“As an artist I come to sing, but as a citizen, I will always speak for peace, and no one can silence me in this.”
“To be free … to walk the good American earth as equal citizens, to live without fear, to enjoy the fruits of our toil, to give our children every opportunity in life — that dream which we have held so long in our hearts is today the destiny that we hold in our hands.”
— artist, scholar, and activist Paul Robeson, born today in 1898
But the forming a new System of Government, for so numerous a people, of very different views, and habits, spread upon such a vast extent of Territory, containing such a great variety of soils, and under such extremes of climate, was a task, which nothing less than the dreadful apprehension of losing our national existence, could have compelled the people to under-take. We can be known to the world, only under the appellation of the United States.
— statesman John Hancock, born today in 1737
It is not enough to know your craft; you have to have feeling. Science is all very well, but for us imagination is worth far more.
— painter Edouard Manet, born today in 1832