We tremble at our own greatness, and shirk the sacrifices it demands from us.

Yet we do not wish to renounce the claim which we derive from our glorious past.

How rightly Fichte once judged his countrymen when he said the German can never wish for a thing by itself; he must always wish for its contrary also.
The Germans were formerly the best fighting men and the most warlike nation of Europe.

For a long time they have proved themselves to be the ruling people of the Continent by the power of their arms and the loftiness of their ideas.

Germans have bled and conquered on countless battlefields in every part of the world, and in late years have shown that the heroism of their ancestors still lives in the descendants.