5 of the Fiercest One-Liners in History

[xchrom]

http://mentalfloss.com/article/52603/5-fiercest-one-liners-history



1. LAURENCE OATS BEFORE WALKING INTO A DEADLY BLIZZARD: "I AM JUST GOING OUTSIDE AND MAY BE SOME TIME."

In 1911, Captain Laurence Oats joined the expedition of Robert Falcon Scott to the South Pole, which they reached only to find that another explorer had beat them to it, 34 days earlier. On the trek back to base, the weather was unforgiving, falling to -47 degrees Fahrenheit. One member of the party froze to death. Then Captain Oats' feet became severely frostbitten, reducing the pace of the survivors to a lethal slowness. He demanded to be left behind so the remaining three men could have a chance of reaching the next food depot. His comrades refused.


***SNIP

2. DANIEL DALY BEFORE CHARGING INTO BATTLE: "FOR CHRIST'S SAKE MEN—COME ON! DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER?"

If you saw Daniel Daly's small frame behind a desk at the bank where he worked later in life, you would never have imagined you were looking at one of the most ferocious Marines the

***SNIP

3. SERGEANT MILUNKA SAVIC ON PREPARING TO STAND AT ATTENTION UNTIL A NEXT-DAY VERDICT: "I WILL WAIT."

In 1912, when Milunka Savic was 24, her brother was called up to serve in the first Balkan War. We're not sure if Milunka took his place or just went along, but we do know that she assumed a male identity and became a highly decorated soldier in the Serbian army. She apparently kept her gender a secret through the First Balkan War and into the Second, when a Bulgarian grenade wounded her so severely that her gender was revealed to the field surgeons.

***SNIP

4. J.R. OPPENHEIMER ON HIS MANHATTAN PROJECT: "NOW I AM BECOME DEATH, THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS."

This sentence reads like dialogue spoken by an alien warlord in a science-fiction movie. So it all the more unsettling that Julius Robert Oppenheimer was neither exaggerating nor boasting when he said it. His studies in physics added to human knowledge about the most unfathomable questions in the universe; black holes, nuclear physics, spectroscopy, quantum field theory, and quantum electrodynamics. But his work wasn't just theoretical. His knowledge of nuclear theory was put to a devastatingly practical use in WWII, when he became the lead physicist on the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atom bomb.



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[Spider Jerusalem]

1. #1 is "Oates", not "Oats"

they could've bothered to spell his name properly.

[devils chaplain]

2. Any other honorable mentions from DUers?

Not as eloquent or powerful as the others, but:

"Nuts!" -- General Anthony McAuliffe in a one word telegram response to a German General's surrender ultimatum

"Come and Take it!" -- Taunting Spartan response to a Persian demand of surrender ("molon labe&quot , later repeated by the US to British surrender demands at Fort Morris in the revolutionary war and then by Texas in its rebellion against Mexico


"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately" -- Benjamin Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence

[postulater]

3. Believing oneself to be perfect is often the sign of a delusional mind.

Data, to Borg Queen, Star Trek,First Contact

[Fantastic Anarchist]

4. Great find!

Thanks for posting.