Sayings
Issue #50 Posted Nov. 1, 2007

"For those who are in sovereign control of arms are in a sovereign position to decide whether the constitution is to continue or not." -- Aristotle, The Politics, page 416, Penguin Books, revised edition 1981

"There is no virtue in slavery, and the only time you should turn the other cheek is to facilitate using your non-dominate eye in acquiring a sight-picture." -- Jim Smith

"Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." -- George Washington

"Oderint, dum metuant" (Let them hate, so long as they fear) -- Lucius Accius(170 B.C.)

Regarding self-important people, who think they are God's gift to the world, there is a saying ... "The higher the monkey goes up the tree, the more of his ass you see."

"Of every one-hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there. Eighty are nothing but targets. Nine are real fighters and we are lucky to have them. They make the battle. Ah! But the one, one of them is a warrior...and he will bring the others back." -- Hericletus c. 500 B.C.

"Every time we talk about these taxes we get around to the idea of 'from each according to his capacity and to each according to his needs'. That's socialism. It's written into the Communist Manifesto. Maybe we ought to see that every person who gets a tax return receives a copy of the Communist Manifesto with it so he can see what's happening to him." -- T. Coleman Andrews

"Don’t be so open minded that your brains fall out." -- Unknown

With a rifle you can reach out and touch someone with real sincerity.

"The power to tax involves the power to destroy." -- Justice John Marshall

Question: How many far left loons does it take to screw in a light bulb?  Answer: It doesn't matter. They will never see the light anyway.

"What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin." -- Mark Twain

"The income tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf." -- Will Rogers

"I no longer have an assault rifle; I have a Jihadi Paradise Facilitator. -- Andy Anderson

"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

"A bilingual nation can't and won't cut it. Language enshrines and perpetuates cultural division, of which surely we have enough right now." -- William Murchison

"What a glorious morning this is!" -- Samuel Adams (to John Hancock at the Battle of Lexington, Massachusetts, 19 April 1775)

"A .348 Winchester 200 grain factory load will go clean through two underfed Yucatan bandits!" -- Col. Carl Haun, big game hunter and financial partner of Ben Pearson, the bow maker

"Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they want a war let it begin here." -- Captain John Parker at the Battle of Lexington

"Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness." -- George Washington

"The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalry of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise." -- Mark Twain

"We know the Race is not to the swift nor the Battle to the Strong. Do you not think an Angel rides in the Whirlwind and directs this Storm?" -- John Page

Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!" -- George Washington

"The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution." -- John Adams

"Patriotism itself is a necessary link in the golden chains of our affections and virtue." -- Stephen Decatur

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." -- Thomas Jefferson

"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 me liberty or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry

"Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country." -- Noah Webster

"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, 'What should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? 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

"Any single man must judge for himself whether circumstances warrant obedience or resistance to the commands of the civil magistrate; we are all qualified, entitled, and morally obliged to evaluate the conduct of our rulers. This political judgment, moreover, is not simply or primarily a right, but like self-preservation, a duty to God. As such it is a judgment that men cannot part with according to the God of Nature. It is the first and foremost of our inalienable rights without which we can preserve no other." -- John Locke

"May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us in all our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy." -- George Washington

There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." -- James Madison

"The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave." -- Patrick Henry

"We live in an age disturbed, confused, bewildered, afraid of its own forces, in search not merely of its road but even of its direction. There are many voices of counsel, but few voices of vision; there is much excitement and feverish activity, but little concert of thoughtful purpose. We are distressed by our own ungoverned, undirected energies and do many things, but nothing long. It is our duty to find ourselves." -- Woodrow Wilson

"If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." -- Thomas Jefferson

"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families." -- Benjamin Rush

"The reason this country continues its drift toward socialism and big nanny government is because too many people vote in the expectation of getting something for nothing, not because they have a concern for what is good for the country... If children were forced to learn about the Constitution, about how government works, about how this nation came into being, about taxes and about how government forever threatens the cause of liberty perhaps we wouldn't see so many foolish ideas coming out of the mouths of silly old men." -- Lyn Nofziger

"A welfare state is frightened of every poor person who tries to get in and every rich person who tries to get out." -- Harry Browne

"Government machinery has been described as a marvelous labor saving device which enables ten men to do the work of one." -- John Maynard Keynes

"A society that puts equality...ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom." -- Milton Friedman

"America is another name for opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of divine Providence in behalf of the human race." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common." -- John Locke

"Remember, a small light will do a great deal when it is in a very dark place. Put one little tallow candle in the middle of a large hall, and it will give a good deal of light." -- Dwight L. Moody

"A pessimist is someone who looks both ways before crossing a one-way street."

"Freedom can exist only in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights." -- Benjamin Rush

"If our confidence in God had to depend upon our confidence in any human person, we would be on shifting sand." -- Francis Schaeffer

"He who is unaware of his ignorance will be only misled by his knowledge." -- Richard Whately

"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life." -- Robert Heinlein

"Once the government becomes the supplier of people's needs, there is no limit to the needs that will be claimed as a basic right." -- Lawrence Auster

"A government can be compared to our lungs. Our lungs are best when we don't realize they are helping us breathe. It is when we are constantly aware of our lungs that we know they have come down with an illness." -- Lao-Tzu

"Where there are no men, strive to be a man" -- Hillel

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher an animal, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -- Heinlein

"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking" -- Patton

"Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors." -- Joseph Story

"That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil, in case he do otherwise." -- John Stuart Mill

"We can't have lasting peace unless we work actively and vigorously to bring about conditions of freedom and justice in the world." -- Harry Truman

"Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other." -- Edmund Burke

"The reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order..." -- Niccolo Machiavelli

"Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being." -- Lord Acton

2007-6