Historical Quotes?

Question

Im writing a speech for our moch constitutional convention in school, and i need a historical quote from homer, or nepolean, or someone that people in 1700s would read. Th qoute should point out how waffling gets you no where, but building off what people before you set down in the best option.

Answer 1

There's a famous quote from about the 12th century, attributed to Bernard of Chartres:

"We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size."

It's quoted by Didacus Stella in the sixteenth century and was very well known by the seventeenth century.

(If you need it shorter, Didacus Stella's version was "A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than the giant himself.")

Answer 2

I cannot give you a quote. I can only guide you. Napoleon came after 1789. The founders of the republic did not pay attention to Homer. They were conscious that they were the heirs of republican democratic Greece and Rome. They were also readers of John Locke. I forget who among them said, "We must all hang together, or we shall hang separately." He meant, we must stay together or the British will hang us one by one.