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How can we forget that, Mr. Hitler's opinion to the contrary, notwithstanding, we Western peoples remain through our philosophies, religion, law, poetry, and art the direct descendants of the Hellenic civilizations of the Mediterranean? How can we know what we are and why we are what we are without a working knowledge of Greece and Rome? And how can we attain such knowledge without the understanding of at least one of the two languages? Further, we cannot forget that many expressions, sentiments, beliefs, and teachings from the classics with their wise and wonderful beauty are, like Hamlet's lines, a part of our minds forever.
— THOMAS W. LAMONT