Sayings
Issue #26 Posted December 20, 2002

"Injustice is rife when people have no conscience. In our time, only politically correct official 'victim groups' are deserving of concern, and the compassion they receive is orchestrated for the purpose of advancing political agendas." – Paul Craig Roberts

"No longer civil, no longer servants." – Winston Churchill commenting on government employees

"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles." – Jeff Cooper

"Of all our artifacts, personal weapons are the best examples of return on money expended. Let no one who buys a car, or a horse, or a sound system, or a house ever complain about the cost of a guns". – Jeff Cooper

I have developed a standard response to questions "Are you carrying a gun?" My standard response: "Gee, I don't know. That's kind of a personal question. Are you wearing underwear?"

"There can be no real peace while one American is dying some place in the world for the rest of us. We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it has been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening. . . .If we lose freedom here [in America], there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth." – Ronald Reagan (October 27, 1964)

"For a war to be just three conditions are necessary - public authority, just cause, right motive." – St. Thomas Aquinas

In war there is no prize for runner-up. – Omar N. Bradley

"I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the disposition to war; but of its abolition I despair." –Thomas Jefferson

"The natural order, which is suited to the peace of moral things, requires that the authority and deliberation for undertaking war be under the control of a leader." – Augustine of Hippo

"Happy is he who dares courageously to defend what he loves." – Ovid

"Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The chief cause of problems is solutions." – Eric Sevareid

"When you lose your national memory, you risk losing what you need for understanding your own time – and you risk losing the future as well as the past." –Thomas Sowell

"The more I observed Washington, the more frequently I visited it, and the more people I interviewed there, the more I understood how prophetic L'Enfant was when he laid it out as a city that goes around in circles." – John Mason Brown

"It's a curious fact about Americans that in their most fiercely patriotic moods they are willing to set aside their Constitution, the guarantor of their freedom, in order to prosecute war – yet they insist that the war is for 'freedom'." – Joseph Sobran

"Freedom from fear and injustice and oppression will be ours only in the measure that men who value such freedom are ready to sustain its possession – to defend it against every thrust from within and without." – Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Civil liberty can be established on no foundation of human reason which will not at the same time demonstrate the right to religious freedom." – John Quincy Adams

"Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful." – Shakespeare

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." – Sir Winston Churchill

"The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class." – Aristotle

"He serves his party best who serves his country best." – Rutherford B. Hayes

"The belief that public opinion or international public opinion, unbacked by force, had the slightest effect in restraining a powerful military nation in any course of action ... has been shown to be a pathetic fallacy." –Theodore Roosevelt

"There is nothing that makes more cowards and feeble men than public opinion." – Henry Ward Beecher

"Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable." – George Orwell

"It is sad that being a good patriot often means being the enemy of the rest of mankind." –Voltaire

"Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be." – Gen. Douglas MacArthur

"We do not admire a man of timid peace." – Theodore Roosevelt

"Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash." - -George S. Patton

"Self-government means self-support." – Calvin Coolidge

"After each war there is a little less democracy to save." –Brooks Atkinson

"The nearest approach to immortality on earth is a government bureau." – James F. Byrnes

"You know how Congress is. They'll vote for anything if the thing they vote for will turn around and vote for them. Politics ain't nothing but reciprocity." – Will Rogers

"If crime and disease are to be regarded as the same thing, it follows that any state of mind which our masters choose to call 'disease' can be treated as a crime; and compulsorily cured." – C.S. Lewis

"The law of the Constitution is illuminated by the philosophy set forth in the Declaration of Independence, so the two documents are properly read together." – Joan Aylor Kirby

"A strong case can be made that the First Amendment has never been more threatened than it is now by those in American public life who seek to silence opponents by gutting their constitutional right to think, believe and say as they please." – Mark Tapscott

"Wartime always brings expansions of state power, together with erosions of moral and constitutional standards." – Joseph Sobran

"Now that there's a real war on, isn't it time to tell the truth? The United States military exists to win our wars, not to serve as the tool of a bunch of noisy feminists." – Mona Charen

"The 'lesson of appeasement' is not that appeasement is futile. Appeasement is not futile, it is dangerous.... Appeasement doesn't merely fail to prevent catastrophe, it provokes catastrophe." – David Gelernter

"I cannot conceive a rank more honorable, than that which flows from the uncorrupted choice of a brave and free people, the purest source and original fountain of all power." – George Washington

"We Americans are the peculiar, chosen people – the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the liberties of the world." – Herman Melville

"The free man cannot be long an ignorant man." – William McKinley

"Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character." – Spinoza

"It's not victory if it doesn't end the war." – Michel de Montaigne

"Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised." –Niccolo Machiavelli

"It is impossible to attain proper physical condition without being sound both mentally and morally." – John Wooden

"The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people." – William O. Douglas

"Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people." – Henry Clay

"Where the people possess no authority, their rights obtain no respect." – George Bancroft

"The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government." – Henry Ward Beecher

"What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds." – Will Rogers

"Euphemism is the first refuge of the diplomat." – Paul Greenberg

2002-5


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