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Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. –Edward Abbey, American ecologist, anarchist, and writer, 1927-1989
A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer. –Dean Gooderham Acheson, American statesman, 1893-1971
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. –John Emrich Dalberg Acton, English historian, 1834-1902
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to rule. Every class is unfit to rule. –Acto
Yesterday the greatest question was decided which was ever debated in America, and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States. –John Adams, American Revolutionary leader, 1st vice-president (1789-1797) and 2nd president (1797-1801), 1735-1826
If you 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 counsel 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, American Revolutionary leader, 1722-1803
There never was a democracy that did not commit suicide. –Samuel Adams
No oppression is so heavy and lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of the legal system. –Joseph Addison, English essayist and statesman, 1672-1719
The post of honor is a private station. –Addison
Of the world as it exists, one cannot be enough afraid. –Theodor Weisengrund Adorno, German philosopher and sociologist, 1903-1969
Any excuse will serve a tyrant. –Aesop, Greek fabelist, 6th century BC
(Demanding the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga) In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress. –Ethan Allen, American Revolutionary soldier, leader of the Green Mountain Boys, 1738-1789
A study of economics
usually reveals that the best time to buy anything was last year. –Marty Pitts
Allen, American comedian, 1922
It is far easier to act under conditions of tyranny than to think. –Hannah Arendt, German-born American political scientist, 1906-1975
Revolutionaries do not make revolutions. The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and then they can pick it up. –Hannah Arendt
A nation which makes the final sacrifice for life and freedom does not get beaten. –Mustafa Kemel Atatürk, Turkish nationalist and president (1923-1938), 1881-1938
The work was killing me.
They called me out of bed at all hours to receive resignations of Prime
Ministers. -Vincent Avinal, President of France
To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction. –Alfred Jules Ayer, British philosopher, 1910-1989
It’s important to let
people know what you stand for. It’s
also equally important that they know what you won’t stand for. –B. Bader
Does it follow that I reject all authority? Perish the thought. In the matter of boots, I defer to the authority of the boot maker. –God and the State, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin, Russian anarchist and political theorist, 1814-1876
Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact. –Honore de Balzac, French novelist, 1799-1850
Television is the first truly democratic culture - the
first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people
want. The most terrifying thing is
what people do want. –Clive Alexander Barnes
Advertising is the very essence of democracy. –Bruce Barton
I don’t know what’s wrong with my TV set. I was getting C-Span and the Home Shopping Network on the same station. I actually bought a congressman. –Bruce Baum
The European Community is being run in a thoroughly un-British way. –Bethell
The king reigns but does not govern. –Otto Edward Leopold von Bismarck, Prussian statesman, 1815-1898
A cowardly act! What do I care about that? You may be sure that I should never fear to commit one if were to my advantage. –Napoleon Bonaparte, French general and dictator, 1769-1821
One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero. –Bonaparte
The reason that I beat the Austrians is that they did not know the value of five minutes. –Bonaparte
(Of Alexander I) There is a piece missing, I have never been able to discover what it was. –Bonaparte
Why does a slight tax increase cost you $200 and a substantial tax cut save you thirty cents? –Peg Bracken
Anybody that (sic) wants the presidency so much that he will spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office. –David Broder, American political writer
A liberal is a man who leaves a room when the fight begins. –Heywood Broun, American journalist and novelist, 1888-1939
Government
doesn’t work. –Harry Brown
The purpose of a democratic society is to make great persons. –Lyman Bryson, American educator, 1888-1959
How can the modern relativist exercise tolerance if he doesn’t believe in anything to begin with? –William F. Buckley, Jr., American politician and author, 1925-
I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first four-hundred people listed in the Boston Telephone Directory than to the faculty of Harvard University. –Buckley
Policemen, they say, should be human. But when they act human, it is deeply resented that they are not inhuman. –Buckley
Socialize the individual’s surplus, and you socialize the spirit and creativeness; you cannot paint the Mona Lisa by assigning one brush stoke each to a thousand painters. –Buckley
The doctrine that a man is innocent until proved guilty seems to have stretched to mean that the apprehending officials are guilty unless proved innocent. –Buckley
Who will nail the theses on Communism’s church door? –Buckley
The real
slavery in Egypt was this: the Israelites learned to endure it. –Simcha Bunim
The people no longer believe in principles, but will periodically believe in saviors. –Jacob Christoph Burckhardt, Swiss historian, 1818-1897
All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing. –Edmund Burke, Irish philosopher and statesman, 1729-1997
Am I to congratulate an highwayman and murderer, who has broke prison, on the recovery of his natural rights? –Edmund Burke
An event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak, and impossible to be silent. –Edmund Burke
I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people. –Edmund Burke
Neutrality, as a lasting principle, is an evidence of weakness. –Edmund Burke
Revolutions are favorable to confiscation; and it’s impossible to know under what obnoxious names the next confiscation will be authorized. –Edmund Burke
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse. –Edmund Burke
…the long roll of grim and bloody maxims which form the political code of power. –Edmund Burke
Tyrants seldom want pretexts. –Edmund Burke
…liberals…invoke the name of Freedom the way a drill sergeant invokes his favorite obscenity. –James Burnham, British anti-communist, 1905-1987
…the prime mark of autonomous power, of independence, is the ability to say No. –James Burnhan
Do not run a campaign that would embarrass your mother. -Robert Carlyle Byrd, American politician, 1917-
I would rather have a nod from an American,
than a snuff box from an emperor. –George Gordon Noel Byron, English poet,
1788-1824
If you are to stand up for your government, you must be able to stand up to your government. -Harold Caccia, British ambassador, 1905-1990?
I came, I saw, I conquered. –Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman general, historian, and emperor (45-44), 100-44 BC
Democracy is the name we
give the people whenever we need them. –Robert de Fleur and Armand de
Caillavet
Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better, whereas
enslavement is the certainty of the worst. –Albert Camus, French-Algerian
author and philosopher, 1913-1960
Sometimes in politics one must duel with skunks, but no one
should be fool enough to allow the skunks to choose the weapons. –Joe (Joseph
Gurney) “Uncle Joe” Cannon, American Speaker of the House (1903-1911),
1836-1926
You can get more with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone. –Al (Alphonse) Capone, American crime boss and gangster, 1899-1947
The Cuban movement is not a communist movement. Its’ members are Roman Catholics, mostly. –Fidel Castro, Cuban communist dictator, 1927-
(Of power) Iron hand in a velvet glove. –Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1519-1558) and king of Spain (1516-1556), 1500-1558
Truly decent people only exist among men with definite convictions, whether conservative or radical, so-called moderates are much drawn to rewards, orders, commissions, promotions. –Anton Pavlovich Chekov, Russian playwright, 1860-1904
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. –Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, British Prime Minister (1940-1945, 1951-1955), 1874-1964
If you put two economists in a room, you get two opinions, unless one of them is Keynes, in which case you get three opinions. –Churchill
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter. –Churchill
(Of an ex-conservative proposing to stand as a liberal) The only recorded instance in history of a rat swimming toward a sinking ship. –Churchill
The Constitution gives every American the right to make a damned fool of himself. –John Ciardi, American poet and critic, 1916-1986
Sir, I would rather be right than President. –Henry Clay (”The Great Compromiser”), American politician, 1777-1852
The purity of a revolution can last a fortnight. –Jean Cocteau, French surrealist, 1889-1963
I have seen gross intolerance shown in support of tolerance. –Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet and philosopher, 1772-1834
(To Sol Linowitz on his appointment as governor) Never for a day let them forget that you can pick up your marbles and go home. –C. Douglas Dillion, American Secretary of the Treasury (1961-1965)
I haven’t committed a
crime. What I did was fail to
comply with the law. –David Dinkins, mayor of New York City
The mob is the brother of tyrants. –Diogenes of Sinope, Greek philosopher and moralist, c. 410 – c. 320 BC
…in politics there is no honor. –Benjamin “Dizzy” Disraeli, English author and Prime Minister (1864, 1874-1880), 1804-1881
I will sit down now, but the time will come when you will hear me. –Disraeli
Distrust of authority should be the first civic duty. –Norman Douglas, British author, 1868-1952
E
I dislike censorship. Like an appendix it is useless when inert and dangerous when active. –Gerald Maurice Edelman, American biochemist and Nobel Laureate, 1929-
Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. –Albert Einstein, German-born American physicist and Nobel Laureate, 1879-1955
Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels. –Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th US president (1953-1961) and general, 1890-1969
…history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak and the timid. –Eisenhower
A petition
is a list of people who don’t have the courage to say no. –Evan Esar
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. –Anatole France, French author, 1844-1924
Where liberty is, there is my country. –Benjamin Franklin, attributed, American Revolutionary leader, ambassador, and author, 1706-1790
Under current law, it is
a crime for a private citizen to lie to a government official, but not for the
government official to lie to the people. Donald M. Fraser
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. –Milton Freidman, American economist and Nobel Laureate, 1912-
A liberal is a man too broad-minded to take his own side in a quarrel. –Robert Lee Frost, American poet, 1874-1963
Diplomat: A man who remembers a woman’s birthday but never her age. –Frost
Democracy is measured
not by its’ leaders doing extraordinary things, but by its’ citizens doing
ordinary things extraordinarily well. –John Gardner, Jr., American writer,
1933-1982
P.J. O’Rourke has the perfect New Right name – hard Irish with a hint of pajamas. –A.A Gill, British journalist
It is a maxim of wise government not to deal with men as they ought to be but as they are. –Johann Wolfgang von Göethe, German poet, playwright, and scientist, 1749-1832
There’s never been a good government. –Emma Goldman, American anarchist, 1869-1940
The first blow is half the battle. –Oliver Goldsmith, Anglo-Irish author, poet, and playwright, 1728-1774
A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away. –Barry Morris Goldwater, American conservative politician, 1909-1998
Bureaucratic function is
sustained by fear of failure as the church was sustained by fear of damnation.
–Richard N. Goodwin
Freedom is more precious than any gifts for which you might you tempted to give it up. –Baltasar Gracian y Morales, Spanish Jesuit and writer, 1601-1658
Hell hath no fury like a liberal scorned. –Dick Gregory, American comedian and civil rights activist, 1932-
America is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea. –John Gunther, American writer, 1901-1970
TV is simultaneously
blamed, often by the same people, for worsening the world and for being
powerless to change it. –Ian Hamilton
Never “for the sake of peace and quiet” deny your convictions. –Dag Hjalmar Agné Carl Hammarskjold, Swedish political leader, United Nations Secretary General (1953-1961), and Nobel Laureate, 1905-1961
We Americans have no commission from God to police the world. –Benjamin Harrison, 23rd US president (1889-1893), 1833-1901
If you want
peace, understand war. –B.H. Liddell Hart, British military analyst, 1895-1970
Capital punishment is our society’s recognition of the sanctity of human life. –Orrin G. Hatch, American conservative politician, 1934-
“liberal Socialism”…is purely theoretical; practical socialism is totalitarian everywhere. –Freidrich August von Hayek, Austrian libertarian, political theorist, and Nobel Laureate, 1899-1992
Those who are fond of setting things to rights have no great objection to setting them wrong. –William Hazlitt, English essayist, 1778-1830
I am not a Virginian, but an American. –Patrick Henry, American Revolutionary leader and orator, 1736-1799
Tarquin and Caesar each had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell and George the Third may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it. –Patrick Henry
The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our
ears the clash of resounding arms! Our
brethren are already in the field. Why
do we stand idle here?…Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased
at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid
it, Almighty God! I know not what
course others may take, but as for me, give my liberty or give me death. –Patrick
Henry
Know when to speak, for many times it brings
Danger to give the best advice to kings. –Robert Herrick, English lyric poet,
1591-1674
(After “accepting” Neville Chamberlin’s 1938 Peace Initiative at Munich) He seemed such a nice old gentleman, I thought I would give him my autograph as a souvenir. –Adolph Hitler, German dictator, 1889-1945
If I can send the flower of the German nation into the hell of war without the smallest pity for the spilling of precious German blood, the surely I have the right to remove millions of an inferior race that breeds like vermin. –Hitler
Strength lies not in defense but in attack. -Hitler
The victor will never be asked if he told the truth. –Hitler
What luck for rulers that men do not think. –Hitler
Who says I am not under the special protection of God? –Hitler
Facts are counterrevolutionary. –Eric Hoffer, American philosopher, 1902-1983
Mass movements can rise and spread without a belief in God, nut never without a belief in a devil. –Eric Hoffer
The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do but in what we are free not to do. –Eric Hoffer
Every American owns all of America. –Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr., American Supreme Court justice (1902-1932), 1841-1935
We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is. –Charles Evans Hughes, American Supreme Court justice (1910), Chief Justice (1930-1941), and Secretary of State (1921-1925), 1862-1948
So long as man worships the Ceasars and Napoleons, Ceasars and Napoleons will duly arrive and make them miserable. –Aldous Leonard Huxley, English author, poet, and critic, 1894-1963
He has the luck to be unhampered by either character or conviction…so that Liberalism is the easiest thing in the world for him. –Henrik Johan Ibsen, Norwegian dramatist, 1828-1906
An American is one in whose heart is engraved the second immortal sentence of the Declaration of Independence. –Harold LeClair Ickes, American Secretary of the Interior (1933-1946)
It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion. –William Ralph Inge (“the Gloomy Dean”), Dean of St. Paul’s, London and writer, 1860-1954
One man with courage makes a majority. –Andrew Jackson (“Old Hickory”), 7th US president (1829-1837), 1767-1845
A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. –Thomas Jefferson, American Revolutionary leader and 3rd president, (1801-1809), 1743-1826
No government ought to be without censors: and where the press is free, no one ever will. –Jefferson
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. –Jefferson, personal motto
Revolutions are not made with rosewater. –Jefferson
If the first person who answers the phone cannot answer you question, it is a bureaucracy. –Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th US President (1963-1969), 1880-1973
This is not a partisan dinner. It is open to any member of any political party who wants to contribute $100 to the Democratic Party in November. –Lyndon Baines Johnson
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem on another. –Juvenal, Roman satirical poet, 40-125
The great question which, in all ages, has disturbed mankind, and brought on them the greatest part of their mischiefs which have ruined cities, depopulated countries, and disordered the peace of the world, has been, not whether there be power in the world, nor whence it came, but who should have it. –Immanual Kant, German philosopher, 1724-1804
The Washington reflex: you discover a problem, throw money at it and hope it will go away. –Kenneth Keating, American conservative politician
If the don’t justify the means, what can? –John Maynard Keynes, British economist, 1883-1946
Call it what we will, incentives are what get people to work hard. –Nikita Sergeyevich Khruschev, Soviet Premiere (1958-1964), 1894-1971
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river. –Khruschev
You cannot put theory into your soup, or Marxism into your clothes. If, after forty years of communism, a person cannot have a glass of milk or a pair of shoes, he will not believe that communism is a good thing, no matter what you tell him. –Khruschev
A man who could not seduce men cannot save them either. –Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, Danish religious philosopher, 1813-1855
The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience as that they believe they are as clever as he. –Karl Kraus, Austrian satirist, 1874-1936
A politician would do well to remember that he has to live with his conscience a lot longer than he does with his constituents. –Melvin Robert. Laird, American conservative politician and Secretary of Defense, 1922-
Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. –Doug Larson
Give me you tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning
to breath free
The unclothed refuse of your teeming shore
Send these, the homeless tempest tossed to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door. –Emma Lazarus, Ammerican poet,
1849-1887
If the workers and peasants do not wish to accept socialism, our reply will be: Why waste words when you can apply force? –Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin (“Nikolai Lenin), Bolshevik founder and Soviet dictator (1917-1924), 1870-1924
If we do not apply terror and immediate executions, we will get nowhere. It is better that a hundred innocent are killed than that one guilty person escapes. –V.I. Lenin
The dictatorship of the proletariat is nothing more than power based upon force and limited by nothing-by law and by absolutely no rule. –V.I. Lenin
The people have no need for liberty. Liberty is one of the forms of the bourgeois dictatorship. In a state worthy of the name, there is no liberty. –V.I. Lenin
(To Louis XVI, July 14, 1789) It is not a revolt. It is a revolution. –Duc de Liancourt,
(To Roosevelt during the 1902 coal strike) Isn’t there something we can appear to be doing? –Henry Cabot Lodge, American politician, 1850-1924
….Americanism means…an imperative duty to be nobler than the rest of the world. –Meyer London, American labor leader, 1871-1926
Once to every man and nation comes to decide, in the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side. –James Russell Lowell, American editor, poet, and diplomat, 1819-1891
Communism is the opiate of the intellectuals. –Clare Boothe Luce, American diplomat and writer, 1903-1987
In war there is no substitute for victory –Douglas MacArthur, American general and US Chief of Staff (1930-1935), 1880-1964
(To Col. George M. Jones and the 503rd Regimental Combat Team who took Correigeda, March 2, 1945) I see that the old flagpole still stands. Have your troops hoist the colors to its peak, and let no enemy ever haul them down. –MacArthur
The object of oratory is not truth but persuasion. –Thomas Babington Macaulay, British essayist, historian, and statesman, 1800-1859
The ends justify the means. –Nicolò Machiavelli, Italian political philosopher and statesman, 1469-1527
When taking a country the conqueror must be careful to commit all his cruelties at once, to avoid being obliged to be cruel every day. –Machiavelli
I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power them by violent and sudden usurpations. –James Madison, American Revolutionary leader and 4th president (1809-1817), 1751-1836
The truth is that all men having power ought to be distrusted. –James Madison
Every nation has the guilt that it deserves. –Joseph-Marie de Maistre, French diplomat and philosopher, 1753-1821
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive from good. –Horace Mann, American educator, 1796-1859
Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to fight for
them. –Thomas Mann, German author and critic, 1875-1955
Communism has nothing to do with love. It is an excellent hammer which we use to destroy our enemies. –Mao-tse Tung, Chinese communist dictator (1949-1959), 1893-1976
There is a serious tendency toward capitalism among the well-to-do peasants. –Mao-tse Tung
An idea isn’t responsible for the people who believe in it. –Don (Donald Robert Perry) Marquis, American humorist and journalist, 1878-1937
If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that, too. –William Somerset Maugham, British author, 1876-1966
Democracy is also a form of religion; it is the worship of jackals by jackasses. –Henry Louis Mencken, American satirist and journalist, 1880-1956
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. –H.L. Mencken
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. –H.L. Mencken
I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant. –H.L. Mencken
Injustice is relatively easy to bear; it’s justice that hurts. –H.L. Mencken
The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail. If it were not for this penalty, the jury would never get to hear the evidence. –H.L. Mencken
The problem with communism is communists, just as the problem with Christianity is Christians. –H.L. Mencken
There is no record in history of a nation that ever gained anything valuable by being unable to defend itself. –H.L. Mencken
They will all promise every man, woman, or child in the country whatever he, she, or it wants. They’ll all be roving the land looking for chances to make the rich poor, to remedy the umremediable, to succor the unsuccorable, to unscramble the unscrambleable, to dephlogisticate the undephlogisticateable. They will all be curing warts by saying words over them, and paying off the national debt with money no one will have to earn…In brief they will divest themselves of their character as sensible, candid, and truthful men, and become simply candidates for office. –H.L. Mecken
I should like to see,
and this will be the last and most ardent of my desires, I should like to see
the last king strangled with the guts of the last priest. –Jean Meslier,
Paris, 1733, French priest and secret life-long atheist, 1664 -1733
A state which dwarfs its men…will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished. –John Stuart Mill. British philosopher and economist, 1806-1873
The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way. –John Stuart Mill
National honor is national property of the highest value. –James Monroe, 5th US president (1817-1825), 1758-1831
America is still a government of the naïve, by the naïve, and for the naïve. He who does not know this, nor relish it, has no inkling of the nature of his country. –Christopher Darlington Morley, American writer and journalist, 1890-1957
You have not converted a man because you have silenced him. –Christopher Morley
Any party which takes credit for the rain must not be surprised if its opponents blame it for the drought. –Dwight Morrow
Good
government is not a substitute for self-government. –Dwight Morrow
Do not confuse motion
and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress. –Alfred
A. Montapart
If a man tells you he’s going to make a “realistic decision”, you immediately understand that he has resolved to do something bad. –Mary Therese McCarthy, American writer, 1912-1989
The longer the title, the less important the job. –George Stanley McGovern, American politician, 1922-
Sufficiently advanced
political correctness is indistinguishable from sarcasm. –Eric Naggum
Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote. –George Jean Nathan, American writer, critic, and editor, 1882-1958
Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse. –Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian Prime Minister (1947-1964), 1889-1964
With all my admiration and love for democracy, I am not prepared to accept the statement that the largest number of people are always right. –Jawaharlal Nehru
I do not rule Russia. Ten thousand clerks do. –Nicholas I, Russian czar (1825-1855), 1796-1855
Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s capacity for injustice makes democracy necessary. –Reinhold Neibuhr , American theologian and historian, 1892-1971
Distrust all men in whom the urge to punish is powerful.
– Thus Spake Zarathustra, Freidrich
Wilhelm Nietzsche, German philosopher, 1844-1900
He who lives by fighting with an enemy has an interest in the preservation of the enemies’ life. –Nietzsche
In all institutions which are not ventilated by a keen draught of public criticism, an innocent corruption grows up like a toadstool. –Nietzsche
The criminal is prevented, by the very witnessing of the legal process, from regarding his deed as intrinsically evil. –Nietzsche
In large states the public education will always be
mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.
–Nietzsche
The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others. –Nietzsche
Wherever I have found a living creature, there I have found the will to power. –Nietzsche
Where there is a struggle, it is a struggle for power. –Nietzsche
Whoever battles with monsters had better see that it does not turn him into a monster. And if you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. –Nietzsche
(Of W.H. Auden’s term, “necessary murder”) Mr. Auden’s brand of amoralism is only possible if you are the kind of person who is always somewhere else when the trigger is pulled. –George Orwell, British author, 1903-1950
Power is not a means; it is an end. –Orwell
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. –Orwell
Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power. –Patrick Jake O’Rourke, American humorist and journalist, 1947-
Collectivism doesn’t work because, first, it’s based on a faulty economic principle. There is no such thing as a person’s “fair share” of the wealth. –P.J. O’Rourke
Communists worship Satan, socialists think perdition is a good system run by bad men, and liberals want us to go to hell because it’s warm there in the winter. –P.J. O’Rourke
Giving certain races or ethnic groups special rights and privileges is no better (in fact, no different) than giving special rights and privileges to dukes and earls. Noblemen are a minority, too, after all. –P.J. O’Rourke
During the 1980’s dairy farmers decided there was too much cheap milk at the supermarket so the government bought and slaughtered sixteen million dairy cows. How come the government never does anything like that with lawyers? –P.J. O’Rourke
Every government is a parliament of whores. The problem is, in a democracy, the whores are us. – P.J. O’Rourke
Liberals have invented whole college majors-psychology, sociology, women’s studies-to prove that nothing is anybody’s fault. –P.J. O’Rourke
Politics is the business of getting power and privilege without possessing merit –P.J. O’Rourke
Poverty can’t be eliminated by punishing people who’ve escaped poverty, taking their money and giving it as a reward to those people who have failed to escape. –P.J. O’Rourke
Reacting to a plague by holding demonstrations, by announcing how upset we are that disease exists is no more effacious than sacrificing virgins (or, in the case of AIDS, throwing drug-free, monogamous heterosexual members of the middle class down a well). –P.J. O’Rourke
Santa Claus is preferable to God in every way but one: there is no such thing as Santa Claus. –P.J. O’Rourke
The Mid-eastern states aren’t nations. They’re quarrels with borders. –P.J. O’Rourke
I believe in the United
States of America as a government of the people by the people, for the people;
whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed: a democracy in a
republic, a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union one and
inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice,
and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
–William Tyler Page, American patriot
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression. –Thomas Paine, American Revolutionary leader, writer, and political theorist, 1737-1809
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it. –Thomas Paine
Force and not opinion is the queen of the world; but it is opinion that uses the force. –Blaise Pascal, French scientist and philosopher, 1623-1662
The object of war is not to die for your country. It’s to make the other bastard die for his. Now go kick some German ass! –George Patton, American general, 1885-1945
A censor is
a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to. –Laurence
Johnston Peter, Canadian author and management theorist, 1919-1990
Ghengis Kahn conquered Asia with an army only one half the size of New York City’s civil service. –Laurence J. Peter
Every man meets his Waterloo at last. –Wendell Phillips, American abolitionist, president of the American Antislavery Society (1865-1870), 1811-1884
Revolutions are not made; they come. –Wendell Phillips
(On defeating Rome at
Asculum) One more such victory and we are lost. –Phyrrhus of Epirus, Roman
general
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. –Plato, Greek philosopher, c. 427 – 347 BC
Those who promised us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell. –Karl Raimund Popper, Anglo-Austrian philosopher, 1902-1994
A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him. –Ezra Loomis Pound, American poet and critic, 1885-1972
In communism, inequality stems from placing mediocrity on a level with excellence. –Pierre-Joseph Proudhan, French political theorist, 1809-1865
Ain’t nowhere else in the world where you can go from driving a truck to driving a Cadillac overnight. Nowhere. –Elvis Aron Presley, American rock musician, 1935-1977
When I have been asked during these last weeks who caused the riots and the killings in L.A., my answer is direct and simple. Who is to blame for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings? The killers are to blame. –Dan Quayle, 44th US vice-president (1989-1993), 1947-
I believe that people would be alive today if there were a death penalty. –Nancy Davis Reagan, American first lady (1981-1989), 1921-
Abortion is advocated only by people who have themselves been born. –Ronald Reagan, 40th US president (1981-1989), 1911-
Government does not solve problems. It subsidizes them. –Ronald Reagan
No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority. –Hans Reichenbach, German scientific philosopher, 20th century
I belief in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. –Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, Jr., American vice-president (1974-1977), 1908-1979
Dealing with the State Department is like watching an elephant become pregnant. –Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 33rd US president (1933-1945), 1882-1945
They are the weakest-minded and hardest-hearted men who most love change. –John Ruskin, English writer, art critic, and reformer, 1819-1900
If one man offers you democracy and another offers you a bag of grain, at what stage of starvation will you prefer the grain to the vote? –Bertrand Arthur William Russell, British philosopher and mathematician, 1872-1970
If peace cannot be maintained with honor, it is no longer peace. –Russell
Thought is subversive and revolutionary. –Russell
S
Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim. –George Santayana, American philosopher and poet, 1963-1952
People are usually more firmly convinced that their opinions are precious than that they are true. – Santayana
Whenever governments
adopt a moral tone-as opposed to an ethical tone-you know something is wrong.
–John Ralston Saul, British historian and novelist
The true socialist is
happiest when organizing, controlling, marshalling people who have been relieved
of their liberties-for their own good, of course…The socialist is essentially
a sergeant-major with, of course, a heart of gold. –Arthur Seldon
However many people a tyrant slaughters, he cannot kill his successor. –Seneca, Roman writer, statesman, and philosopher, c. 5 BC – Ad c. 65
It is proof of a bad cause when it is applauded by the mob. –Seneca
Let them obey that know not how to rule. –
Henry VI, William Shakespeare, English playwright and poet, 1564-1616
Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. –Shakespeare, Henry IV
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can, as a rule, calculate on the support of Paul. –George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and critic, 1856-1950
Alcohol…enables Parliament to do things at eleven at night that no same person would do at eleven in the morning. –G.B. Shaw
Kings are not born: they are made by universal hallucination. –G.B. Shaw
Liberty means responsibility. That’s why most men dread it. –G.B. Shaw
The act of government is the organization of idolatry. –G.B. Shaw
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the maker that we expect our diner, but from their regard from their own interest. –Adam Smith, Scottish economist, 1723-1790
Far more, and far more hideous, crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion. –Charles Percy Snow, British writer and scientist, 1905-1980
Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it. –Thomas Sowell, American sociologist
Hero worship is strongest when there is the least regard for human freedom. –Herbert Spenser, British philosopher, 1820-1903
If Lenin’s widow does not behave, we will appoint someone else as Lenin’s widow. –Josef Vissariovich Stalin, Soviet dictator (1941-1953), 1879-1959
(Of the president) …he is ours and we exercise our right to destroy him. –John Steinback, American author, 1902-1968
Patriotism is not short, frenzied, outbursts of emotions, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. –Adlai Ewing Stevenson, American liberal politician, 1900-1965
The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning. –Adlai E. Stevenson
If you were handed power on a plate, you’d be left fighting over the plate. –Tom Stoppard, British playwright, 1937-
At the extremes of the
political spectrum one encounters people who are moved chiefly to find an outlet
for the venom that is in them. –D. Sutten
Lust of power is the most flagrant of all the passions. –Cornelius Tacitus, Roman historian, 55 ? - after 117
The weakness of the fanatic is that those whom he fights have a secret hold upon him. –Paul Johannes Tillich, German-born American theologian and philosopher, 1886-1965
Communism is based on the belief that man is so weak and inadequate that he is unable to govern himself, and therefore requires the rule of strong masters. –Harry Truman, 33rd US president (1945-1953), 1884-1972
If you want to get on the front page of a newspaper, you should attack someone, especially if you’re in politics. –Truman
(At the United Nations) I am not a gentleman. I am a representative of the Soviet Union here. –Semyon Tsarapkin
(Of Congress) It is all so solemn. Somebody will get up and say: “I thank the gentleman for his contribution,” when all the guy did was belch or garble. Now I’m all for back-scratching, but I’d like to see a wink once in a while. –James Tumulty
It could probable be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress. –Mark Twain, American writer and humorist, 1835-1910
It’s not enough to conquer; one must know how to seduce. –François Marie Arouet Voltaire, French writer and philosopher, 1694-1778
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be. –Voltaire
The act of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another. –Voltaire
To succeed in chaining the crowd, you must seem to wear the same chain. –Voltaire
W
A reformer is a guy who rides through a sewer in a glass-bottom boat. –James “Jimmy” Walker, American politician, 1881-1946
No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer, if he fall, in the defense of the liberties and constitution of his country. –Daniel Webster, American statesman and orator, 1782-1852
One may live as a conqueror, a king or a magistrate; but he must die as a man. –Daniel Webster
The great mistake of the Marxists and of the whole of the nineteenth century was to think that by walking straight on one mounted upward into the air. –Simone Weil, French philosopher and mystic, 1909-1943
There is no excitement anywhere in the world, short of war, to match the American Presidential campaign. –Theodore Harold White, American political journalist, 1915-1986
My advice to the women’s clubs of America is to raise more hell and fewer dahlias. –William Allen White, American newspaper editor and writer, 1868-1944
You should study the peerage, General…It is the best thing in fiction the English have done. –Oscar Fingal O’Flarhertie Wills Wilde, Irish author, poet, playwright, and critic, 1854-1900
Modern government is made possible by two sentimentalist fallacies. One is that because there is a majority rule, government acts only for the interest of majorities. The second is that government is disinterested and so does not have the human tendency to maximize one’s own interests. Jackson knew better. –George F. Will, American political theorist, 1941-
Only the winners decide what were war crimes. –Gary Willis
I have not yet heard one intellectually respectable defense
of criminal rehabilitation. –James Quinn Wilson, American criminologist and
sociologist, 1931-
The history of liberty is a history of the limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it. –Woodrow Wilson, 28th US president (1913-1921), 1856-1924
The things that the flag stands for were created by the experience of a great people. Everything that it stands for was written by their lives. The flag is the embodiment not of sentiment, but of history. –Woodrow Wilson
If God had meant us to vote, he would have given us candidates.
Stop repeat offenders. Don’t re-elect them.
Support free trade, smuggle.
Films:
We live in the trenches out there. We fight. We try
not to be killed, but sometimes we are-that’s all. –Lew Ayres, All Quiet on the Western Front
When it comes to dying for your country, it’s better not
to die at all. -Lew Ayres, All Quiet on
the Western Front
I am all for crime, Your Honor. May I propose a toast? Here
is to crime. -Mischa Auer, And Then There
Were None
It’s a nauseating mixture of Park Avenue and Broadway.
It proves I’m a liberal. –Clifton Webb, The
Dark Corner
I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration,
Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist
conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids. -Sterling
Hayden, Dr. Strangelove
Well, boys, I reckon that this is it: nuclear combat, toe
to toe, with the Rooskies! –Slim Pickens, Dr.
Strangelove
It’s worse than horrible, because a zombie has no will of his own. You see then sometimes walking around blindly, with dead eyes, following orders, not knowing what they do, not caring.
You mean like Democrats? -Richard Carlson and Bob Hope, The
Ghost Breakers
Out here due process is a bullet. -John Wayne, The Green Berets
Be seated. Now
I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.
Men, all this stuff you heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting
to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse-dung.
Americans, traditionally, love to fight.
All real Americans love the sting of battle.
When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble-shooter, the
fastest runner, the big league ballplayer, the toughest boxer.
Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser.
Americans play to win all the time.
I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for as man who lost and laughed.
That’s why Americans have never lost—and never will lose-a war,
because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans. –George C. Scott, Patton