APPROPRIATE QUOTES FROM NON-MAYFLOWER PASSENGERS
"The Hispanic immigrant who became a citizen yesterday must be as precious to us as a Mayflower descendant . . ." Colin Powell, speech at 1996 Republican National Convention.
"The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history. . . . In the Americas its impact has been irresistible . . . Its vitality was written into our own Mayflower Compact, into the Declaration of Independence, into the Constitution of the United States, into the Gettysburg Address. Those who first came here to carry out the longings of their spirit, and the millions who followed, and the stock that sprang from them--all have moved forward constantly and consistently toward an ideal which in itself has gained stature and clarity with each generation." Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Third Inaugural Address, January 20, 1941.
"Time detracts not from the legacy these good men leave, but the light of their goodness still burns on when they are dead." Euripides, ancient Greek dramatist, 430 B.C.
QUOTES FROM ACTUAL MAYFLOWER PASSENGERS:
"So they left that goodly and pleasant city which had been their resting place near twelve years; but they knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things . . ." William Bradford, describing the feelings of leaving Holland for America. This passage is the origin for the term "Pilgrim", which we use today to identify the Mayflower passengers.
"Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element." William Bradford, describing the arrival of the Mayflower to America.
"Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation . . . they had now no friends to welcome them nor inns to entertain or refresh their weatherbeaten bodies; no houses or much less towns to repair to, to seek for succour." William Bradford on the conditions after arriving in America.
"Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation . . ." William Bradford, looking back at the success of the Plymouth Colony and its place in American history.