There can be no compromise with war; it cannot be reformed or controlled; cannot be disciplined into decency or codified into common sense.
Jeannette RankinRead
The most important accomplishment, I believe, was my voting against the First World War.
Interpretation
Jeannette Rankin emphasizes the significance of standing up for one's beliefs, even in the face of widespread opposition.
In this quote, Jeannette Rankin reflects on the courage required to vote against the First World War when such a decision was unpopular. It highlights the importance of personal conviction and moral integrity in the face of societal pressures, suggesting that true accomplishment lies not in conforming to the majority, but in adhering to oneβs principles.
In practice
During a speech on the importance of civic duty, I referenced Rankin's quote to inspire others to participate in voting.
There can be no compromise with war; it cannot be reformed or controlled; cannot be disciplined into decency or codified into common sense.
As a woman I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.
I worked for suffrage for years, and got it. I've worked for peace for 55 years and haven't come close.
Small use it will be to save democracy for the race if we cannot save the race for democracy.
I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war.
It will be hard to convince people that their welfare is safe in the hands of a federal government when they feel themselves the victims of unjust sectional discrimination.
Fear isn't so difficult to understand. After all, weren't we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual.
Most people carry that pain around inside them their whole lives, until they kill the pain by other means, or until it kills them. But you, my friends, you found another way: a way to use the pain. To burn it as fuel, for light and warmth. You have learned to break the world that has tried to break you.
It is lawful and hath been held so through all ages for any one who have the power to call to account a tyrant or wicked king, and after due conviction to depose and put him to death.
I'm ready to lose my life if that's what Portugal needs to win. I'll play vs USA even if I play with one leg.
Covering the civil-rights movement was a mind- and eye-opener for me. Houston was a segregated society, as was Texas as a whole - some of it by law, a lot of it by fear and tradition. But there was no violence where I lived, and if there was hate, it was either concealed from me or I just didn't recognize it.
If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated suffering.
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