my Famous Quotations Facebook page.

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