NOTABLE QUOTES
JOHN
ADAMS
"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes,
exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet, that did
not commit suicide."
----John Adams (1814)
JOHN
QUINCY ADAMS
"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 one enlisting under other banners than her
own, were they even the banners on 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)
SAMUEL ADAMS
"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and
then say, 'What should be the reward of such sacrifices?' ... If ye love wealth
better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of
freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and
lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may
posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"
--Samuel Adams
ANONYMOUS
Hug a logger! You'll never go back to trees.
-- Anonymous--
ERNEST BENN
"Politics is the art
of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it
incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy."
--British
publisher and writer Ernest Benn (1875-1954) --
WINSTON
CHURCHILL
The inherent
vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings.
The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
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)
"[D]o not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the
reckoning. This is the first sip, the first foretaste of the bitter cup which
will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral
health and martial vigor, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in
the olden time."
--Winston Churchill--
"We have not journeyed across the centuries, across the
oceans, across the mountain, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar
candy."
--Winston Churchill--
I 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--
MALCOLM FORBES
"You can easily judge the character
of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them."
—Malcolm Forbes--
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of
the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them
easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled
much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions
were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course
became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they
did for themselves, and became richer."
--Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of
Corn and Management of the Poor — 1766 --
MILTON
FRIEDMAN
The greatest 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
BARRY
GOLDWATER
"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
JENNIFER GRANHOLM
Everyone remembers Jennifer Granholm's statement: "In five
years, you're going to be blown away!" Boy, was she right!
She should have figured out why Barack Hussein Obama always
listens to his teleprompter. Leon Drolet of Michigan Taxpayers Alliance
advised that at a recent press conference, Governor Granholm said, "My fellow
Michiganders, in 2008 we were standing on an edge of deep abyss. Since then,
we've taken a significant step forward..."
--Jennifer Granholm--
PATRICK
HENRY
"If we wish to be free; if we mean to preserve inviolate
those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending; if we
mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long
engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious
object of our contest shall be obtained—we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must
fight! An appeal to arms, and to the God of hosts, is all that is left us."
—Patrick Henry (1775)--
CHARLTON HESTON
“Here’s my credo. There are no good guns, there are no bad
guns. A gun in the hands of a bad man is a bad thing. Any gun in the hands of a
good man is no threat to anyone, except bad people.”
—Charlton Heston---
THOMAS
JEFFERSON
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
"[T]he flames kindled on the 4 of July 1776, have spread
over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of
despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work
them."
—Thomas Jefferson (1821)--
Isn't it difficult to
believe that the Democrats consider Jefferson the founder of their party?
They should reread these quotes:
When we get piled upon
one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe
.
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing
to work and give to those who would not.
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle
which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from
wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too
much government.
No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms
is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants.
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he
disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance
has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health,
occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
"They are not to do
anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes
for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase not as describing the purpose of
the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they
please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and
subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole
instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do
whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they would be the
sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil
they please.... Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It
was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those
without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect."
--Thomas Jefferson, Opinion on
National Bank, 1791--
"When
people fear the government - that is tyranny; when government fears the people -
that is liberty."
--
Thomas Jefferson --
"To take from one,
because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too
much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised
equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of
association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the
fruits acquired by it."
--Thomas Jefferson--
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are
neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make
things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they
serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed
man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
--Cesare
Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishment,
quoted by Thomas Jefferson in Commonplace Book--
"Peace is that brief, glorious moment
in history, when everybody stands around reloading."
-- Thomas Jefferson --
“Give up money, give up fame, give up
science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral
act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any
circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly
so it may appear to you.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1785)--
SAMUEL JOHNSON
"Courage is the first of all the virtues because if you haven't
courage, you may not have the opportunity to use any of the others."
--Samuel Johnson--
ROBERT
E. LEE
"It appears we have appointed
our worst generals to command forces,
and our most gifted and brilliant to edit newspapers.
In fact, I discovered by reading newspapers that these editor/geniuses
plainly saw all my strategic defects from the start,
yet failed to inform me until it was too late.
Accordingly, I am readily willing to yield my command
to these obviously superior intellects, and I will, in turn,
do my best for the Cause by writing editorials - after the fact."
-- Robert E. Lee, 1863 --
C. S. LEWIS
"We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means
doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man
who turns back soonest is the most progressive."
—C. S. Lewis--
JAMES MADISON
"[A]s
peace is better than war, war is better than tribute."
—James
Madison (1816)--
JAMES
MONROE
"How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the
best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check
and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and
countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it
were by an irresistible fate of despotism."
--James Monroe--
THOMAS
PAINE
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer
soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this
crisis, shrink from the service of their country;
but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and
thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not
easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with
us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious
the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too
lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing
its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price
upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so
celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly
rated.
-- Thomas Paine, The Crisis I, December 19, 1776 --
RONALD
REAGAN
"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)
"Why? Why did you
do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and
risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies
that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith,
and belief; it was loyalty and love. The men of Normandy had faith that what
they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that
a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the
deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound
moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force
for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those
others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt. You all knew
that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and
democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of
government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were
willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were
behind you."
--Ronald Reagan, Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, June 6, 1984.
"Speech delivery counts for little on the world stage unless you have
convictions and, yes, the vision to see beyond the front row seats. The
Democrats may remember their lines, but how quickly they forget the lessons of
the past. I have witnessed five major wars in my lifetime, and I know how
swiftly storm clouds can gather on a peaceful horizon. The next time a Saddam
Hussein takes over a Kuwait, or North Korea brandishes a nuclear weapon, will
we be ready to respond? In the end it all comes down to leadership. That is
what this country is looking for now. It was leadership here at home that gave
us strong American influence abroad and the collapse of imperial communism.
Great nations have responsibilities to lead, and we should always be cautious
of those who would lower our profile, because they might just wind up lowering
our flag."
--Ronald Reagan--
"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--
“The specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face is that their
policy of accommodation is appeasement, and appeasement does not give you a
choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. We are told that
the problem is too complex for a simple answer. They are wrong. There is no easy
answer, but there is a simple answer. We must have the courage to do what we
know is morally right, and this policy of accommodation asks us to accept the
greatest possible immorality.”
—Ronald
Reagan--
“No people in all history paid a higher price for freedom. And no
people have done so much to advance the dignity of man. We are called
materialistic. May be so…but our materialism has made our children the biggest,
tallest, most handsome, and intelligent generations of Americans yet. They will
live longer with fewer illnesses, learn more, see more of the world, and have
more success in realizing their personal dreams and ambitions than any other
people in any other period of our history - because of our materialism…I think
on our side of civilization and on the other side is the law of the jungle…We
all have to recognize that this country has been handed the responsibility,
greater than any nation, to preserve some 6000 years of civilization against the
barbarians.”
―Ronald Reagan--
We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken,
society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the
American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
--Ronald Reagan--
The gun has been called the great equalizer, meaning that a small
person with a gun is equal to a large person, but it is a great equalizer in
another way, too. It insures that the people are the equal of their government
whenever that government forgets that it is servant and not master of the
governed. When the British forgot that they got a revolution. And, as a result,
we Americans got a Constitution; a Constitution that, as those who wrote it were
determined, would keep men free. If we give up part of that Constitution we give
up part of our freedom and increase the chance that we will lose it all. … I am
not ready to take that risk. I believe that the right of the citizen to keep and
bear arms must not be infringed if liberty in America is to survive.”
--
Ronald Reagan --
“The most dangerous
myth is the demagoguery that business can be made to pay a larger share, thus
relieving the individual. Politicians preaching this are either deliberately
dishonest, or economically illiterate, and either one should scare us. Business
doesn't pay taxes, and who better than business to make this message known? Only
people pay taxes, and people pay as consumers every tax that is assessed against
a business. Begin with the food and fiber raised in the farm, to the ore drilled
in a mine, to the oil and gas from out of the ground, whatever it may be --
through the processing, through the manufacturing, on out to the retailer's
license. If the tax cannot be included in the price of the product, no one along
that line can stay in business.”
--
Ronald Reagan --
WILL
ROGERS
"Lettin' the cat outta the bag
is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in."
"If you're riding ahead of the
herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there."
"If you get to thinking you're a
person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around."
"The quickest way to double your
money is to fold it over and put it back in your pocket."
"Good judgment comes from
experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment."
"Never miss a good chance to
shut up."
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred
by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes
short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions
and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails
while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and
timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."
--Theodore Roosevelt--
To sit home, read one's favorite
paper, and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy, but it is
markedly ineffective. It is what evil men count upon the good men's doing."
—Theodore Roosevelt--
THOMAS SOWELL
"Any serious discussion of government-run medical care would
have to look at other countries where there is government-run medical care. As
someone who has done some research on this for my book 'Applied Economics,' I
can tell you that the actual consequences of government-controlled medical care
is not a pretty picture, however inspiring the rhetoric that accompanies it.
Thirty thousand Canadians are passing up free medical care at home to go to some
other country where they have to pay for it. People don't do that without a
reason. But Canadians are better off than people in some other countries with
government-controlled medical care, because they have the United States right
next door, in case their medical problems get too serious to rely on their own
system. But where are Americans to turn if we become like Canada? Where are we
to go when we need better medical treatment than Washington bureaucrats will let
us have? Mexico? The Caribbean?"
--Hoover Institution economist Thomas Sowell --
STENDHAL
“The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and
his own are the same.”
—Stendhal --
MARK
TWAIN
"France has neither winter, nor summer, nor morals. France is
miserable because it is filled with Frenchmen, and Frenchmen are miserable
because they live in France."
--Mark Twain --
GEORGE WASHINGTON
"If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire
to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity,
it must be known that we are at all times ready for war."
--George Washington --
"Tis folly in one Nation to look for disinterested favors from
another; that it must pay with a portion of its Independence for whatever it may
accept under that character; that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the
condition of having given equivalents for nominal favours and yet of being
reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error
than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from Nation to Nation. 'Tis
an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard."
-- George Washington (Farewell Address, 19 September 1796)
--
DANIEL
WEBSTER
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 will, but they mean to govern. They promise to be
good masters, but they mean to be masters.
--Daniel Webster--
ROBERT
WELCH
The real freedom of any individual can always be measured
by the amount of responsibility which he must assume for his own welfare and
security.
--Robert Welch --
WALTER WILLIAMS
"Like the March of Dimes' victory against polio in the U.S., civil rights
organizations can claim victory as well. At one time, black Americans did not
enjoy the same constitutional guarantees as other Americans. Now we do. Because
the civil rights struggle is over and won doesn't mean that all problems have
vanished within the black community. A 70 percent illegitimacy rate, 65 percent
of black children raised in female-headed households, high crime rates and
fraudulent education are devastating problems, but they're not civil rights
problems. Furthermore, their solutions do not lie in civil rights strategies.
Civil rights organizations' expenditure of resources and continued focus on
racial discrimination is just as intelligent as it would be for the March of
Dimes to continue to expend resources fighting polio in the U.S. Like the March
of Dimes, civil rights organizations should revise their agenda and take on the
big, non-civil rights problems that make socioeconomic progress impossible for a
large segment of the black community."
—Walter Williams---
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