(Note: This piece is archived from the old version of my website, before I called it a blog. — DG)
There’s been a lot of hubbub lately about 16 words President Bush used in his most recent State of the Union speech. These words were: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”
It turns out that Saddam Hussein wasn’t seeking uranium in Africa.
Some have said that the president was using a false justification for going to war. Others say it wasn’t that big a deal, because it was “just 16 words.”
Were these particular 16 words of immense importance? That’s up to you to decide. But I’m a big believer in words. I believe that sometimes, just a handful of words can be very important, depending on which words and when they are spoken and by whom.
Here are some well quoted short phrases that have just a few words:
- “I did not have sex with that woman.” (8 words)
Bill Clinton - “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” (6 words)
Ronald Reagan - “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” (10 words)
Neil Armstrong - “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.” (14 words)
Thomas Jefferson - “Give me liberty or give me death.” (7 words)
Patrick Henry - “I have not yet begun to fight.” (7 words)
John Paul Jones - “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” (14 words)
Nathan Hale - “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” (7 words)
Theodore Roosevelt - “Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” (29 words)
Abraham Lincoln - “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.” (20 words)
George W. Bush - “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” (17 words)
Winston Churchill - “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” (17 words)
John F. Kennedy - “I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the United States of America, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” (31 words)
Pledge of Allegiance - “The buck stops here.” (4 words)
Harry Truman - “Just say no.”
Nancy Reagan - “All you need is love.” (5 words)
John Lennon - “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” (8 words)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt - “I have a dream.” (4 words)
Martin Luther King - “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” (8 words)
Muhammad Ali - “An eye for an eye only makes both men blind.” (10 words)
Ghandi - “These are the times that try men’s souls.” (8 words)
Thomas Paine - “I am not a crook.” (5 words)
Richard Nixon - “Nuts!” (1 word)
An American refusing to surrender at the Battle of the Bulge - “Some men see things as they are, and ask ‘Why?’ I dream of things that never were, and ask ‘Why not?’” (21 words)
Robert Kennedy, quoting Tennyson - “I love you, will you marry me?” (7 words)
Anonymous - “Let them eat cake.” (4 words)
Marie Antionette (when told her people were starving because they had no bread) - “You are the weakest link. Goodbye!” (6 words)
Weakest Link Lady - “Shaken, not stirred.” (3 words)
James Bond - “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” (7 words)
Johnny Cochran - “Let’s get ready to rumble!” (5 words)
Michael Buffer - “I shall return.” (3 words)
Douglass MacArthur - “The British are coming!” (4 words)
Paul Revere - “Read my lips. No new taxes.” (6 words)
George H. W. Bush - “It will be the mother of all battles.” (8 words)
Saddam Hussein - “You’ve got mail.” (3 words)
America Online (voice of El Edwards) - “Let’s Roll” (2 words)
Todd Beamer - “E=mc2″ (2 words)
Albert Einstein - “It’s déjà vu all over again.” (6 words)
Yogi Berra
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