언론이 뭐라고 하느냐는 중요하지 않아. 정치가들이 뭐라고 하든, 군중들이 뭐라고 하든도 상관 없어. 온 나라가 무엇이 그르고 무엇이 옳다고 결정해도 아무런 상관 없어.
이 나라는 다른 모든 상황들을 제치고 단 한 가지 원칙에 의해 건국되었으니까: 성공할 확률이 낮든, 그 어떤 결과가 나오든에 관계 없이, 우리가 믿는 것을 우리가 지킨다는 그 원칙.
그렇기에 그 군중들과, 언론과, 심지어 온 세상이 내게 굽히라고 할 때, 내가 해야 하는 일은, 진실이라는 강 옆에 우뚝 솟아 있는 나무처럼 나 자신을 꼿꼿이 세우고, 그 세상에게 말하는 거야 - 아니. 네가 굽히라고.

전문 발췌:

When the whole country is against you, when it is all bearing down on you like a ten-ton weight and you don’t know your own heart sometimes, how does someone like you deal with it? How does a man who practically is the country react when the country goes a different way?


I remember the first time I really understood what it was to be an American…What it was to be a patriot. I was just a kid…A million years ago, it seems sometimes. Maybe twelve. I was reading Mark Twain. And he wrote something that struck me right down to my core…something so powerful, so true, that it changed my life. I memorized it so I could repeat it to myself, over and over across the years. He wrote: ‘In a republic, who is the country?

Is it the government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the government is merely a temporary servant: it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. It’s function is to obey orders, not originate them. Who, then is the country? Is it the newspaper? Is it the pulpit? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it, they have not command, they have only their little share in the command.’

‘In a monarchy, the king and his family are the country: In a republic it is the common voice of the people each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. It is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catchphrases of politicians.

Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have your duty by yourself and by your country. Hold up your head. You have nothing to be ashamed of.’

Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — No, you move.