Saturday, November 18, 2017

Citizenship

You would have addressed a letter to "E. Rushmore Coglan, Esq., the Earth, Solar System, the Universe," and have mailed it, feeling confident that it would be delivered to him.
― O. Henry, "A Cosmopolitan in a Cafe" in The Four Million, 1903

Frequently consider the connection of all things in the Universe. . . . We should not say ‘I am an Athenian’ or ‘I am a Roman’ but ‘I am a Citizen of the Universe'.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 161 to 180 AD

The first person to have said such a thing was Diogenes the Cynic (4th Century BCE). Diogenes Laertius (3rd Century AD) said of Diogenes the Cynic, “When asked where he was from, he said 'I am a world-citizen.'”
― SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE, JUNE 4, 2016

Oh, we come on the ship
  they call the Mayflower,
We come on the ship
  that sailed the moon,
We come in the age’s
  most uncertain hour,
And sing an American tune.

Paul Simon, American Tune, 1973
World Trade Center Flag Raising
Thomas E. Franklin, 9/11/2001
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)

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