The French
David C Kifer
start they are all ardor and bravery, but they lack the patience and
_flegme_ to await the propitious moment; as time goes on, "they lose
interest, and become soft to the point where they are less than women."
--Cardinal Richelieu, memoirs, quoted in: Will Durant, _The Age of
Reason Begins_ p. 391, The Story of Civilization Part VII
[Anyone care to translate the French _flegme_ for me?]
--
Dave
"Tam multi libri, tam breve tempus!"
(Et brevis pecunia.) [Et breve spatium.]
Harry
> Besides (he confided), the French are not constituted for war; at the
> start they are all ardor and bravery, but they lack the patience and
> _flegme_ to await the propitious moment; as time goes on, "they lose
> interest, and become soft to the point where they are less than women."
> --Cardinal Richelieu, memoirs, quoted in: Will Durant, _The Age of
> Reason Begins_ p. 391, The Story of Civilization Part VII
>
>
> [Anyone care to translate the French _flegme_ for me?]
impassive, imperturbable, patience, calmness, reserve, restraint,
coolness, self-control.
Catherine Deschevaux
> Besides (he confided), the French are not constituted for war; at the
> start they are all ardor and bravery, but they lack the patience and
> _flegme_ to await the propitious moment; as time goes on, "they lose
> interest, and become soft to the point where they are less than women."
> --Cardinal Richelieu, memoirs, quoted in: Will Durant, _The Age of
> Reason Begins_ p. 391, The Story of Civilization Part VII
To know how to dissemble is the knowledge of kings.
~ Armand du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu 1585-1642 Testament Politiques:
Maxims (1645)
...
A French resistance heroine who saved more than 100 lives and survived a
Nazi death squad has celebrated her 104th birthday at home in North
Somerset.
During World War II Andree Peel - known as Agent Rose - helped British
and American pilots escape occupied Europe.
After the war she received a personal letter from Winston Churchill
congratulating her on her work.
She was also presented with the Croix de Guerre, the American Medal of
Freedom, and two Legions d'Honneur.
[..]
Agent Rose and her team used torches to guide allied planes to
improvised landing strips and smuggled fugitive airmen onto submarines
and gunboats.
"I saved 102 pilots before being arrested, interrogated and tortured. I
suffer still from that. I still have the pain," she said.
"I was born with courage," said Mrs Peel. "I did not allow cruel people
to find in me a person they could torture."
~War heroine toasts 104th birthday BBC News (Feb 4, 2009)
Yvonne Daley-Brusselmans is author of "Belgium Rendez-Vous 127
Revisited," a book which is about her mother, Anne Brusselmans who
worked for the Belgium underground during WWII. It's a fascinating true
story of intrigue and courage. Anne Brusselman, who also spoke fluent
German, secretly worked with the Belgium Underground, and in great
danger of her and her families lives, saved over 127 American and
English airmen who were shot down over Belgium in WWII. (In later years,
Anne referred to them as her boys.)
This lady has since been honored many times on the world stage for her
bravery and sacrifice, but in later life while she was visiting her
daughter in Clearwater, Florida, she became gravely ill. About the same
time, her visa expired, and she was ordered to leave the United States.
~ www [Ronald Reagan later intervened upon petition by one of her "boys"]
Freedom is the only thing worth living for. While I was doing that work
I used to think that it didn�t matter if I died, because without freedom
there was no point in living.
~ Nancy Wake 1912-
A saboteur and resistance organiser and fighter, the feisty woman led
an army of 7,000 Marquis troops in guerrilla warfare against the Nazis
in France.
She was instrumental in the rescue, escape and repatriation of more than
1,000 Allied servicemen from behind enemy lines. She was known to have
killed many Germans, including one with her bare hands.
She was born in Wellington in 1912 but moved to Australia at an early
age and in her early 20s moved to Paris to work as a journalist.
In Vienna in 1933 she interviewed Adolf Hitler. She was shocked by his
persecution of the Jews and vowed to do something about it.
She married a Frenchman in 1939. As the Germans invaded France, she
joined the resistance and helped Allied pilots and soldiers flee France.
Her husband was executed by the Nazis and she became one of the
Gestapo's most wanted fugitives.
She escaped to Britain for more training and was parachuted back into
France as an agent to undermine the Germans.
She was awarded nine medals, including the George Medal from Britain,
the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, the Croix de Guerre (twice), the
Medaille de la Resistance from France, the Medal of Freedom with Palm
from America and in 2004 the Companion of the Order of Australia.
She was the most decorated servicewoman of World War II.
~ ninemsn.com (Apr 28 2006)
See also Odette Hallowes
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary--odette-hallowes-1611563.html
--
//__________Catherine Deschevaux_____________
'Prenez haleine, tirez forte'
Pics of AL
http://aussieladiesofaq.blogspot.com
_____________________________________
--
//__________Catherine Deschevaux_____________
'Prenez haleine, tirez forte'
Pics of AL
http://aussieladiesofaq.blogspot.com
_____________________________________
Kenneth S.
<dkif...@MOVEnewsgroup.com> wrote:
>Besides (he confided), the French are not constituted for war; at the
>start they are all ardor and bravery, but they lack the patience and
>_flegme_ to await the propitious moment; as time goes on, "they lose
>interest, and become soft to the point where they are less than women."
>--Cardinal Richelieu, memoirs, quoted in: Will Durant, _The Age of
>Reason Begins_ p. 391, The Story of Civilization Part VII
>
>
>[Anyone care to translate the French _flegme_ for me?]
Phlegm?
phlegm (flm)
n.
1. Thick, sticky, stringy mucus secreted by the mucous membrane of the
respiratory tract, as during a cold or other respiratory infection.
2. One of the four humors of ancient and medieval physiology, thought
to cause sluggishness, apathy, and evenness of temper.
3. Sluggishness of temperament.
4. Calm self-possession; equanimity.
-- The Free Dictionary
David C Kifer
Thanks, Harry. I suspected it was something along that line.
Penelope A. Sykes
>>> [Anyone care to translate the French _flegme_ for me?]
>> Conduct of a person who keeps his cool; self-control, calm, cool,
>> impassive, imperturbable, patience, calmness, reserve, restraint,
>> coolness, self-control.
>
> Thanks, Harry. I suspected it was something along that line.
Humorism, or humoralism, was a theory of the makeup and workings of the
human body adopted by Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers. From
Hippocrates onward, the humoral theory was adopted by Greek, Roman and
Islamic physicians, and became the most commonly held view of the human
body among European physicians until the advent of modern medical
research in the nineteenth century. Essentially, this theory held that
the human body was filled with four basic substances, called four
humors, which are in balance when a person is healthy. All diseases and
disabilities resulted from an excess or deficit of one of these four
humors. The four humors were identified as black bile, yellow bile,
phlegm, and blood. search in the nineteenth century.
~wiki
If you are a phlegmatic, you most likely possess a dry wit and a steady,
amicable demeanor. You are dependable, polite, and even-tempered. You
feel more comfortable in a small group of friends or even spending a
quiet evening relaxing at home. You are never flashy, belligerent, or
self-aggrandizing. You would rather take the blame (even unjustly) than
stir up controversy or pick a fight. On the job, you seek neither power
nor the limelight, but work steadily, patiently, and methodically. You
are reliable, patient, and methodical on the job, and can work alone, or
with the most difficult of personalities. You will prefer job security,
working within a structured organization, but can also be a leader of
great character and service.
Former U.S. president Calvin Coolidge, for
example, was known for being a man of few words, conservatism in
maintaining the status quo, and a propensity for "effectively doing
nothing." Once at a dinner party, a young woman bet him that she could
make him say three words. Coolidge dryly replied, "You lose."
~www
--
//Penelope A. Sykes
The National Folk Hero of the Net
> Besides (he confided), the French are not constituted for war; at the
> start they are all ardor and bravery, but they lack the patience and
> _flegme_ to await the propitious moment; as time goes on, "they lose
> interest, and become soft to the point where they are less than women."
> --Cardinal Richelieu, memoirs, quoted in: Will Durant, _The Age of
> Reason Begins_ p. 391, The Story of Civilization Part VII
I've posted this before when I saw people sniping at the French. It's
still relevant.
That battle, resounding down history as the first
Battle of the Marne, was won by the Allies, who in four
hot, dusty September days turned almost certain and final
defeat into victory. . . . The defeated Kluck, who had
had a poor opinion of the enemy forces he had pushed back
so easily the first weeks, understood this afterward.
"The reason that transcends all others" for what happened
on the Marne, he said in 1918, "was the extraordinary . . .
aptitude of the French soldier to recover quickly. That
men will let themselves be killed where they stand--that
is well-known and counted on in every plan of battle. But
that men who have retreated for ten days, sleeping on the
ground and half dead with fatigue, should be able to take
up their rifles and attack when the bugle sounds, is a
thing upon which we never counted. It was a possibility
not studied in our war academy."
--William L. Shirer, _The Collapse
of the Third Republic_
--
Col. G. L. Sicherman
col...@monmouth.com
sich...@optonline.net
SteveMR200
<hfjp2...@news7.newsguy.com>:
>Besides (he confided), the French are not constituted for war; at the
>start they are all ardor and bravery, but they lack the patience and
>_flegme_ to await the propitious moment; as time goes on, "they lose
>interest, and become soft to the point where they are less than women."
>--Cardinal Richelieu, memoirs, quoted in: Will Durant, _The Age of
> Reason Begins_ p. 391, The Story of Civilization Part VII
Kindly inform Major Heyward that he has little to
fear from this General Marquis de Montcalm in the
first place, and scant need of a colonial militia
in the second, because the French haven't the
nature for war.
Their Gallic laziness combines with their Latinate
voluptuousness, with the result that they would
rather eat and make love with their faces than fight.
--"General Webb" (Mac Andrews)
(In the film _The Last of the Mohicans_ [1992];
written by James Fenimore Cooper; screenplay by
Philip Dunne, Michael Mann and Christopher Crowe)
--
Steve
Catherine Deschevaux
> I've posted this before when I saw people sniping at the French. It's
> still relevant.
It’s easy for people in the safety of their American armchairs to decide
how courageous other people should be — that they should stand up to
tyranny, endure torture, sacrifice themselves. It’s easy when you've
never had to face the same choices.
Of course, many Frenchmen did stand up to the Nazis. Over 100,000 of
them died before the U.S. ever got into the war. And speaking of
forgetting things, why have the tales of the heroic French resistance
gone down the memory hole?
~Harry Browne, Those Shameful Frenchmen (February 22, 2003)
To them [the French], war is real — not a video game.
Maybe the reason they don’t talk in macho terms is because they know
what they’re talking about.
~ ibid
//__________Catherine Deschevaux_____________
'Prenez haleine, tirez forte'
Pics of AL
http://aussieladiesofaq.blogspot.com
_____________________________________
SteveMR200
message: <GWdYm.64108$ze1....@news-server.bigpond.net.au>:
>why have the tales of the heroic French resistance gone
>down the memory hole?
>~Harry Browne, Those Shameful Frenchmen (February 22, 2003)
The most common way of softening the hearts of
those we have offended once they have us at their
mercy with vengeance at hand is to move them to
commiseration and pity by our submissiveness. Yet
flat contrary means, bravery and steadfastness,
have sometimes served to produce the same effect.
Edward, Prince of Wales--the one who long governed
our Guyenne and whose qualities and fortune showed
many noteworthy characteristics of greatness--having
been offended by the inhabitants of Limoges, took
their town by force.
The lamentations of the townsfolk, the women and the
children left behind to be butchered crying for
mercy and throwing themselves at his feet, did not
stop him until eventually, passing ever deeper into
the town, he noticed three French noblemen, who,
alone, with unbelievable bravery, were resisting
the thrust of his victorious army.
Deference and respect for such remarkable valor
first blunted the edge of his anger; then starting
with those three he showed mercy on all the other
inhabitants of the town.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592)
_Essays_, Book I [1580], Chapter 1
--
Steve