Quote:

Ian McKELLAN (on Real Time w/ Bill Maher): Can I just quote you the third president, because there it is on the Jefferson Memorial, some of the great words ' and I'm sorry I don't know them off by heart, but he says, 'Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as manners and opinions change, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.' And that's barbarity.

http://www.safesearching.com/billmaher/print/t_hbo_realtime_022704.htm





I happened to be sitting only a few feet away from him as he recited those words at the taping of that episode. Powerful stuff.