I've collected these quotes over the last 25
years and they have had a big part of shaping my personal "world view".
The wisdom of those who've gone before us is essential to the development of
our puny little minds and without knowing or caring about what others have
said we can so easily become pawns of extremists.
"Twenty years from now you will be more
disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade
winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." ~~ Mark Twain
“A society of sheep must in time beget a
government of wolves.” ~~ Bertrand de Jouvenal
“A Conservative government is an organized
hypocrisy." ~~ Benjamin Disraeli
“Whenever you have an efficient government
you have a dictatorship.” ~~ Harry S Truman
"If our democracy is to flourish, it must
have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent." ~~
Henry Commager
“Those who make peaceful revolution
impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~~ John F. Kennedy
“I believe that banking institutions are more
dangerous to our liberties than standing armies." ~~ Thomas Jefferson
"I like to believe that people in the long
run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I
think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had
better get out of the way and let them have it." ~~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The spirit of resistance to government is so
valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive."
~~ Thomas Jefferson
“I would rather be exposed to the
inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small
a degree of it." ~~ Thomas Jefferson
“It doesn't matter who
casts the votes, what matters is who counts them.” ~~ Josef Stalin
"The old lady said she'd
leave me if I bought another bike.
I still sometimes wonder what she's doing these days." ~~ Anonymous
“First they
came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me”.
~~ Pastor Martin Niemöller – Germany 1946
“To lay one's plans
carefully, to wreak an implacable vengeance, and then to go to sleep, there
is nothing sweeter in the world" ~~ Josef Stalin
"Government's view of the economy could be
summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving,
regulate
it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
~~ Ronald Reagan
“There’s simply no two
ways about this fuel question. Gasoline is going – alcohol is coming. And
we might as well get ready for it now. All the world is waiting for a
substitute for gasoline.” ~~ Henry Ford, in an interview with The
Detroit Free Press, December 1916
"The price of apathy
towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~~ Plato
"...those who propose
such a thing (violating citizen privacy through illegal wiretaps) are more
of a danger to the country than the ones they want to listen in on." ~~
Harry Truman
“The greatest danger for
most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is
too low and we reach it.” ~~ Michelangelo
"The erosion of freedom
rarely comes as an all-out frontal assault. Rather, it is a gradual,
noxious creeping cloaked in secrecy and
glossed over by
reassurances of greater security." ~~ Senator Robert C. Byrd
“What luck for rulers
that men do not think.” ~~ Adolf Hitler
“The great masses of the
people… will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small one.”
~~ Adolf Hitler
“I use emotion for the
many and reserve reason for the few.” ~~ Adolf Hitler
“By means of shrewd
lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that
heaven is hell – and hell is heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily
it will be believed.” ~ Adolf Hitler
“Naturally, the common
people don’t want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who
determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along
whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a
communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought
to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell
them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of
patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every
country.” ~~ Herman Goering
"Never eat more than you
can lift." ~~ Miss Piggy
"If government were a
product, selling it would be illegal." ~~ P. J. O'Rourke
"With or without
religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing
evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
~~ Steven Weinberg
"An idealist is a person
who helps other people to be prosperous." ~~ Henry Ford
“No one knows what it is
that he can do till he tries.” ~~ Publilius Syrus
“I never hurt nobody but
myself and that's nobody's business but my own.” ~~ Billie Holiday
“The man of character,
in relation to his superiors, finds himself in a difficult position. Sure
of his own judgment and conscious of his strengths, he makes no concessions
to the desire to please. More than that, those who do great things must
often ignore the conventions of a false discipline.” ~~ Charles
DeGaulle
“Natural abilities are
like natural plants; they need pruning by study.” ~~ Francis Bacon
“It rankles me when
somebody tries to force somebody to do something.” ~~ John Wayne
“Authors, like coins,
grow dear as they grow old: It is the rust we value, not the gold.” ~~
Alexander Pope
“Everything used in this
book is from public sources. The stuff that's available publicly is far
more frightening than a lot of people realize.” ~~ Tom Clancy
“I was in prison and you
came to visit me.” ~~ Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 25:36)
“Perhaps the sentiments
contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to
procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong,
gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a
formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides.”
~~ Thomas Paine (Common Sense, Jan 1776)
“The author who speaks
about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own
children.” ~~ Benjamin Disraeli
“Why doesn't everybody
leave everybody else the hell alone?” ~~ Jimmy Durante
“No loss by flood or
lightning, no destruction of cities and temples by hostile forces of nature,
has deprived man of so many noble lives and impulses as those which his
intolerance has destroyed.” ~~ Helen Keller
“They can because they
think they can.” ~~ Vergil
“That which we call sin
in others is experiment for us.” ~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“It has been my
experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.” ~~
Abraham Lincoln
“Absence makes the heart
grow fonder.” ~~ Thomas Haynes Bayly
“My definition of a free
society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.” ~~ Adlai E.
Stevenson
“The government of the
United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
~~ George Washington (1796)
“If we've learned
anything in the past quarter century, it is that we cannot federalize
virtue.” ~~ President George Bush 1991
“Fools admire, but men
of sense approve.” ~~ Alexander Pope
“We are so concerned to
flatter the majority that we lose sight of how very often it is necessary,
in order to preserve freedom for the minority, let alone for the individual,
to face that majority down.” ~~ William F. Buckley, Jr.
“A fool always finds a
greater fool to admire him.” ~~ Nicholas Boileau
“All men are frauds.
The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.”
~~ H. L. Mencken
“The first thing to
learn in intercourse with others is non-interference with their own
particular ways of being happy, provided those ways do not assume to
interfere by violence with ours.” ~~ William James
“Truth resides in every
human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth
as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to
his own view of truth.” ~~ Mohandas K. Gandhi
“Resort to military
force is a first sure sign that we are giving up the struggle for the
democratic way of life, and that the Old World has conquered morally as well
as geographically ~~ succeeding in imposing upon us its ideals and
methods.” ~~ John Dewey (1939)
“The worst men give oft
the best advice.” ~~ Philip James Bailey
“Nobody can be so
amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and
thinks it is his own.” ~~ Sydney J. Harris
“A wise and frugal
Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave
them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and
improvement.” ~~ Thomas Jefferson (1801)
“Freedom is the right to
choose: the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice.
Without the possibility of choice a man is not a man but a member, and
instrument, a thing.” ~~ Archibald MaCleish
“A civilized society is
one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.” ~~
Robert Frost
“Liberty exists in
proportion to wholesome restraint; the more restraint on others to keep off
from us, the more liberty we have.” ~~ Daniel Webster (1847)
“Every man desires to
live long, but no man would be old.” ~~ Johnathan Swift
“The United States ranks
13th on the Human Freedom Index. Twelve other countries are freer than the
United States.” ~~ United Nations
“Do what's right for
you, as long as it don't hurt no one.” ~~ Elvis Presley
“In framing a
government, which is to be administered by men over men, the great
difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control
the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.” ~~
James Madison
“Liberty is the only
thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.” ~~
William Allen White
“Life is a sexually
transmitted terminal disease.” ~~ Peter McWilliams
“Whether or not
legislation is truly moral is often a question of who has the power to
define morality.” ~~ Jerome H. Skolnick
“In a free society,
standards of public morality can be measured only by whether physical
coercion ~~ violence against persons or property ~~ occurs. There is no
right not to be offended by words, actions or symbols.” ~~ Richard E.
Sincere, Jr.
“Moral indignation is in
most cases 2% moral, 48% indignation and 50% envy. ~~ Vittorio De Sica
“Give me chastity and
self-restraint, but do not give it yet.” ~~ Saint Augustine
“Without doubt the
greatest injury of all was done by basing morals on myth. For, sooner or
later, myth is recognized for what it is, and disappears. Then morality
loses the foundation on which it has been built.” ~~ Lord Herbert Louis
Samuel
“My people and I have
come to an agreement which satisfies us both. They are to say what they
please, and I am to do what I please.” ~~ Frederick the Great
(1712-1786)
“It is not only vain,
but wicked, in a legislator to frame laws in opposition to the laws of
nature, and to arm them with the terrors of death. This is truly creating
crimes in order to punish them.” ~~ Thomas Jefferson (1779)
“Every tyrant who has
lived has believed in freedom ~~ for himself.” ~~ Elbert Hubbard
“Civil laws against
adultery and fornication have been on the books forever, in every country.
That's not the law's business; that's God's business. He can handle it.”
~~ Justice Thomas G. Kavanagh
“Republic. I like the
sound of the word. It means people can live free, talk free, go or come,
buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose.” ~~ John Wayne
“We are all tolerant
enough of those who do not agree with us, provided only they are
sufficiently miserable.” ~~ David Grayson
“Youth is a blunder,
manhood a struggle; old age a regret.” ~~ Benjamin Disraeli
“I hate the man who
builds his name
On
ruins of another's fame.” ~~ John Gay
“The policy of the
American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor
aiding them in their pursuits.” ~~ Thomas Jefferson
“For why should my
freedom be judged by another's conscience?” ~~ Paul (1 Corinthians
10:29)
“In a civilized society,
all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be
treated as crimes. Man's ultimate responsibility is to God alone.” ~~
Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury
“To be prepared for war
is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” ~~ George
Washington
“The people's
government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the
people.” ~~ Daniel Webster
“In the field of world
policy, I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor.”
~~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“The test of our
progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have
much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
~~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"I admire men of
character. And I judge character not by how men deal with their superiors,
but mostly how they deal with their subordinates. And that, to me, is
where you find out what the character of a man is." ~~ Gen. H. Norman
Schwarzkopf
"We must be the great
arsenal of democracy." ~~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"Speak softly and carry
a big stick: you will go far.” ~~ Theodore Roosevelt
"We have met the enemy,
and they are ours." ~~ Oliver H. Perry
"Freedom of religion;
freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas
corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, -These principles form the
bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through
an age of revolution and reformation." ~~ Thomas Jefferson
"It is not best to swap
horses when crossing a stream." ~~ Abraham Lincoln
"The God who gave us
life, gave us liberty at the same time." ~~ Thomas Jefferson - Summary
View of the Rights of British America
"They that give up
essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither
liberty nor safety." ~~ Benjamin Franklin - Historical Review of
Pennsylvania
"Nothing is certain but
death and taxes." ~~ Benjamin Franklin
“Because of the diverse
conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some people,
as appropriate and suitable to them, while the same acts are immoral for
others, as inappropriate to them.” ~~ Saint Thomas Aquinas
“I like white trash
cooking. Cheeseburgers. The greasier the better. Mashed potatoes served
in a scoop, a little dent in the top for the gravy. Drake's Devel Dogs for
dessert. Pure pleasure; no know nutrient.” ~~ Orson Bean
“I have every sympathy
with the American who was so horrified by what he had read of the effects of
smoking that he gave up reading.” ~~ Lord Conesford
“Fanaticism consists in
redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.” ~~ George
Santayana
“If we cannot end our
differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.” ~~
John F. Kennedy
“If you say a modern
celebrity is an adulterer, a pervert, and a drug addict, all it means is
that you've read his autobiography.” ~~ P.J. O'Rourke
“I am an actor. Of
COURSE I can play a heterosexual!” ~~ Sir John Gielgud
“Our relations with a
good joke are direct and even divine relations.” ~~ G.K. Chesterton
“There are more old
drunkards than old doctors.” ~~ Benjamin Franklin
“I once shook hands with
Pat Boone and my whole right side sobered up.” ~~ Dean Martin
There's something about
me that makes a lot of people want to throw up.” ~~ Pat Boone
“My dad was the town
drunk. Usually that's not so bad, but New York City?” ~~ Henny
Youngman
“Although man is already
ninety per cent water, the Prohibitionists are not yet satisfied.” ~~
John Kendrick Bangs
“Prohibition only drives
drunkenness behind doors and into dark places and does not cure or even
diminish it.” ~~ Mark Twain
“They can never repeal
it.” ~~ Senator Andrew J. Volstead of Minnesota speaking of the
Prohibition Act
“I'm only a beer
teetotaler, not a champagne teetotaler; I don't like beer.” ~~ George
Bernard Shaw
“I see that you, too,
put up monuments to your great dead.” ~~ A Frenchman on viewing the
Statue of Liberty during prohibition
“When I sell liquor,
it's bootlegging. When my patrons serve it on a silver tray on Lakeshore
Drive it's hospitality.” ~~ Al Capone
“When a friend warned
him that alcohol was slow poison, Robert Benchley replies, "So who's
in a hurry?"
“I have taken more out
of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.” ~~ Winston Churchill
“There should be asylums
for habitual teetotalers, but they would probably relapse into teetotalism
as soon as they got out.” ~~ Samuel Butler
“In a generation, those
who are now children will have lost their taste for alcohol.” ~~ John
Fuller (1925)
“We learn from history
what we do not learn from history.” ~~ Hegel
Jon Winokur:
“How did you react to winning a Pulitzer?”
Dave Barry: “I
figured it was just one more indication of the nation’s drug problem.”
“While Congress was
snoozing, the American taxpayers were losing.” ~~ Senator Bob Dole
“Any company executive
who overcharges the government more than $5,000,000 will be fined $50 or
have to go to traffic school three nights a week.” ~~ Art Buchwald
"The financial honor of
this government is of too vast importance, is entirely too sacred to be the
football of party politics." ~~ William McKinley
"I am for America
because America is for the common people." ~~ William McKinley
"We go to war only to
make peace. We never went to war with any other design. We carry the
national conscience wherever we go." ~~ William McKinley
"No material greatness,
no wealth, no accumulation of splendor, is to be compared with those humble
and homely virtues which have generally characterized our American homes."
~~ Benjamin Harrison
"Performance should be
made square with promise." ~~ Theodore Roosevelt
"The country's honor
must be upheld at home and abroad." ~~ Theodore Roosevelt
"A man's disposition is
never well known till he be crossed." ~~ Francis Bacon
"Anger is short
madness." ~~ Horace
"He who conquers his
wrath overcomes his greatest enemy." ~~ Publilius Syrus
"The elephant is never
won with Anger, Nor must that man who would reclaim a lion take him by the
teeth." ~~ Earl of Rochester
"Nothing is so good as
it seems beforehand." ~~ George Eliot, Silas Marner
"Apologies only account
for that which they do not alter." ~~ Bejamin Disraeli
"Great men are seldom
over-scrupulous in the arrangement of their attire." ~~ Charles
Dickens, Pickwick Papers
"All that glisters is
not gold, Gilded tombs do worms infold." ~~ William Shakespeare
"By outward show let's
not be cheated; An ass should like an ass be treated." ~~ John Gay,
Fables
"Things are seldom what
they seem; Skim milk masquerades as cream." ~~ Sir William Schwenck
Gilbert, H.M.S. Pinafore
"Who, too deep for his
hearers, still went on refining, And thought of convincing while they
thought of dining." ~~ Oliver Goldsmith, Retaliation
"Too low they build who
build beneath the stars." ~~ Edward Young, Night Thoughts
"Hitch your wagon to a
star." ~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"To know ourselves
disease is half our cure." ~~ Alexander Pope
“Beauty is but skin
deep” ~~ Proverb
"The saying that
beauty is but skin deep is but a skin-deep saying." ~~ Herbert
Spencer, Essays
"A thing of beauty is a
joy forever; Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into
nothingness." ~~ John Keats, Endymion
"If eyes were made for
seeing,
Then Beauty is its
own excuse for being." ~~ Ralph Walso Emerson, The Rhodora
"A man lives by
believing something;
Not by debating and
arguing about many things." ~~ Thomas Carlyle
"Man prefers to believe
what he prefers to be true." ~~ Francis Bacon, Aphorisms
"What we ardently wish,
we believe." ~~ Edward Young, Night Thoughts
"Would you know the
qualities in which a man is wanting? Examine those of which he boasts."
~~ Segur, Poams
"The empty vessel makes
the greatest sound." ~~ Proverb
"Who kills a man, kills
a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills
reason itself." ~~ John Milton, Areopagitica
"Books, like friends,
should be few and well chosen." ~~ Samuel Paterson, Joineriana
"God be thanked for
books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs
of the spiritual life of past ages." ~~ William Ellery Channing
"Books are the best
things, well used; abused, among the worst." ~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Some books are to be
tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."
~~ Francis Bacon, Essay on Studies
"A good book is the
precious lifeblood of a master-spirit embalmed and treasured up on purpose
to a life beyond life." ~~ John Milton, Areopagitica
"Again I hear the
creaking step!~~-
He's rapping at the
door!~~-
Too well I know the
boding sound
That ushers in a
bore." ~~ John Godfrey Saxe, My Familiar
"We always get bored
with those whom we bore." ~~ La Rochefoucauld, Maximes
"A man in debt is so far
a slave." ~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The human species,
according to the best theory I can form of it, is composed of two distinct
races, The men who borrow and the men who lend." ~~ Charles Lamb
"Let us all be happy and
live within our means, even if we have to borrow the money to do it with."
~~ Artemus Ward, Natural History
"Neither a borrower nor
a lender be:
For loan oft loses
both itself and friend;
And borrowing
dulls the edge of husbandry." ~~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet
"Creditors have better
memories than debtors." ~~ Proverb
"None but the brave
deserves the fair." ~~ John Dryden, Alexander's Feast
"Brevity is the soul of
wit." ~~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet
"Shallow men believe in
luck, believe in circumstances.
Strong men believe in
cause and effect." ~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Conduct of Life
"Great estates may
venture more,
But little boars
should keep near shore." ~~ Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac
"They that fear the
adders sting, will not come near his hissing." ~~ George Chapman,
Widow's Tears
"In this world, nothing
is certain but death and taxes." ~~ Benjamin Franklin, Letter
"There is nothing
certain in man's life but that he must lose it." ~~ Owen Meredith,
Clytemnestra
"The only thing that is
certain is that nothing is certain." ~~ Pliny the Elder, Historia
Naturalis
"Chance is the
providence of adventurers." ~~ Napoleon Bonaparte
"A fool must now and
then be right by chance." ~~ William Cowper, Conversations
"Life belongs to the
living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes." ~~ Johann
Wolfgang Von Goethe
"Character is simply a
habit long continued." ~~ Plutarch
"The best investment I
know of is charity: You git your principal back immediately, and draw a
dividend every time you think of it." ~~ Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler
Shaw)
"They serve God well
Who serve his
creatures." ~~ Caroline Elizabeth Norton, Lady of La Garaye
"How sharper than a
serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless
child!" ~~ William Shakespeare, King Lear
"A man is too apt to
forget that in this world he cannot have everything. A choice is all that
is left him." ~~ H. Mathews, Diary of an Invalid
"Everyone is as God has
made him, and often-times a great deal worse." ~~ Miguel De Cervantes,
Don Quixote
"Common sense is not so
common." ~~ Voltaire
"They who complain most
are most to be complained of." ~~ Matthew Henry
"All great alterations
in human affairs are produced by compromise." ~~ Sydney Smith,
Catholic Question
"Nothing is pleasant
Joined with a must."
~~ Robert Bridges, Nero
"Who overcomes by force
has overcome but half his foe." ~~ John Milton, Paradise Lost
"Conceit may puff a man
up, but never prop him up." ~~ John Ruskin
"Confidence is a thing
that cannot be produced by compulsion." ~~ Daniel Webster
"Confidence is a plant
of slow growth in an aged bosom." ~~ William Pitt
"For they can conquer
who believe they can." ~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude
"A burthen'd conscience
Will never need a
hangman." ~~ Beaumont and Fletcher, Laws of Comedy
"Whatever creed be
taught or land be trod,
Man's conscience is
the oracle of God!" ~~ Lord Byron, The Island
"Let his tormentor,
Conscience, find him out." ~~ John Milton, Paradise Regained
"The fond fantastic
thing call'd conscience,
Which serves for
nothing but to make men cowards." ~~ Thomas Shadwell, The Libertine
"Conscience, the
bosom-hell of guilty man!" ~~ James Montgomery, The Pelican Island
"A guilty conscience
needs no accuser." ~~ Proverb
"Conscience is the
chamber of justice." ~~ Origen
"Show me a thoroughly
contented person, and I will show you a useless one." ~~ Josh Billings
(Henry Wheeler Shaw)
"Contentment consisteth
not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire. ~~ Thomas
Fuller
"He that wrestles with
us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our
helper." ~~ Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
"Silence and modesty are
very valuable qualities in conversation." ~~ Michel De Montaigne
"Conversation is an art
in which a man has all mankind for competitors." ~~ Ralph Waldo
Emerson
"They (corporations)
cannot commit trespass nor be outlawed, nor excommunicate, for they have no
souls." ~~ Sir Edward Coke, Case of Sutton's Hospital
"Corruption is like a
ball of snow, when once set a-rolling it must increase." ~~ Charles
Caleb Colton
"They also serve who
only stand and wait." ~~ John Milton
“I would rather be
exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those
attending too small a degree of it.” ~~ Thomas Jefferson (1791)
“A government which robs
Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” ~~ George
Bernard Shaw (1944)
“The inherent vice of
capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of
socialism is the equal sharing of misery.” ~~ Winston Churchill
“There is only one basic
human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the
only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.” ~~ P.J.
O'Rourke (1993)
“Government's view of
the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
~~ Ronald Reagan (1986)
“I was guilty of judging
capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations;
capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature.” ~~ Sidney
Hook
“America needs fewer
laws, not more prisons.” ~~ James Bovard
“Everything that is
really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in
freedom.” ~~ Albert Einstein (1950)
“War is just one more
big government program.” ~~ Joseph Sobran
“War is the health of
the State. ~~ Randolph Bourne (1917)
“Remember, democracy
never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never
was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” ~~ John Adams (1814)
“Foreign aid might be
defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in
poor countries.” ~~ Douglas Casey (1992)
“Peace, commerce and
honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.” ~~
Thomas Jefferson (1801)
“Where the Spirit of the
Lord is, there is liberty.” ~~ The Bible, II Corinthians 3:17.
“If you want government
to intervene domestically, you're a liberal. If you want government to
intervene overseas, you're a conservative. If you want government to
intervene everywhere, you're a moderate. If you don't want government to
intervene anywhere, you're an extremist.” ~~ Joseph Sobran (1995)
“One of the greatest
delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be
cured by legislation.” ~~ Thomas B. Reed (1886)
“In general, the art of
government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of
the citizens to give to the other.” ~~ Voltaire (1764)
“They that can give up
essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither
liberty nor safety.” ~~ Benjamin Franklin (1755)
“Necessity is the plea
for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it
is the creed of slaves.” ~~ William Pitt (1783)
“If you are not free to
choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all.” ~~ Jacob
Hornberger (1995)
“I heartily accept the
motto, "That government is best which governs least." ~~ Henry David
Thoreau
“Government is not
reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous
servant and a fearful master.” ~~ Attributed to George Washington
“Giving money and power
to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” ~~
P.J. O'Rourke
“When buying and selling
are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are
legislators.” ~~ P.J. O'Rourke
“A government that is
big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.”
~~ Barry Goldwater (1964)
“I don't make jokes. I
just watch the government and report the facts.” ~~ Will Rogers
“Nothing is so permanent
as a temporary government program.” ~~ Milton Friedman
“Politicians are the
same all over: they promise to build a bridge even where there is no
river.” ~~ Nikita Khrushchev (1960)
“The whole aim of
practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed ~~ and hence clamorous to
be led to safety ~~ by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all
of them imaginary.” ~~ H.L. Mencken
“Rebellion to tyrants is
obedience to God.” ~~ John Bradshaw
“There are just two
rules of governance in a free society: Mind your own business. Keep your
hands to yourself.” ~~ P.J. O'Rourke (1993)
“The human race divides
politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have
no such desire.” ~~ Robert A. Heinlein
“Just because you do not
take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in
you.” ~~ Pericles (430 BC)
“The more corrupt the
state, the more it legislates.” ~~ Tacitus
“There is no virtue in
compulsory government charity, and there is no virtue in advocating it. A
politician who portrays himself as "caring" and "sensitive" because he wants
to expand the government's charitable programs is merely saying that he's
willing to try to do good with other people's money. Well, who isn't? And a
voter who takes pride in supporting such programs is telling us that he'll
do good with his own money ~~ if a gun is held to his head.” ~~ P.J.
O'Rourke
“The ultimate result of
shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.”
~~ Herbert Spencer (1891)
“More laws, less
justice.” ~~ Marcus Tullius Ciceroca (42 BC)
“No man's life, liberty,
or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” ~~ Mark
Twain (1866)
“The strongest reason
for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as a last resort, to
protect themselves against tyranny in government.” ~~ Thomas Jefferson
“There is no worse
tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because
you think it would be good for him.” ~~ Robert Heinlein
“Liberty is the only
thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.” ~~
William Allen White
“The true danger is when
Liberty is nibbled away, for expedients.” ~~ Edmund Burke (1899)
“I have ever deemed it
fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels
of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their
mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances,
their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are
nations of eternal war.” ~~ Thomas Jefferson (1823)
“America does not go
abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the
freedom and independence of all. She well knows that by enlisting under
other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign
independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication in
all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and
ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standards of freedom.”
~~ John Quincy Adams (1821)
“He that would make his
own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression.” ~~
Thomas Paine (1795)
“Government is the great
fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of
everybody else.” ~~ Frederic Bastiat
“Ask not what you can do
for your country; ask what your government is doing to you.” ~~ Joseph
Sobran (1990)
“God grants liberty only
to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.” ~~
Daniel Webster (1834)
“The greatest dangers to
liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but
without understanding.” ~~ Justice Louis Brandeis (1928)
“The saddest epitaph
which can be carved in memory of a vanished liberty is that it was lost
because its possessors failed to stretch forth a saving hand while yet there
was time.” ~~ Justice George Sutherland (1938)
“The era of resisting
big government is never over.” ~~ Paul Gigot (1998)
“Not a place upon earth
might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling
world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them.” ~~ Thomas
Paine (1776)
“Bureaucracy is a giant
mechanism operated by pygmies.” ~~ Honore de Balzac
“Whoever prefers life to
death, happiness to suffering, well-being to misery must defend without
compromise private ownership in the means of production.” ~~ Ludwig
von Mises (1920)
“The triumph of
persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society.” ~~ Mark
Skousen
“Good intentions will
always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to
guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in
all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to
be good masters, but they mean to be masters.” ~~ Daniel Webster
“If angels were to
govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be
necessary. In framing a government that is to be administered by men over
men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government
to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control
itself.” ~~ James Madison
“Let the people think
they govern and they will be governed.” ~~ William Penn (1693)
“In 1940, teachers were
asked what they regarded as the three major problems in American schools.
They identified the three major problems as: Littering, noise, and chewing
gum. Teachers last year were asked what the three major problems in American
schools were, and they defined them as: Rape, assault, and suicide.” ~~
William Bennett (1993)
“The threat posed by
humans to the natural environment is nothing compared to the threat to
humans posed by global environmental policy.” ~~ Fred L. Smith (1992)
“The great virtue of a
free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does
not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce
something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have
discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another
and help one another.” ~~ Milton Friedman
“The spirit of truth and
the spirit of freedom ~~ they are the pillars of society.” ~~ Henrik
Ibsen (1877)
“Government is actually
the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one,
and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping, and
unintelligent.” ~~ H. L. Mencken
“Government cannot make
man richer, but it can make him poorer.” ~~ Ludwig von Mises
“Sometimes it is said
that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be
trusted with the government of others?” ~~ Thomas Jefferson (1801)
“A wise and frugal
government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall
leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and
improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has
earned. This is the sum of good government.” ~~ Thomas Jefferson
(1801)
“This country is a
one-party country. Half of it is called Republican and half is called
Democrat. It doesn't make any difference. All the really good ideas belong
to the Libertarians.” ~~ Hugh Downs (1997)
“Power tends to corrupt,
and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” ~~ Lord Acton (1887)
“Political power grows
out of the barrel of a gun.” ~~ Mao Zedong (1938)
“The difference between
libertarianism and socialism is that libertarians will tolerate the
existence of a socialist community, but socialists can't tolerate a
libertarian community.” ~~ David D. Boaz (1997)
“We contend that for a
nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a
bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” ~~ Winston
Churchill (1903)
“If you have been voting
for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense,
then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to
someone else, including themselves.” ~~ Thomas Sowell (1992)
“War has all the
characteristics of socialism most conservatives hate: Centralized power,
state planning, false rationalism, restricted liberties, foolish optimism
about intended results, and blindness to unintended secondary results.”
~~ Joseph Sobran (1991)
“There never was a good
war or a bad peace.” ~~ Benjamin Franklin (1773)
"The only thing that
saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is
the greatest threat to liberty." ~~ Eugene McCarthy
"They that can give up
essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither
liberty nor safety." ~~ Benjamin Franklin
"The government of the
United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." ~~
George Washington (1796)
"All national
institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to
me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind,
and monopolize power and profit." ~~ Thomas Paine
"He that would make his
own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he
violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
~~ Thomas Paine
“My indiscreet
disputations about religion began to make me pointed at with horror by good
people as an infidel or atheist” ~~ Benjamin Franklin - Autobiography
“I admire men of character. And I judge
character not by how men deal with their superiors, but mostly how they deal
with their subordinates. And that, to me, is where you find out what the
character of a man is.” ~~ Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Commander of
Forces in the Persian Gulf, in a television interview with David Frost
"The power of the
Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge, and
particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree
odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or
Communist." ~~ Winston Churchill, November 21, 1943
“That we are to stand by
the president, right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is
morally treasonable to the American public.” ~~ Theodore Roosevelt
"Life is not
a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty
and well preserved piece, but to skid across the finish line broadside,
thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil and shouting, ‘GERONIMO!’." ~~
Anonymous
“It is the duty of every
citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions
in political affairs.” ~~ Albert Einstein, 'Treasury for the Free
World,' 1946
“Crime does not pay ...
as well as politics.” ~~ Alfred E. Newman
“Politics, n. Strife of
interests masquerading as a contest of principles.” ~~ Ambrose Bierce,
The Devil's Dictionary
“Man is by nature a
political animal.” ~~ Aristotle
“I have come to the
conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the
politicians.” ~~ Charles De Gaulle
“Politics is made up
largely of irrelevancies.” ~~ Dalton Camp
“Politics is the art of
looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it
incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” ~~ Ernest Benn
“Being in politics is
like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the
game, and dumb enough to think it's important.” ~~ Eugene McCarthy
“When the political
columnists say 'Every thinking man' they mean themselves, and when
candidates appeal to 'Every intelligent voter' they mean everybody who is
going to vote for them.” ~~ Franklin P. Adams
“The problem with
political jokes is they get elected.” ~~ Henry Cate VII
“Nothing is so admirable
in politics as a short memory.” ~~ John Kenneth Galbraith
“Politics is not the art
of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the
unpalatable.” ~~ John Kenneth Galbraith
“The word 'politics' is
derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning
'blood sucking parasites'.” ~~ Larry Hardiman
“Politics is the skilled
use of blunt objects.” ~~ Lester B. Pearson
“Politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.” ~~ Mao Tse-Tung
“Nothing can so alienate
a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate.” ~~
Mark B. Cohen
“Politics is the art of
the possible.” ~~ Otto Von Bismarck
“Politics is the art of
preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.”
~~ Paul Valery
“In politics you must
always keep running with the pack. The moment that you falter and they sense
that you are injured, the rest will turn on you like wolves.” ~~ R. A.
Butler
“Politics is perhaps the
only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.” ~~
Robert Louis Stevenson
“Politics is not a bad
profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself
you can always write a book.” ~~ Ronald Reagan
“Politics is supposed to
be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a
very close resemblance to the first.” ~~ Ronald Reagan
“Politics is
applesauce.” ~~ Will Rogers
“The more you read and
observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse
than the other. The one that's out always looks the best.” ~~ Will
Rogers
“He who would travel
happily must travel light.“ ~~
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“Thanks to the
Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast
without seeing anything.“ ~~
Charles Kuralt
“When you travel,
remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It
is designed to make its own people comfortable.”
~~ Clifton Fadiman
“The true traveler is he
who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time.“
~~ Colette
“A man travels the world
over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.“
~~ George Moore
“Before he sets out, the
traveler must possess fixed interests and facilities to be served by
travel.“ ~~ George
Santayana
“The saying "Getting
there is half the fun" became obsolete with the advent of commercial
airlines.“ ~~ Henry J.
Tillman
“Certainly, travel is
more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and
permanent, in the ideas of living.“ ~~
Miriam Beard
“Travel is only
glamorous in retrospect.“ ~~
Paul Theroux
“Two roads diverged in a
wood, and I--
I took the one less
traveled by,
And that has made all
the difference.“ ~~
Robert Frost
“Everywhere I go I find
a poet has been there before me.“ ~~
Sigmund Freud
“Travel only with thy
equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone.“
~~ The Dhammapada
“No one travelling on a
business trip would be missed if he failed to arrive.“
~~ Thorstein Veblen
“In the depth of winter,
I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.“
~~ Albert Camus
“If we had no winter,
the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of
adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”
~~ Anne Bradstreet, 'Meditations Divine and Moral,' 1655
“Perhaps I am a bear, or
some hibernating animal underneath, for the instinct to be half asleep all
winter is so strong in me.“ ~~
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“Every winter, When the
great sun has turned his face away, The earth goes down into a vale of
grief, And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables, Leaving her
wedding-garlands to decay-- Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses.“
~~ Charles Kingsley
“In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow
had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago.“
~~ Christina Rossetti
“There's a certain Slant
of light, Winter Afternoons-- That oppresses, like the Heft Of Cathedral
Tunes--“ ~~ Emily
Dickinson
“Every mile is two in
winter.“ ~~ George
Herbert
“One kind word can warm
three winter months.“ ~~
Japanese proverb
“The tendinous part of
the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer. I
should say winter had given the bone and sinew to literature, summer the
tissues and the blood.“ ~~
John Burroughs
“When you live in Texas,
every single time you see snow it’s magical.“
~~ Pamela Ribon, Why Girls
Are Weird
“Winter is on my head,
but eternal spring is in my heart.“ ~~
Victor Hugo
“Winter lies too long in
country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen.“
~~ Willa Cather, My Antonia
“And for the season it
was winter, and they that know the winters of that country know them to be
sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms.“
~~ William Bradford, Of
Plymouth Plantation
“O Winter! ruler of the
inverted year, . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside
enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of
undisturb'd Retirement, and the hours Of long uninterrupted evening, know.“
~~ William Cowper
“Blow, blow, thou winter
wind
Thou art not so unkind,
As man's ingratitude.“
~~ William Shakespeare
“Wisdom doesn't
automatically come with old age. Nothing does - except wrinkles. It's true,
some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first
place.“ ~~ Abigail Van
Buren
“The whole problem with
the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves,
but wiser people so full of doubts.“
~~ Bertrand Russell
“Wisdom is what's left
after we've run out of personal opinions.“
~~ Cullen Hightower
“One's first step in
wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with
everything.“ ~~ Georg
Christoph Lichtenberg
“The older I grow the
more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.“
~~ H. L. Mencken
“Force without wisdom
falls of its own weight.“ ~~
Horace
“Science is organized
knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.“
~~ Immanuel Kant
“Men are wise in
proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.“
~~ James Boswell
“It is unwise to be too
sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest
might weaken and the wisest might err.”
~~ Mahatma Gandhi
“We don't receive
wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can
take for us or spare us.“ ~~
Marcel Proust
“To acquire knowledge,
one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.“
~~ Marilyn vos Savant
“It is not white hair
that engenders wisdom.” ~~
Menander
“Those who wish to
appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.”
~~ Quintilian, De
Institutione Oratoria
“Like an ability or a
muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is strengthened by doing it.”
~~ Robbie Gass
“Wisdom outweighs any
wealth.” ~~ Sophocles
“No man is wise enough
by himself.” ~~ Titus
Maccius Plautus
“Not by age but by
capacity is wisdom acquired.” ~~
Titus Maccius Plautus
“A wise man can see more
from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top.”
~~ Unknown
“Good people are good
because they've come to wisdom through failure.”
~~ William Saroyan
“The fool doth think he
is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
~~ William Shakespeare
“One is left with the
horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as
disastrous as to lose one.” ~~
Agatha Christie
“I know not with what
weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with
sticks and stones.” ~~
Albert Einstein
“You cannot
simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.”
~~ Albert Einstein
“War is not nice.”
~~ Barbara Bush
“Sometime they'll give a
war and nobody will come.” ~~
Carl Sandburg
“The quickest way of
ending a war is to lose it.” ~~
George Orwell
“War is a series of
catastrophes that results in a victory.”
~~ Georges Clemenceau
“War is much too serious
a matter to be entrusted to the military.”
~~ Georges Clemenceau
“The outcome of the war
is in our hands; the outcome of words is in the council.”
~~ Homer, The Iliad
“You can no more win a
war than you can win an earthquake.”
~~ Jeannette Rankin
“War may sometimes be a
necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a
good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each
other's children.” ~~
Jimmy Carter
“War is an ugly thing,
but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and
patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The
person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is
more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has
no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better
men than himself.” ~~
John Stuart Mill
“War is not its own end,
except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. It's peace that's
wanted. Some better peace than the one you started with.”
~~ Lois McMaster Bujold
“What difference does it
make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction
is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or
democracy?” ~~ Mahatma
Gandhi
“Politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.”
~~ Mao Tse-Tung
“The way to win an
atomic war is to make certain it never starts.”
~~ Omar Bradley
“Either war is obsolete
or men are.” ~~ R.
Buckminster Fuller
“It is well that war is
so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.”
~~ Robert E. Lee
“Never, never, never
believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the
strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The
statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is
given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable
and uncontrollable events.” ~~
Sir Winston Churchill
“One day President
Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the
war should be called. I said at once 'The Unnecessary War'.”
~~ Sir Winston Churchill
“The only winner in the
War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky.” ~~
Solomon Short
“The art of war is
simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can.
Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving.”
~~ Ulysses S. Grant
“Wars teach us not to
love our enemies, but to hate our allies.”
~~ W. L. George
“The idea of all-out
nuclear war is unsettling.” ~~
Walter Goodman
“Take the diplomacy out
of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.”
~~ Will Rogers
“You can't say that
civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new
way.” ~~ Will Rogers
“When I was a boy I was
told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it.”
~~ Clarence Darrow (1857 - 1938)
“I have been thinking
that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they
will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth
about them.” ~~ Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900 - 1965), Speech during
1952 Presidential Campaign
“In America any boy may
become President and I suppose it's just one of the risks he takes.” ~~
Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900 - 1965), Speech in Indianapolis, 26 Sept. 1952
“Democracy means that
anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn't grow up can be
vice president.” ~~ Johnny Carson (1925 - 2005)
“We need a president
who's fluent in at least one language.” ~~ Buck Henry
“Any American who is
prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be
disqualified from ever doing so.” ~~ Gore Vidal
“CNN is one of the
participants in the war. I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected
president but refuses because he doesn't want to give up power.” ~~
Arthur C. Clarke
“Half of the American
people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One
hopes it is the same half.” ~~ Gore Vidal
“Men of shady character
frequently try to cover their misconduct by fervent protestations of love of
country.” ~~ Theodore Roosevelt
“We shall never make our
republic what it should be until as a people we thoroughly understand and
put in practice the doctrine that success is abhorrent if attained by the
sacrifice of the fundamental principles of morality. The successful man,
whether in business or in politics, who has risen by conscienceless
swindling of his neighbors, by deceit and chicanery, by unscrupulous
boldness and unscrupulous cunning, stands toward society as a dangerous wild
beast.” ~~ Theodore Roosevelt
“If we stand idly by, if
we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and ignoble peace, if we shrink from
the hard contests where men must win at hazard of their lives and at the
risk of all they hold dear, then the bolder and stronger peoples will pass
us by, and will win for themselves the domination of the world.” ~~
Theodore Roosevelt
“Patriotism is the
willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.” ~~ Bertrand
Russell
“Patriotism is your
conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you
were born in it.” ~~ George Bernard Shaw
“Patriotism is often an
arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.” ~~ George Jean
Nathan
“Patriotism is the last
refuge of a scoundrel.” ~~ Samuel Johnson
“In the United States,
doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons
with something to sell.” ~~ H. L. Mencken
“You're not to be so
blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter
who does it or says it.” ~~ Malcolm X
"My country, right or
wrong," is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a
desperate case. It is like saying, "My mother, drunk or sober.” ~~ G.
K. Chesterton
