Marching

Marching refers to organized forward walking, often in the uniform, steady and rhythmic manner usually associated with military troops or some forms of celebratory parades, or the less formal manner of other parades or protest marches, or those of captives, such as in some infamous "death marches". March also refers to musical tunes related to such marching, and to formal ceremonies, such as marriages, graduations, or funeral dirges.

From a distance we are instruments
Marching in a common band
Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace
They're the songs of every man. ~ Julie Gold

For the 3rd month, see March

Quotes

Oh when the saints go marching in,
When the saints go marching in,
Oh lord I want to be in that number,
When the saints go marching in! ~ Anonymous

I avow my faith that we are marching towards better days. Humanity will not be cast down. We are going on swinging bravely forward along the grand high road and already behind the distant mountains is the promise of the sun. ~ Winston Churchill

The day may dawn when fair play, love for one's fellow men, respect for justice and freedom, will enable tormented generations to march forth triumphant from the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair. ~ Winston Churchill

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on. ~ Julia Ward Howe

Call it peace or call it treason,
Call it love or call it reason,
But I ain't marching anymore! ~ Phil Ochs

• John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
  John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
  But his soul goes marching on.

  Glory, glory, hallelujah,
  Glory, glory, hallelujah,
  His soul goes marching on.

  • Anonymous authors of "John Brown's Body", a traditional US Civil War song, which had many variants; according to an 1890 account, it was originally a collective effort by a group of Union soldiers who were referring both to the famous abolitionist and also, humorously, to a Sergeant John Brown of their own battalion. The tune and poetic form were soon adapted by Julia Ward Howe for her Battle Hymn of the Republic in 1861.

• Oh when the saints go marching in,
  When the saints go marching in,
  Oh lord I want to be in that number,
  When the saints go marching in!
  • Anonymous author of the early 1900s folk song "When the Saints Go Marching In"; as rendered in one of Louis Armstrong's versions of the traditional funeral march and jazz standard.
  • Variant: Oh, when the saints go marching in
    Lord, how I want to be in that number
    When the saints go marching in.

• I avow my faith that we are marching towards better days. Humanity will not be cast down. We are going on swinging bravely forward along the grand high road and already behind the distant mountains is the promise of the sun.
  • Winston Churchill, in "Unemployment" a speech at Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, Scotland (10 October 1908), published in Liberalism and the Social Problem (1909)

• The message of sunset is sadness; the message of dawn is hope. The rest and the spell of sleep in the middle of the day refresh the human frame far more than a long night. We were not made by Nature to work, or even play, from eight o’clock in the morning till midnight. We throw a strain upon our system which is unfair and improvident. For every purpose of business or pleasure, mental or physical, we ought to break our days and our marches into two.
  • Winston Churchill, in My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Ch. 6 : Cuba

• Vive la France! Long live also the forward march of the common people in all the lands towards their just and true inheritance, and towards the broader and fuller age.
  • Winston Churchill, in radio broadcast from London, Dieu Protège La France [God protect France] (21 October 1940)

• The day may dawn when fair play, love for one's fellow men, respect for justice and freedom, will enable tormented generations to march forth triumphant from the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair.
  • Winston Churchill, in the ending of his last major speech in the House of Commons on (1 March 1955)

• Neither the sword of popes, nor the cross, nor the image of death — nothing will halt the march of truth. I wrote what I felt and that is what I preached with trusting spirit. I am convinced that after my destruction the teachings of false prophets will collapse.
  • Ferenc Dávid, in his last message, carved onto the walls of his dungeon cell, as quoted in For Faith and Freedom (1997) by Charles A. Howe, p. 109

• From a distance we are instruments
  Marching in a common band
  Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace
  They're the songs of every man.
  • Julie Gold, in From a Distance (1985)

• Marching, building, sailing, pillar of cloud or fire,
  Sons of the Will, we fought the fight of the Will, our sire.
  • William Ernest Henley, in Poems (1898), "Rhymes And Rhythms", § II

• Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
  He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
  He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
  His truth is marching on.
  • Julia Ward Howe, in Battle Hymn of the Republic (1861)

• As each event owes some portion of its nature to that which preceded it, so it imparts some of its nature to that which succeeds it, and thus perpetuates the blended good or evil of itself and its predecessors. The single event may thus live on in its influence along the line of all the ages, assuming new shapes, or if clothing itself in the drapery of new events, ever marching onward and upward in the continually growing affairs of time.
  • John Lanahan, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 611

• Call it peace or call it treason,
  Call it love or call it reason,
  But I ain't marching anymore!
  • Phil Ochs, in "I Ain't Marching Anymore" from I Ain't Marching Anymore(1965)

• Oh you tell me that there's danger to the land you call your own
  And you watch them build the war machine right beside your home
  And you tell me that you're ready to go marchin' to the war
  I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?
  • Phil Ochs, in "What Are You Fighting For" from Songs for Broadside (1976)

• Some German words are so long that they have a perspective. … These things are not words, they are alphabetical processions. And they are not rare; one can open a German newspaper any time and see them marching majestically across the page,— and if he has any imagination he can see the banners and hear the music, too. They impart a martial thrill to the meekest subject. I take a great interest in these curiosities.
  • Mark Twain, in A Tramp Abroad (1880), Appendix D : The Awful German Language

• Bring the good old bugle, boys! we'll sing another song—
  Sing it with a spirit that will start the world along—
  Sing it as we used to sing it, fifty thousand strong,
  While we were marching through Georgia.
  • Henry Clay Work, Marching Through Georgia