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Private
property, not democracy, is the great guarantor of prosperity
and liberty. And because it decentralizes power, it safeguards
us from madmen with utopian hallucinations.--Thomas Sowell
"Can
the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed
their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people
that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not
to be violated but with His wrath?" Thomas Jefferson
"When
all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great
things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power,
it will render powerless the checks provided of one government
on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the
government from which we separated." Thomas Jefferson
"I
consider the government of the United States as interdicted by
the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions,
their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only
from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the
establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also
which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the
United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious
exercise or to assume authority in religious discipline has been
delegated to the General Government. It must then rest with the
states, as far as it can be in any human authority."
--Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Miller, 1808. ME 11:428
"If
a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of
civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
Thomas Jefferson
"Have
you ever found in history, one single example of a Nation
thoroughly corrupted that was afterwards restored to virtue?...
And without virtue, there can be no political liberty....Will
you tell me how to prevent riches from becoming the effects of
temperance and industry? Will you tell me how to prevent luxury
from producing effeminacy, intoxication, extravagance, vice and
folly?..."
- John Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson
"If
we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the
people under the pretense of taking care of them, they must
become happy." Thomas Jefferson
A
general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely
overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the
common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be
subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready
to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal
invader. -- Samuel Adams
A]
wise and frugal government...shall restrain men from injuring
one another, 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
"The
oppressor no longer acts directly and with his own powers upon
his victim. No, our conscience has become too sensitive for
that. The tyrant and his victim are still present, but there is
an intermediate person between them, which is the Government -
that is, the Law itself. What can be better calculated to
silence our scruples, and, which is perhaps better appreciated,
to overcome all resistance? We all therefore, put in our claim,
under some pretext or other, and apply to Government. We say to
it, " I am dissatisfied at the proportion between my labor
and my enjoyments. I should like, for the sake of restoring the
desired equilibrium, to take a part of the possessions of
others. But this would be dangerous. Could not you facilitate
the thing for me? Could you not find me a good place? or check
the industry of my competitors? or, perhaps, lend me
gratuitously some capital which, you may take from its
possessor? Could you not bring up my children at the public
expense? or grant me some prizes? or secure me a competence when
I have attained my fiftieth year? By this mean I shall gain my
end with an easy conscience, for the law will have acted for me,
and I shall have all the advantages of plunder, without its risk
or its disgrace!" - Frederic Bastiat
"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by
evading it today."
-Abraham Lincoln
"One
of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem
before it becomes an emergency."
-Arnold Glasgow
"The
true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you
do not expect to sit."
-Nelson Henderson
"We
who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who
walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their
last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but
they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from
a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose
one's attitude in any given set of circumstances - to choose
one's own way."
-Victor Frankl
"A
great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little
courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose
timidity prevented them from making a first effort."
-Sydney Smith
"The
opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws
are constitutional and what not [Marbury v. Madison], not only
for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the
legislative and executive also in their spheres, would make the
judiciary a despotic branch." Thomas Jefferson
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
"A
private central bank issuing the public currency is a greater
menace to the liberties of the people than a standing
army." "We must not let our rulers load us with
perpetual debt." - Thomas Jefferson
There
is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought
about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the
crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary
abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and
total catastrophe of the currency system involved. The credit
expansion boom is built on the sands of banknotes and deposits.
It must collapse.
-Von
Mises
"[We]
disavow and declare to be most false and unfounded, the doctrine
that the compact [U.S. Constitution], in authorizing its federal
branch to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises to
pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general
welfare of the United States, has given them thereby a power to
do whatever they may think or pretend would promote the general
welfare, which construction would make that, of itself, a
complete government, without limitation of powers; but that the
plain sense and obvious meaning were, that they might levy the
taxes necessary to provide for the general welfare by the
various acts of power therein specified and delegated to them,
and by no others." --Thomas Jefferson: Declaration and
Protest of Virginia, 1825. Thomas Jefferson
"The
natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and
government to gain ground." Thomas Jefferson
In
order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.
–Charles de Gaulle
Those
who make peaceful change impossible will make violent revolution
inevitable.
--John F. Kennedy
Eighty
percent were hypocrites, 80 percent liars, 80 percent serious
sinners…except of Sundays.
There is always boozing and floozing….I don’t have
enough time to tell you everybody’s name.
--William Miller, Congressional doorkeeper
Politicians
can't give us anything without depriving us of something else.
Government is not a god. Every dime they spend must first
be taken from someone else.
--Gary Asmu
The
two parties are saying the same things.
Here we have a horse-and-buggy {political} system that
doesn’t fit participatory democracy in the 21st
century. --Tiffany
Danitz, Insight magazine
In
a democracy the people get what the majority deserves.
--James
Davidson
Vote
for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least
disappointing.
--Bernard
Baruch
****EXTENDED QUOTE FROM JAMES MADISON****
Of
all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to
be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every
other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and
taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known
instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the
few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is
extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and
emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the
minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.
. . . [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the
opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and . . .
degeneracy of manners and of morals. . . . No nation could
preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. . . .
[It should be well understood] that the powers proposed to
be surrendered [by the Third Congress] to the Executive were
those which the Constitution has most jealously appropriated to
the Legislature. . . .
The Constitution expressly and exclusively vests in the
Legislature the power of declaring a state of war . . . the
power of raising armies . . . the power of creating offices. . .
.
A delegation of such powers [to the President] would have
struck, not only at the fabric of our Constitution, but at the
foundation of all well organized and well checked governments.
The separation of the power of declaring war from that of
conducting it, is wisely contrived to exclude the danger of its
being declared for the sake of its being conducted.
The separation of the power of raising armies from
the power of commanding them, is intended to prevent the raising
of armies for the sake of commanding them.
The separation of the power of creating offices from that
of filling them,
is an essential guard against the temptation to create
offices for the sake
of gratifying favourites or multiplying dependents.
***************James Madison
A
government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the
support of Paul. -- George Bernard Shaw
The
very definition of tyranny is when all powers are gathered under
one place. - James Madison
"What
is wrong does not become right because many people say
it,"- Salima Kazim
Foreign
aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich
countries to rich people in poor countries.
-- Douglas Casey (1992)
Giving
money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car
keys to teenage boys. -- P.J. O'Rourke
A
concern for states rights, local self government and regional
identity used to be taken for granted everywhere in America.
But the United States is no longer, as it once was, a
federal union of diverse states
and regions.
National uniformity is being imposed by the political
class that runs Washington, the economic class that owns Wall
Street and the cultural class in charge of Hollywood and the Ivy
League.
--Michael Hill, professor of British History, University of
Alabama
Politics
ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would
protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would
preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower
Government is the great fiction, through which everybody
endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. -- Frederic
Bastiat
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 don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report
the facts. -- Will Rogers
If
you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what
it costs when it's free. -- P.J. O'Rourke
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't
mean politics won't take an interest in you. -- Pericles (430
B.C.)
No
man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature
is in session. -- Mark Twain (1866)
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
The
only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the
taxidermist leaves the skin. -- Mark Twain
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
What
this country needs are more unemployed politicians. -- Edward
Langley
Deep
thinkers who look everywhere for the mysterious causes of
poverty, ignorance, crime and war need look no further than
their own mirrors. We are all born into this world poor and
ignorant, and with thoroughly selfish and barbaric impulses.
Those of us who turn out any other way do so largely through the
efforts of others, who civilized us before we got big enough to
do too much damage to the world or ourselves. -- Thomas Sowell
Too
much of what is called "education" is little more than
an expensive isolation from reality. - Thomas Sowell
"If
you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then
be prepared to accept barbarism." -Thomas Sowell
The
strongest argument for socialism is that it sounds good. The
strongest argument against socialism is that it doesn't work.
But those who live by words will always have a soft spot in
their hearts for socialism because it sounds so good.-- Thomas
Sowell
"It
is socially unacceptable to be right too soon.." -Robert
Hienlein
“When
we got married, my wife and I made an agreement. We decided . .
. that every major decision I would make, and every minor
decision she would make. In fifty years of marriage there's
never been a major decision.” -- attributed to
Einstein
"The
price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be
ruled by evil men." -- Plato
"All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do
nothing." -- Edmund Burke
Of
two evils choose neither. - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
"Americans
used to roar like lions for liberty. Now we bleat like sheep for
security." -- Norman Vincent Peale
"Republics...fall,
when the wise are banished from the public councils because they
dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they
flatter the people, in order to betray them." --Joseph
Story
"Congress
has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but
only those specifically enumerated."- Thomas Jefferson on
the General Welfare clause of the Constitution
"With
respect to the two words "general welfare," I have
always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers
connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited
sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a
character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated
by its creators." -James Madison on the "general
Welfare" clause of the Constitution
"I
cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the
Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on
objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."
-James Madison
"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
"People
sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men
stand ready to do violence on their behalf" -- George
Orwell
"They
couldn't hit an elephant at this dist..." -- Last words of
General John Sedgwick (1813-1864)
"You
cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle
behind each blade of grass." -Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
"Never
turn your back on a threatened danger and try to run away from
it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet
it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by
half. Never run away from anything. Never!" -Winston
Churchill
"Liberals,
it has been said, are generous with other peoples' money, except
when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer
to be generous with other peoples' freedom and security."
-William F. Buckley
"Still,
if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win
without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will
be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you
have to fight with all the odds against you and only a
precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case.
You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because
it is better to perish than live as slaves."
--Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965),_The
Gathering Storm,_bk.I ch.19 p.348 (Houghton Mifflin, 1948)
"Yonder
are the Hessians. They were bought for seven pounds and tenpence
a man. Are you worth more? Prove it. Tonight the American flag
floats from yonder hill or Molly Stark sleeps a widow!" --
John Stark at the Battle of Bennington in 1777
"On
the other hand, destructive and irresponsible freedom has been
granted boundless space. Society has turned out to have scarce
defense against the abyss of human decadence, for example
against the misuse of liberty for moral violence against young
people, such as motion pictures full of pornography, crime, and
horror. This is all considered to be part of freedom and to be
counterbalanced, in theory, by the young people's right not to
look and not to accept. Life organized legalistically has thus
shown its inability to defend itself against the corrosion of
evil." -Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn
"And
yet in early democracies, as in American democracy at the time
of its birth, all individual human rights were granted on the
ground that man is God's creature. That is, freedom was given to
the individual conditionally, in the assumption of his constant
religious responsibility. Such was the heritage of the preceding
one thousand years. Two hundred or even fifty years ago, it
would have seemed quite impossible, in America, that an
individual be granted boundless freedom with no purpose, simply
for the satisfaction of his whims."-Alexander I.
Solzhenitsyn
A
liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man,
which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
--
G. Gordon Liddy
"I
have little interest in streamlining government or in making it
more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not
undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom.
My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to
inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence
to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or
that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I
will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed'
before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally
permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my
constituents' 'interests,' I shall reply that I was informed
their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing
the very best I can." - Barry Goldwater
"Statesmen,
my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is
Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles
upon which Freedom can securely stand."- John Adams
"The
only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and
if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure,
than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the
forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting
liberty." -John Adams
"We
have no government armed with power capable of contending with
human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice,
ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords
of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our
Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It
is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
-John Adams
"Religion
and virtue are the only foundations, not only of all free
government, but of social felicity under all governments and in
all the combinations of human society." -John Adams
"Man,
considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the
laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent
being....And, consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his
Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should in all
points conform to his Maker's will...this will of his Maker is
called the law of nature. These laws laid down by God are the
eternal immutable laws of good and evil...This law of nature
dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to
any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries,
and at all times: no human laws are of any validity if contrary
to this... "- Sir William Blackstone
Without
virtue, Liberty is wasted.
-Mark
Moore
"Blasphemy
against the Almighty is denying his being or providence, or
uttering contumelious reproaches on our Savior Christ. It is
punished, at common law by fine and imprisonment, for
Christianity is part of the laws of the land."- Sir William
Blackstone
"I
have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion,
and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would
unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its
truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind
of man."- Alexander Hamilton
"The
Bible is worth all other books which have ever been
printed."- Patrick Henry
"Bad
men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a
corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom."
- Patrick Henry
"It
is when people forget God that tyrants forge their
chains."- Patrick Henry
"Religion
is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education
should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man
toward God." - Gouverneur Morris
"If
thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for
God,
and to do that, thou must be ruled by him....Those who will not
be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." - William
Penn
"By
removing the Bible from schools we would be wasting so much time
and money in punishing criminals and so little pains to prevent
crime. Take the Bible out of our schools and there would be an
explosion in crime." - Benjamin Rush
"It
is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to
half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly
listlessness for fear of what might happen." --Herodotus
"He
knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points
clearly to a political career." - George Bernard Shaw
"What
makes civilization possible is the capacity to feel moral
outrage over an injustice done to a stranger." -
Mark Moore
"If
I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition
every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that little
point which the world and the devil are at that moment
attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be
professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of
the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battle field
besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that
point." - Martin Luther
"Only
the earlier stages of social decadence seem liberating to some
people; the last act consists of Death, Mud, Crud. "
- Cecilia Kirk
"Providence
has given to our nation the choice of their rulers, and it is
the duty -- as well as the privilege and interest -- of our
Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their
rulers." - John
Jay (1745-1829), First Chief Justice of the United States (1789-1794)
"If
ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude
better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in
peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick
the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you,
and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." --
Samuel Adams 1776
"He
who would trade essential liberty for temporary security
deserves neither liberty nor security."- Ben Franklin
"This
idea? that government was beholden to the people, that it had no
other source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in
all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue
of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for
self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution
and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant
capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them
ourselves." - Ronald Reagan "A Time for Choosing"
"Were
parties here divided merely by a greediness for office,...to
take a part with either would be unworthy of a reasonable or
moral man."
--Thomas Jefferson to William Branch Giles, 1795.
"Liberty
means responsibility. That is why most men dread it." -
George Bernard Shaw
"Power
always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the
comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service,
when it is
violating all His laws." --John Adams
"Good
government is not someone else's responsibility. It is not
something that will just take care of itself. It is not
something that happens by accident while we watch ballgames on
TV. This is America. Here, if we don't ensure that
our government is just, then it won't be. It will
progressively rob and oppress us." - Mark Moore
"Government
power must be dispersed. If government is to exercise power,
better in the county than in the state, better in the state than
in Washington. [Because] if I do not like what my local
community does, I can move to another local community... [and]
if I do not like what my state does, I can move to another.
[But] if I do not like what Washington imposes, I have few
alternatives in this world of jealous nations." -Milton
Friedman
"It
is tempting to believe that social evils arise from the
activities of evil men and that if only good men (like
ourselves, naturally) wielded power, all would be well... To
understand why it is that "good" men in positions of
power will produce evil, while ordinary man without power but
able to engage in voluntary cooperation with his neighbors will
produce good, requires analysis and thought, subordinating the
emotions to the rational faculty." -Milton Friedman
"For
centuries it was never discovered that education was a function
of the State, and the State never attempted to educate. But when
modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf
of the sovereign power... When the revolutionary theory of
government began to prevail, and Church and State found that
they were educating for opposite ends and in a contradictory
spirit, it became necessary to remove children entirely from the
influence of religion." - Lord John Emerich Acton
"Power
tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
-Lord John Emerich Acton
"Liberty
is the highest political end of man...[but] no country can be
free without religion. It creates and strengthens the notion of
duty. If men are not kept straight by duty, they must be by
fear. The more they are kept by fear, the less they are free.
The greater the strength of duty, the greater the liberty."
-Lord John Emerich Acton
"Liberty
is the prevention of control by others. This requires
self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences;
education, knowledge, well-being." -Lord John Emerich Acton
"Those
who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who
don't." -Author Unknown
"The
plan of the radicals is twofold. First, falsely insist
that religion has no place in government. Second, expand
government until it is so huge and all-encompassing than it
touches everything. Thus they would purge America of
Jesus." -Mark
Moore
"You
and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I
suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only
an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream-the maximum of
individual freedom consistent with order or down to the ant heap
of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their
humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for
security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned,
"The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he
who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits." -
Ronald Reagan "A Time for Choosing"
"They
say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They
are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple
answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally
right. Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is
not measured by material computation. When great forces are on
the move in the world, we learn we are spirits-not
animals." And he said, "There is something going on in
time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we
like it or not, spells duty.
You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for
our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we
will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years
of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our
children's children say of us we justified our brief moment
here. We did all that could be done." -Ronald W. Reagan,
"A Time for Choosing"
For
quotes from "The Analects of Confucius" click here.
For
Patriotic Quotes click here.
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