The next quote I came across was in a talk on marriage by Elder James A. Cullimore. He talks at one point about the importance of compromise in a marriage, and the quote speaks to this:
The Quote
Henry Watterson has said:
“I would compromise war.
I would compromise glory.
I would compromise everything at that point where hate comes in,
where misery comes in,
where love ceases to be love,
and life begins its descent into the valley of the shadow of death.
But I would not compromise Truth.
I would not compromise the right.”
Henry Watterson was a regional journalist and one of the first syndicated columnists in the United States. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and won a Nobel Peace prize for columns encouraging America to enter World War I. Mildly ironic, but okay.
He wrote under the pen name of Marse Henry.
The full quote comes from The Compromises of Life, published in the early 1900s. The full quote is worth including here - he had a gift for imagery:
I would compromise war.
I would compromise glory.
I would compromise everything at that point where hate comes in,
where misery comes in,
where love ceases to be love
and life begins its descent in the shadow of the valley of death.
I would not compromise Truth.
I would not compromise the Right.
I would not compromise conscience and conviction
in any matter of pith and moment involving real duty.
There are times when one must stand and fight,
when one must fight and die.
But such times are exceptional; they are most exceptional;
one cannot without making himself ridiculous
be always wrapping the flag around him and marching down to the foot-lights,
to display his extraordinary valor and virtue.
And, in the long intervals,
how often the best of us are mistaken as to what is Truth,
as to what is Right,
as to what is Duty.
Too often they are what we would have them to be.
Too often that which we want to do becomes that which we ought to do.
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