The living will envy the dead (UNCLASSIFIED)

Mullins, Bill AMRDEC Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL
Thu Sep 20 15:32:16 UTC 2007


Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

>From the YBQ:

Nikita Khrushchev
[of nuclear war]  The living will envy the dead.
Attributed in _Harper's_, Aug. 1979.  According to _Respectfully
Quoted_, ed. Suzy Platt, "no form of this quotation has been verified in
the speeches or writings of Khrushchev."  A similar line appears in
Herman Kahn, _On Thermonuclear War_ (1961).


Stephan Zweig, _Jeremiah, a Drama in Nine Scenes_ (trans. from German by
Eden and Cedar Paul) New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1922.  p. 171
"Better, far better, is darkness, for the hour is at hand in Israel when
the living will envy the deat, and when those that wake will envy the
sleepers."

James Stephen, _The Dangers of the Country_, Philadelphia:  Samuel F
Bradford 1807. p. 23
"But it would be unfair to reckon this among the aggravations of our
fate; for scenes would soon ensue, which would make the living envy the
dead their peace, as well as their glory."


Igor Gouzenko, _The Fall of a Titan_ (trans by Mervyn Black) New York:
Norton, 1954. p. 44.
"Wasn't I right, Piotr Lukich, when I told you that the time was coming
about which it is written:  'The living will envy the dead!' "

 Norman Thomas, _The Prerequisites for Peace_ New York:  Norton, 1959.
p. 13.
"Survivors of thermonuclear war, if such there are, will envy the dead."


Edward Alfred D'Alton, _History of Ireland: From the Earliest Times to
the Present Day_ Ireland: Gresham, 1910. p.  203
"In the midst of such horrors the living began to envy the dead, for
they had ceased to suffer while the living had their sufferings still to
go through."


"U. S. URGED TO SPUR U. N. LEBANON MOVE" _New York Times_  Jul 3, 1958;
pg. 6
"Another speaker here today was Norman Thomas, Socialist leader and
six-time candidate for President.  Mr. Thomas warned that any survivors
in a nuclear war "would envy the dead." "

"LET PEOPLE BE JUDGE, NIKITA DARES CHINESE" _Chicago Tribune_ ; Jul 20,
1963; pg. 2
" ' And do you know that if all the warheads of the nuclear rockets were
set off and if all this were to go into the contamination of the
atmosphere, then it is not known what would be the fate of the people
who would survive.  Wouldn't possibly the living envy the dead?'" [from
a Jul 19 Moscow speech, addressing the Chinese]
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list