Hendrik Willem Van Loon

“ But there are other evidences of the national will to live which I have nothing to do with an actual clash of arms, yet are as powerful in their testimony to a people's valor and tenacity as the guns that fired the last shot in the struggle for freedom. ”

“ In every country there are certain relics, carefully preserved and shown only on very special occasions, which are held in great veneration because they are the living evidence of that nation's intention to survive in spite of everything. ”

“ We had long since accepted them as among the foremost of our musical benefactors and within these walls the visitor can now make up his mind as to their demand that within the realm of the pictorial arts too, they stand foremost among those who have been striving after an independant and original approach towards the age-old problem of seeing nature through a new and original temperament. ”

“ This is a gloomy picture and hardly the sort of thing we like to see printed in our blessed land of wishful thinking in which Candide, amidst the bombs of Pearl Harbor and the flames of the Normandie can still proclaim that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds if one only closes one's eyes against those facts which might have a disturbing effect upon that equanimity of the soul necessary for the enjoyment of a good meal and a pleasant evening at a night club. ”

“ The so-called imponderabilia—the non-essentials, so infinitely more important than the essentials, will weigh heavily when the claims of this nation to an independent existence of its own are brought to the attention of the civilized part of mankind.
We already know what the Czechoslovaks could do within the realm of science and of social improvement. ”

“ I refer to those evidences of the national genius which took the shape of paintings, of pieces of sculpture, of musical and literary compositions and which belonging to the realm of the spirit were as indestructable as the laws of God and of nature.
The ancient land of the Czechs, betrayed by those who should have been its friends and protectors, today lies at the mercy of an enemy who for sheer brutality and lust for cruelty has never been quite surpassed within the written annals of history. ”

“ It therefore seems not only a wise but an absolutely necessary decision to bring together into one single space as many of the evidences of the Czech genius for painting as could be found in that rapidly dwindling part of the world as yet unaffected by the defiling touch of the Nazi hand. ”

“ By the time we have gained our victory, the bungling representatives of a bygone system will be raising eggs and will be keeping bees in the porter's lodge of their former country estates. While men and women who really understand the world in which they live will decide upon the fate of a new commonwealth of nations. ”

“ A private collector may be the proud possessor of one of two Kokoschka's or Stursa's or Maratka's, but no matter how generous he may be in sharing his treasures with his neighbors, only a handful of people at a time can enjoy the sight of these products of the brush and the pencil. ”

“ They realize that they will never get anything except what they shall be able to acquire by the sweat of their own brow. They do not expect that liberty will come to them neatly done up in a little bundle and with the compliments of a few well-intentioned citizens in a foreign land. ”

“ In the meanwhile, everylthing that can be done should be done, to keep their holy cause before the public at large. For this time, peace will not be entrusted to the sort of men who gave us Versailles. ”