“The Public is exposed to powerful persuasive messages from above and is unable to communicate meaningfully through the media in response to these messages. . . Leaders have usurped enormous amounts of political power and reduced popular control over the political system by using the media to generate support, compliance, and just plain confusion among the public.
In essence, [all] media are major corporations selling a product to other businesses – advertisers. The national media typically target and serve elite opinions, groups that, on the one hand, provide an optimal “profile” for advertising purposes, and, on the other, play a role in decision-making for the private and public (governmental) interests.
Their “societal purpose” requires the media’s interpretation of the world reflects the interests and concerns of the sellers, the buyers, and the government and private business institutions dominated by these groups.” – Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, 1988; 307pgs.
“A journalist or commentator who does not want to have to work too hard can survive, even gain respectability, by publishing information from (official) sources [providing the masses with media masturbation].” – Ibid, Herman and Chomsky.
“We have already confessed to an already doubting nation that we are ruled by political cowardice rather than economic courage.” – The Grace Report, 1984 (see also: Fiscal “Cliff” Solutions – Remember the Grace Report? “It’s the Fraud, Waste and Abuse, Stupid!” this blog site dated 2013/03/02
“The society we seek can never become reality, and there will be no end to the trouble of States or of humanity, till those we call Kings and Rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy are grasped by the same hands.” – Plato, The Republic [at which time politicians will earn the title of Statesman – Ligon]
“Money makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value.” – Plato, The Republic
“Appearance tyrannizes over Truth.” – Ibid
“All politicians think they are King Midas, having pig snouts and asses ears.” – Moliere‘s Misanthrope; Bastiat, The Premium Theft: Economic Sophisms, p. 207
“When manufacturers hold meetings, we may be sure a plot is hatching against the pockets of the public.” – Adam Smith, 1788; Bastiat, Economic Sophisms, p. 209
“There is an inherent difficulty in using Reason to deal with an unReasoning world.” – Walter Lippman, Public Opinion, 1920; p. 259
“In America, businessmen come almost as cheap as politicians. The typical American businessman cares no more for his city’s interest than the politician does. Businessmen pay for their “little favors” in contributions to both Parties campaign funds – and in the loss of self-respect, the Liberty of the citizens generally, and in higher taxes foisted onto the average taxpayer due to the businessman not paying for public utility services.” – Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of Our Cities, p. 108
“They are strangers who see only their own shadows.” – The Republic of Plato, Book Seven.
Secretary of Defense Austin’s Fox interview 29 October 2024: “We don’t want to live in a world where a tyrant can wake up one morning and arbitrarily erase a sovereign nation’s border.” – only Biden / Harris can do that.
Kamallah claims Trump wants a military command faithful to him not the Constitution. Yet she and Biden appointed a D.E.I. general as SECDEF, promotes only those military officers who promulgate their WOKE ideology and kick out anyone in the military who disagrees with their agenda, i.e. COVID shots. What monumental hypocrisy! – Ligon
“Sometimes death is expected and sometimes it comes like a lightening bolt. That’s why we need to be grateful for every day we’re given.” – Doctor G: Medical Examiner
“The primary defect of representative government is the failure of self-governing people to obtain a broader body of knowledge that transcends their own narrow, casual experience. This leads to erroneous opinions and deeply entrenched prejudice.
It is because of this that governments, schools, media, and churches make such small headway against violent prejudice, apathy, preference for the trivial as against the important, and the hunger for sideshows and three-legged calves.
All other defects of popular government can be traced back to this one.” – Walter Lippman, Public Opinion, 1922; p. 230
“[So called] political “Great Men or Women” are usually known to the public only through a carefully coiffed, fictionalized personality.” – Ibid, p. 5
“Heroes are [often] made through the same manipulation of perception as devils.” – Ibid, p. 7
“So bad is the contact of legislators with necessary facts they are forced to rely on the grossly biased advice of lobbyists, or on that legalized atrocity, the congressional investigation, where congressmen, starved of legitimate sources of food for thought, go on a wild, feverish (but mostly blind) manhunt – and do not stop at cannibalism.” – Ibid, p. 183.
“During the last [decades] there has grown up in this country a set of colossal [bureaucracies] in which unmeasured success and continued immunity from punishment have bred an insolent disregard of the law, of common morality, and of public and private rights, together with a grim determination to hold on to – at all costs – the great [power] and possessions they have gulped or captured.
It is the same “system” which has taken from the millions of citizens [trillions] of dollars, and given it over to a score or two of men with power to use and enjoy them as freely as if those trillions had actually been earned by their own labor.” – Thomas William Lawson, Frenzied Finance, Intro. p. vii; 1905, reprinted in 1968
“Freedom and equity are controlled by dollars. The laws which should preserve and enforce all rights are made and enforced by dollars. Dollars steer the selection of candidates of both political Parties for the highest office in our republic- the President of the United States. It is mimicked by the moneyed selection of candidates for the executive and legislative conduct and control of every State and municipality in the United States; and to ‘steer’ the doings of the lawmakers and law enforcers of the National, State, and municipal governments of the people; and to ‘steer’ a sufficient proportion of court decisions to make absolute any power created by such ‘steering.”
I shall go further and say that there exists today uncontrolled in the hands of a set of men a power to make dollars from nothing.” – Thomas William Lawson, Frenzied Finance, 1905; (reprinted 1968)
See also: The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America by David A. Stockman, 2013
“Our national government is only one political machine that reads “Republican” on one side and “Democrat” on the other – the one being the thumb the other the forefinger of the same hand manipulated by the cabal of special interests who pay for legislation protecting and profiting them at the expense of the citizens.” – David Graham Phillips, The Treason of the Senate, 1906 p. 98 (reprinted in 1964)
– “A Senator’s most treasonous work is done out of the public eye in ‘conference,’ in ‘caucus,’ or in ‘committee.”- all secret!” ibid p. 108
– “All the important committees are composed of a secure majority of seasoned veterans in treason and noiseless stealth.” – p 112;
– “One may smile and smile and still be a villain.” – p 73
– “Senatorial courtesy” – the hypocritical mask behind which senators who pose as real representatives of the people hide. P 85
“Delivering the commencement speech at Harvard in 1978, Alexandr Sohlzenitsyn called the United States, “de-Christianized” and mired in boorish consumerism. The American people, he said, were also suffering from a “decline in courage” and a “lack of manliness.” Few were willing to die for their ideals, he said. He also accused the Western news media of left-wing bias, and of filling up the “immortal souls” of their readers with celebrity gossip and other vain talk. He also said that the West erred in thinking that the whole world should embrace this as a model. (Bush, Jr.)
In an interview with Joseph Pearce, Solzhenitsyn was asked whether he felt the socioeconomic theories of E.F. Schumacher were “the key to society rediscovering its sanity.” He replied, “I do believe it would be the key, but I don’t think this will happen, because people succumb to fashion, and they suffer from inertia, and it is hard for them to come around to a different point of view.” – Alexandr Solhzenitsyn, Repentance and Self-Limitation in the Life of Nations, 1974
“On election day in 1895, New York City Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt raised the standards for the 11,000 Election Day poll workers provided by the two dominant political parties. His police department rejected almost 1,000 poll workers on either intelligence or moral grounds.”
(Read: Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York by Richard Zacks, 2012 for other remedies to today’s balloting “irregularities”)
“…out of the gobbledygook comes a very clear thing. . . You can’t trust the government, you can’t believe what they say, and you can’t rely on their judgment; and the – the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this, because it shows that people do things the president wants to do even though it’s wrong, and the president can be wrong.” – H.R. Halderman to President Nixon after publication of The Pentagon Papers, 1970.
“Our part as citizens of the republic is plain enough. We must stand our ground. We must fight the good fight. Heartsick and depressed as we may be at times because of the spread of graft in high places and its frightfully contaminating influence, we must still hold up our heads.
We must never lose an opportunity to show that as private citizens we are opposed to public plunderers. We should interest ourselves in every scrap of information as to official treason that comes our way. We must be as patient in the study of corruption as we are impatient with its creatures and their punishment.” – David Graham Phillips, The Treason of the Senate, 1906
Kamala’s Campaign Catchphrase: “Otro Dia Mas Sin Verte!” (Another Day Without Truth) or “Another Day, Another Lie!“- adapted from Jon Secada’s song of the same name
“I implore you (America) not to lose sight of your own values, your historically unique stability of civic life under the rule of law – a hard won stability which grants independence and space to every private citizen,” – Alexandre Solzhenitsyn, September 14, 1993
“The Unfortunate results from the dominance of the political Party upon politics has been to benumb the voter intellectually; to stifle free thought and free speech. Let a man advance a new idea or issue and, if the Party leaders do not favor it, the independent thinker is crushed.” – Ray Stannard Baker, 1908.
Truer words have never been spoken: “In the end, Evil will be defeated, but not before much sorrow.” – Galadriel, The Rings of Power
“Wisdom and Principle are never a match for Vanity and Ambition.” – Major Brian Urquehart, British Airborne Corps Chief of Intelligence for Operation Market Garden. [NOTE: It is as true in politics as it is in war. – Ligon]
“Truth and Freedom will not Prevail without Courageous Action by the Citizenship. We have Lexington and Concord proving that.” – Ligon Law
“New heroes are always sought as forgotten heroes are continually found; for True eloquence does not wither with age, and Truth outlasts all Lifetimes.” – Mansion Voice Publishers
The greatest social calamities have been created by conniving legislators supported by public ignorance, apathy, or laziness. – Ligon Law
“Lotteries [gambling] are the poetic fantasies of the already – or soon to be – poor.” – Bastiat, Economic Sophisms, p. 283
“We shall soon have to handle Truth, not with kid gloves, but with gauntlets, – the gauntlets of holy courage and integrity. Go on, ye warriors of the cross, for the King is at the head of you.” – Charles Spurgeon, 1866
“The public school has done its best for us, and for the country, when it has made us into good Americans.” – Mary Antin, The Promised Land, January 1912; 436 pgs.
“Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of public money for that purpose.” Horatio Bunce to Congressman Davy Crockett
“The pushback by unions over reopening classrooms is a smokescreen for using our schools to sexualize our children and train them in anti-American ideology. Teachers’ unions are teaching out children to sext, to view pornography, and hooking them up with online sex ‘experts. What they are doing is grooming our children for abuse by sexual predators.” – Rebecca Friedrichs, Standing Up to Goliath: Battling State and Local Teachers Unions for the Heart and Soul of our Kids and Country; 304 pgs. November 2018
See: www.ForKidsandCountry.com
It is axiomatic that any Nation without a moral compass is lost at sea – without rudder, sail or stars; subject to being buffeted and capsized by every random wave or the slightest breeze. – Ligon Law
In her 2004 study published in World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues, Catherine Austin-Fitts reported having found “evidence that a very large percentage of the nation’s wealth has been illegally diverted for several decades into secret unaccountable channels and programs with unspecified purposes – including covert operations and subversions abroad and clandestine military R&D at home. Public institutions have been infiltrated and taken over by shadowy groups in the service of powerful private and vested interests, often at the expense of the common good.
In 2017 Fitts co-authored a report, with Michigan State University economist Mark Skidmore, that claimed to find $21 trillion in “unauthorized spending” by the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development over a 17-year period. Fitts claims HUD’s mission of spurring economic growth is secondary to what she contends is its use as a fundraising mechanism for military and intelligence agencies involving a complex securities scheme using HUD-backed Ginnie Mae investments. According to Fitts, HUD overpays to rehabilitate public housing and funnels the difference into unaudited black budget programs at the behest of national security agencies.” – wikipedia [since first finding this the entry was changed to discredit Fitts despite recent Congressional findings and a feckless confession by Facebook’s Zuckerberg]
“Real power stays in the shadows.” – Atomic Energy Commission President Strauss who contrived the 1954 discrediting campaign against J. Robert Oppenheimer.
“You can’t fool all of the people all of the time, but you can fool enough of them to run a large country.” – Abraham Lincoln
Kamala’s Budget:
“O, Fo! Take pity on thy people; for I see clearly that in a short time we shall be in want of everything, for we shall no longer be required to do anything!” – Kouang, Minister of Economy to the Chinese emperor; 700 B.C.; Bastiat, Economic Sophisms, p. 201
Victor Hugo:
“An intelligent Hell would be better than a stupid paradise.”
“It is not easy to keep silent when silence is a Lie.”
“It is from books that wise people derive consolation in the troubles of Life.”
“Not being heard is no reason for silence.”
“If the soul is left in darkness sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.”
“When the spirit of begging reaches the point of inciting the entire nation to plunder the budget, do people not think it compromises national security even more than public resources?”
“Assuredly, if insurrection is ever a sacred duty, it must be when it is directed against [Tyranny]
“Contact with a wicked man is sometimes enough to rot a good deed.”
Bastiat’s Economic Sophisms:
“Professional economists in a very few words can announce a half-Truth [Alan Greenspan].”
“To destroy an Error is to build up the Truth which stands opposed to it.”
“Gambling is a tax on ignorance – and is socially revolting.” – “Warren Buffet: 10 Things Poor People Waste Money On; story by Josephine Nesbit
“If a legislator passes legislation arising from anything other than the Law of Nature, one tends toward slavery while the other tends toward freedom, one towards wealth and the other toward poverty, one to peace and the other to war; the law will be seen to become weaker, the constitution will be changed, and the state will not cease to suffer agitation until it is either destroyed or changed until invincible Nature has regained its empire.” – Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850); The Law, p. 129
Socialism:
“The government can not organize economic production without organizing injustice.”
“Government can be an instrument for equality only to the extent that it takes from some to give to others; thus government becomes an instrument of plunder.”
“Socialism is legal plunder.”
“Socialism confuses government with Society.”
“Socialists begin with the premise than Men do not have within themselves either a principle of action [purpose] or any means of discernment [common sense]; that they lack initiative; that they are made of inert matter, passive molecules, and atoms deprived of spontaneity; and that they are at most a form of plant life that is indifferent to its own mode of existence. . .”
“We should not be surprised that [politicians] consider society to be an artificial creation resulting from the genius of their legislation.” – Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), The Law; p. 123
“The larger the State the easier despotism is, and the greater the difficulty in establishing a moderate government.” – Turgot, On Universal History, 1750;
“Morality is that feeling for the good and the honorable which Providence has engraved on our hearts. It comes before Reason and leads philosophers of all ages to the same fundamental principles of the science of human behavior.” – – Turgot, On the Successive Advances of the Human Mind, 1750; p. 49
“When Men are ignorant it is easy to know everything.” – Turgot, Ibid
“Once we establish the principle that property takes its existence from the law [rather than from Nature], there are as many possible means of organizing production as there are possible laws in the minds of dreamers. Once we establish the principle that the legislator is responsible for arranging, combining, and molding both people and property at will, there is no limit to the imaginable means by which people and property can be arranged, combined, and molded. … Their number is boundless. Every morning a new one may be hatched [by legislators]. . . . The human race would be reduced to the choice of either changing its way of carrying on every morning or continuing forever down a path known to be erroneous.” – Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), Property and Law, p 49
“The legislator must feel that he has the strength [power] to transform human nature.” – Rousseau [and Obama], Bastiat, p 50
A Note to Democrats and Other Useful Idiots: “Only Principles have the Power to satisfy people’s minds, to win over their hearts and to unite all serious minds.” – Bastiat, p. 47
To Congress and COVID-Colluding Corporate CEOs:
“A person with no moral compass will have no moral fiber and be of bad character.
When politicians have no character they become greedy, selfish and self-serving.
Politics is not a level playing field. The Power of Money has corrupted the field of politics.
Politics is a dirty game of greed, money, coercion, leverage, arm twisting, blackmail and selfishness.
Time and time again the majority of politicians have served selfish interests (moneyed lobbyists) instead of national interests.” – Errol Anthony Smythe
Wall Street / Congress:
“When plunder becomes a way of Life for a group of men in a society,
over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that
authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it.”
– Frederic Bastiat’s Theory of Plunder
“The Holocaust teaches us that Nature, even in its’ cruelest moments,
is benign in comparison with man when he loses his moral compass
and his reason.” – Samuel Pisar
“How can we expect righteousness to prevail
when there is hardly anyone willing to
offer himself up individually to a
righteous cause?” – Sophie Scholl, “The White Rose”
moments before her execution February 22, 1943
“Men have forgotten God,
that’s why all this happened.”
– Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 1974.
Throughout history and increasingly so today,
unimaginable mayhem has been committed
on mankind due to humanity’s lazy and impulsive
proclivity for believing in Lies.” – Ligon
“Far from dissolving into anarchy, the American government could become as oppressive as any cruel European monarchy. Americans would end up having equality through tyranny.” – Alexis de Tocqueville, On Democracy
The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will forget what it is and what it was.”
“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetfulness.” – Milan Kundera, The New Book of Laughter and Forgetting, 1979; 320 pgs.
“He who fears facing his own past must necessarily fear what lies before him. . . Lying can never save us from The Lie. Falsification of history does not safeguard freedom but imperils it. Truth liberates man from fear. Honest history is the weapon of freedom.” – Vaclav Havel, Czech playwright and president
“In a land without history, he who fills the memory, defines the concepts, and interprets the past wins the future.” – Anon
“If Alex Haley, author of Roots, had traced his father’s rather than his mother’s bloodline, he would have traveled 12 generations back to, not Gambia, but Ireland.” – Eric Hobsdawn, Arthur M. Schlesinger, The DisUniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society, 1991; p, 85
“[Politicians] vaunt themselves giants of eloquence when in fact they are oily tongued orators – asses strutting in lions’ skins keeping themselves untainted from the contagiousness of wisdom.” – Erasmus, In Praise of Folly, 1509; p. 17
“When it comes to arrogance, power, and lack of accountability, “journalists” are the only people on the planet who make lawyers look good.” – Steven Brill
“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for delusion is great.” – Saul Bellow
“I never gave them [Congress] hell, I just told the Truth and they thought it was Hell.” – President Harry “Give ’em hell, Harry!” S. Truman
“In despotic states, education is wholly employed to break down people’s courage. Fear and deference seize hold of the imagination. The sovereign governs using terror and dazzle. This despotism extends over social manners, which dulls men’s minds even more; reduces everything to uniformity and induces in citizens a tired lethargy.”- “Society and government are different in origin. Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness. Society is a blessing. Government, at best, but a necessary evil.” – Turgot, p. 80
“Arbitrary acts violate unalienable rights and result in catastrophic consequences.” – French Parlement, March 11,1788 warning to King Louis XVI a year before the French Revolution; Durant, X:947
“The deadly contrivance of borrowing derives from the mania of spending more than one owns. . .; the ambition of [presidents and politicians] has no less been the cause of it (the borrowing) through their stubborn wars pushed to the point of exhaustion.” – Turgot, The Successive Advances of the Human Mind, December 11, 1750
“Most people resist acknowledging reality only because they would collapse if they accepted it.” – Goethe; Durant, X:618
“Intellectual education must come only after the formation of moral character.” – Rousseau; Durant, X:181
“The sovereign power in any state lies not in any ruler – individual or corporate – but in the general will of the community; and that sovereignty, though it may be delegated in part and for a time; can never be surrendered.
The general will or ‘public spirit’ should be the voice not only of the citizens now living, but of those dead and yet to be born; hence its character is given to it not only by present wills but by the past history and future aims of the community. It is like some old family that thinks of itself as one through generations, honors its ancestors, and protects its progeny.
So a Statesman [should] feel himself bound to think not in terms of the next election but of many future generations.” – Rousseau, The Social Contract, 1761; Durant, X:172
“Almost nothing great has ever been done in the world except by the genius and firmness of a single man combating the prejudices of the masses.” – Voltaire, Durant, X:142
“Religion is a necessary part of Patriotism.” – Napolean, 1821; Durant, XI:_
“The business of paid clergy is as successful as a celluloid dog chasing an asbestos cat through Hell.” – Elbert Hubbard, 1923; Annals of America.
“Individualism is the snake in every Socialist paradise.” – Durant, XI:640
“Once you bid farewell to discipline you say goodbye to success.” – Anon
“An army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army cannot defeat the enemy.” – Mao
“They who cross the seas change only the country, not their disposition.” – T.S. Baynes, Logic or the Art of Thinking, 1850; p. 133
“Here is the most dangerous source of evil under Communism: All who have any opinion or preference concerning the education they desire for their own children would have to rely on any influence they could [or would be permitted to] exercise in the joint decision of the “community.” – John Stuart Mill, Socialism, 1879; p. 85
“An indispensable condition of humanity is that human beings should have freedom in both thought and behavior; that people should think for themselves and not resign into the hands of rulers the business of thinking for them, and prescribing how they should act. In Communism private life [is] brought under the control of public authority. There would be no less opportunity for the development of individual character and individual preferences that than what already exists among the citizens of “progressive” states. Already in all societies [cities] the compression of individuality by the majority is a great and growing evil. It would be much greater under Communism.” – Ibid, p. 35
“Socialists proclaim themselves to be content to begin by simple subversion, leaving the subsequent reconstruction to take care of itself; and by subversion, they mean the annihilation of all government, and the getting of all private property of all kinds out of the hands of the possessors to be used for “the general benefit,” but in what mode it will be time enough afterwards to decide.” – Ibid, p. 3
Hate not your [politicians] but yourselves. One of the sources of your misery is your exaggerated estimate of these [elected officials], whose minds are warped by an enervating education, indulgence, and [partisanship]. These are the men who are exhorted to suppress freedom of thought. . . . Cry aloud to your [politicians] that you will never permit your freedom of thought to be filched from you!” – Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), Restoration of Freedom of Thought by the Princes of Europe, 1793; Durant XI:637
“The end of all political associations [Parties] is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible Rights of Man; these rights are Liberty, Property, Security, and resistance to Oppression.” – Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, 1791
“Self interest is the ethic and policy of all governments when disguise and pretense have been removed.” – Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832); Durant XI:403-407
“The persistence of Evil requires the persistence of punishment; relax this and crime will grow.” – Joseph Maistre (1753-1821); Durant XI:334
“Punish dishonesty ruthlessly.” – Napolean to his son Eugene; Durant XI:246
“So long as one grows up without knowing whether to be conservative or liberal, religious or irreligious, the state will never form a nation. It will rest on vague and uncertain foundations; it will be constantly exposed to disorder and change.” – Napolean Bonaparte; Durant XI: 264
“The first prerequisite of progress is the liberation of the mind from political control.” – Madame Germaine de Stael (1766-1817); Durant XI:290
“Our legal code must be sanctioned by God or it will collapse against the Nature of Man. No code of human origin will carry sufficient authority to control the unsocial instincts of Men; the fear of God is the beginning of civilization, and the love of God is the goal of morality. That fear and love must be handed down, generation after generation by parents, teachers, and clergy.
Parents with no God to transmit, teachers with no support in creed, will find the infinite inventiveness of selfishness, passion, and greed stronger that their uninspired words.” – Ibid
“To let every supposed “adult” judge all matters by his own reason (weak through lack of experience and slave to desire) is to sacrifice order to Liberty. Such undisciplined Liberty becomes license, and social disorder threatens the power of the group to unite against attack from without or disintegration from within.” – Joseph Maistre 1810; Durant XI:333
“Freedom ends where slavery and submission to drugs and alcohol begin. It involves free, self-chosen activity and understanding; it means mature self-control and independence. Any person who escapes from reality through the use of alcohol and drugs is no longer a free agent; he is no longer able to exert any voluntary control over his mind and his actions. He is no longer a self-responsible individual. Alcoholism and drug addiction prepare the pattern of mental submission so beloved by the Totalitarian brainwasher.” Joost Meerloo, The Rape of the Mind, 2015; p. 60
“Most nations’ morality today is now nothing more than a collection of precepts dictated by the powerful to secure their authority and to be unjust with impunity.” – Helvetius; Durant IX:687.
“It is folly to think that one’s “superiors” have souls equal to their rank, even more so to give credibility to their opinions.” – Descartes’ Discourse on the Method, Pt. II; Philosophical Writings, Vol. I, pg. 116-17; Logic, or the Art of Thinking by Antoine Arnauld, Pierre Nicole 1683; translated by Jill Vance Buroker, 1997
“The people are absolved from obedience when illegal attempts are made upon their liberties and properties. The purpose of government is the good of its citizens. Rulers should be opposed when they grow exorbitant in the use of their power and employ it for the destruction of the people.” – John Locke; Durant VIII:582
“Every time a [president] creates an office, God creates a fool to fill it.” – Durant VIII: 693
“It is wholly repugnant to freedom when law enters the domain of speculative thought and opinions are put on the same footing as crimes, while those who defend and follow them are sacrificed not to public safety, but to their opponents hatred and cruelty.” –Spinoza (1632-77); Durant VIII:628
“The world machine loses energy in time and would run down if God did not intervene to restore its force. This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligence and powerful Being.” – Isaac Newton, Principia, 2d Edition
“. . . he studied the Bible as zealously as he studied the universe. An archbishop complimented him “You know more divinity than all of us together”; and Locke said of his knowledge of the Scriptures, “I know few his equals.” Isaac Newton left theological writings greater in bulk than all his scientific works.
He wrote a commentary on the Apocalypse, and argued that the anti-Christ therein predicted was the pope of Rome.” – Durant VIII:543
“Theologians at first feared the influence of the Principia on religion; but Bentley’s Boyle lectures (1692) turned the new world view to the support of Faith by stressing the apparent unity, order, and grandeur of the universe as evidences of the wisdom, power, and majesty of God.” – Durant VIII:546
“Depressions aren’t acts of God; like wars, they are the work of a small group of men who profit by them.” – New Orleans Times, Depression, Prosperity and Wars; Meigs Frost interview; July 22, 1934
(see: Trading with the Enemy: An Expose’ of the Nazi-American Money Plot 1933-1949 by Charles Higham, 1983)
“When bankers get into business they usually destroy it.” – New York Times, Banks, Bankers, Business and the Depression; January 31, 1933
[Congress:] “The clever exploiting the useful. Clothing usury under the pretext of Trade.”
– Durant (brackets mine]
A Case For the Unaffiliated Voter: “People are never so likely to be wrong as when they are “organized”. And they never have so little freedom. That is why the people “at large” (independent or unaffiliated voter) keep their freedom. People can be manipulated only when they are “organized”.
The most closely organized groups and movements in the world are those which have been the least friendly to the people’s progress and liberty.”
– Henry Ford, Organization and Unions; Ford News, September 15, 1922; p. 2.
Liberals: “Nature laughs at their puny conjectures. Their philosophy confounds the confused and darkens the obscure; they lavish time and wit upon logical and metaphysical subtleties with no result but wind.” – Erasmus, In Praise of Folly, 1509; Durant VI:277
“Let us satisfy our own consciences and not trouble ourselves with fame; be it never so ill it is to be so despised.” – Seneca; Sir Walter Raleigh’s History of the World; preface p. 46
When the Divine voice whispers in us we must not only listen, we must obey by committing the inspiration into some form of physical expression. God’s gifts each have a purpose – and rarely for the benefit of the hearer alone. – Ligon
“Those laws of Nature are within the grasp of the human mind. God wanted us to recognize them by creating us after His own image so that we could share in His own thoughts.
My wish is that I may perceive the God whom I find everywhere in the external world in like manner within me.” – Johannes Kepler (1571-1630); Durant VII:5__ .
– “Hence the knowledge of the Supreme unity is the goal of science and philosophy, and the healing medicine of the mind.” – Giordano Bruno (1548-1600); Durant VII:621
“The inadequate and biased transmission of news, and the profitable dissemination of nonsense barred the general public from any intelligent or concerted participation in politics, and made democracy impossible.” – Durant VII:579, The Transmission of Knowledge
“A chief cause of the general depravity of the students is undoubtedly the decline in home training. . . Now that ancient laws and statutes have been removed. . . it is no wonder that we find among the largest part of our young people, such unbridled licentiousness, such boorish ignorance, such terrible godlessness. Not the least among these causes are the comedies (TV), spectacles (concerts), and plays (movies). – Nathan Chytransin (1578- )
“The adults are quarrelsome hypocrites, gluttons, drunkards, and adulterers. Vice of all sorts is now so common that it is committed without shame, nay, people even boast of it in Sodomitish fashion; the coarsest, the most indecent sins have become virtues. . . Who regards common whoredom any longer as a sin.” – John Kuno, 1579; Durant VII:544
“Nothing so upholds the laws as the punishment of persons whose rank is as great as their crime.” – Richelieu, 1631; Durant VII:387
“They that come and tell you what to believe, what you are to do, and tell you not why, they are not physicians but leeches.” – John Hales; Durant VII:187
“Man could be remade by an enlightened education if we were willing to draw first rate minds into pedagogy.” – Francis Bacon, 1623;
– “There would be no gain to humanity if the extension of knowledge brought no gain in benevolence.” – Bacon,
“If I were to hang all those who take bribes I should soon have [neither trees] nor a Parliament left.” – King James I; Durant VII:171
“It is the function of government to maintain peace, order, and justice among all citizens impartially, without regard to their religious opinions.” – Chancellor L’Hopital, Conference of States, December 13, 1560; Durant VII:339
“God willing, I shall not let myself be governed by either Party, having learned only too well that they all love God, the King, and myself less than their profit. . . and the satisfaction of their own ambition.” – Catherine de Medici, 1519-1589; Durant VII:339
“The Five Marks of the Roman decaying culture:
1. Concern with displaying affluence instead of building wealth.
2. Obsession with sex and perversions of sex.
3. Art becomes freakish and sensationalistic instead of creative and original.
4. Widening disparity between the very rich and very poor.
5. Increased demand to live off the State.” – Edward Gibbon; The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; 1776-1789
“It is indeed a Herculean task to restore to the world literature in all its glory pure and unsullied to honest minds; to investigate what lay hidden, to bring to light what was concealed, to call to Life what had perished, to fill up gaps and emend a text corrupted in so many ways, especially by the fault of those [churches, universities and] common printers to whom the gain of one gold piece is worth more than the whole of Literature put together; and whose one secret ambition is to have a monopoly on wisdom.” – Erasmus, 1520 A.D.; On His Times, p. 10 [brackets mine]
“The man who sets fallen learning on its feet is building up a sacred and immortal thing, and serving not one province alone but all people and all generations – if only God will prosper the valiant efforts that are being made.” – Erasmus, Ibid
“War is sweet to those who have not experienced it.” – Erasmus, Ibid
“By a Carpenter man was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade.” – Erasmus, Ibid
“Intellectual beauty is superior to physical beauty. The Supreme beauty is the order, plan and harmony of the universe, which is the outward expression of Divine beauty; love rises in stages from the admiration and pursuit of physical to intellectual to Heavenly beauty, and culminates in the intellectual love of God – the understanding and appreciation of the cosmic order, and the desire to be [re]united with the Deity.” – Judah Leon Abrabanel “Leon Medigo”, Dialoghi d’Amore, 1535; Durant, VI:742 [brackets mine]
“School masters [teachers], in their own eyes are first among men. They grow old and deaf to [their own] clamor, wasting away in their own stench and filth. They enjoy great satisfaction when they terrify the trembling crowd with threatening voices and looks, venting their fury in any way they please like the famous ass of Cumae. The squalor they live in is sheer elegance to them, the stink smells of sweet marjoram, and their pitiful servitude seems like sovereignty, so that they wouldn’t exchange their tyranny for all the power of Phalaris or Dionysius.” – Erasmus, 1468-1536; Praise of Folly, p. 78
John Kerry’s flatulent pontification on climate change has as much impact on earth’s climate as a fart from a Newt. – Ligon Law
I believe if Einstein were alive and briefed on climate change by John Kerry he would come to the real scientific conclusion that both Kerry and climate change come closer than any other theory to absolute zero: (JK) x (CC) = O.
“I thirsted for knowledge from my youth. I first went to politicians seeking knowledge. I quickly discovered they didn’t know a thing. I then sought it from the lawyers and found the same thing.” – Socrates, 469-399 B.C.
“Wise men should steer clear of participating in politics.” – Socrates, 469-399B.C. (Erasmus, p. 38)
“If we would only look steadily upwards instead of downwards, we should see how many more are with us than with them; – how truly the whole mountain is full of horses and chariots of fire around us.” – Coulton; conclusion p. 354
“Universities are still tempted -through official timidity, natural laziness, or mere muddle – to neglect those questions of past history which are indeed most contentious, but which go nearest to the roots of human life.” – From St. Francis to Dante translations from the Chronicle of the Franciscan Salimbene (1221-1288 AD) by G.G. Coulton; 1906; 354 pgs.
If American law is derived from English jurisprudence then every American from the president on down should be subject to the 1322 A.D. English punishment for treason:
“The offender failing to provide security for the State is a traitor to his country and shall be dragged through the streets to the gallows, shall have his entrails torn out and burned before his face, and should then be hanged.” – Durant, VI:28
“The necessity of [preserving] a state, the principles on which alone states could be formed: the [politicians] have to be entirely suppressed; and though our idea of Freedom is incompatible with the means, including violence, deception, murder and the like – the despots who [need] to be subdued [are] assailable in no other way.” – Machiavelli, Durant V:565 (brackets mine)
“There are four causes of human error: the example of frail and unworthy authority [Joe Biden, Bush Jr.], long established custom [Political Parties], the sense of the ignorant crowd [Party members], and the hiding of ignorance under the show of wisdom [University presidents].” – Roger Bacon, 1768; Durant, IV:1008 (brackets mine)
“Insurrection carries through what politics has not accomplished.” – Trotsky, p. 435
GOP: Pygmies thinking of moving a mountain; Eunuchs of Justice in a moot majority.
Ousted Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy: “We passed more bills under my Speakership than any session before!” Passing bills out of the House doesn’t make them law, has no remedial effect on our lives; just legislative theater for the masses. Verbal Judo. – Ligon
“Cicero’s [any politician] orations abound more in egotism and rhetoric than in moral sincerity, philosophical wisdom, or even legal acumen or depth.” – Durant, III:161
“He who steals from a citizen ends his days in fetters and chains, but he who steals from his country ends them in purple and gold.” – Durant, III:90
“When leaders have made the populace ready and greedy to receive bribes, the virtue of democracy is destroyed, and it is transformed into a government of violence and the strong hand. For the mob, habituated to feed at the expense of others, and to have its hopes of a livelihood in the property of its neighbors, as soon as it has found a leader sufficiently ambitious and daring. . . produces a reign of violence.” – Durant, II:564
“A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.”
“The young man who has not wept is a savage; and the man who will not laugh is a fool.” – George Santayana, “Why I Am Not a Marxist” Modern Monthly: Volume 9; April 1935, p. 77-79.
“More than half of all people involved in serious or fatal accidents tested positive for drugs or alcohol.” – National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, December 2022, report no. DOT HS 813–399. Thank you iHeart Media, Inc. and all the other proponents of legalizing marijuana!
“Nearly 40% of the increase in the suicide rate could be attributed to the decline in religious service attendance.” – Tyler J. VanderWeele; Shanshun Li, and Ichiro Kawachi; Religious Service Attendance and Suicide Rates – Reply,” Letters, Comments and Response, JAMA Psychiatry 74, no. 2 (February 2017); 198
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one in five (20%) 0f Americans has a sexually transmitted infection. Research finds that the more sexual partners one has, the greater risk of developing mental difficulties and engaging in substance abuse.” – Wyndol Furman and Charlene Collibee, “Sexual Activity with Romantic and Nonromantic Partners and Psychosocial Adjustments in Young Adults,” – Archives of Sexual Behavior 43, no. 7 (October 2014); 1327-41
“There must be political order. There must be some unity of language to serve as a medium of mental exchange. Through church, or family, or school, or otherwise, there must be a unifying moral code, some rules of the game of Life acknowledged even by those who violate them, and giving to conduct some order and regularity, belief, some faith, that lifts morality from calculation to devotion, and gives Life nobility and significance despite our moral brevity. And there must be education – some technique for the transmission of culture. Whether through father or mother, teacher or priest, the lore and heritage of the tribe – its language and knowledge, its morals and manners, its technology and arts – must be handed down to the young, as the very instrument through which they are turned from animals into men.
The disappearance of these conditions – sometimes of even one of them – may destroy a civilization.
Civilizations are the generations of the social soul. As family-rearing, and then writing, bound generations together, handing down the lore of the dying to the young, so print and commerce and a thousand ways of communication may bind the civilization together, and preserve for future cultures all that is of value for them in our own. Let us, before we die, gather up our heritage, and offer it to our children.” – Durant, The Conditions of Civilization; I:3
[Two-Party Congress]: “Hereditary rule passed from Scoundrels and Geniuses to Cowards and Fools.” – Durant, I: 837
Further evidence that our Founding Fathers were not the miscreants the current Useful Idiots think they were, is they included in the Declaration of Independence a clause giving the people the right to “throw the bums out!” – or words to that effect- if our government becomes intolerable. Their source for this concept comes from Chinese Confucian philosopher Mencius (372-289 B.C.) who introduced the “Divine Right of Revolution“: that if any ruler acted as a tyrant and oppressed his people, the people have the right to revolt against him and even kill him.” Rulers [and Presidents] stop being rulers [and Presidents]- and therefore their legitimacy– when they become tyrants.
“The people are the actual and proper source of political sovereignty, for any government that does not retain their confidence sooner or later falls.” – Book of Odes, Confucius; Durant, Vol. I, p. 671
“Obscurity of thought and insincere inaccuracy of speech are national calamities.” – Confucius; Durant, III; p 666
“Human beings are not mere pawns in this cosmic war; they have free will, since Ahura-Mazda (the Lord) wished them to be personalities in their own right; they might freely choose whether they would follow the Light or the Lie. For Ahriman (the Devil) was the Living Lie and every liar is his servant.” – Zarathustra; Durant, III; p. 369
“Sanity, like government, needs checks and balances; no mortal can be omnipotent and remain sane.” – Durant, Vol. III; p. 266
“Crowds pay no homage to phrases too long used to cover greed,” – Durant, Vol. III, p. 198
“The aristocracy, foreseeing its extinction on Caesar’s return, resolved to kill him before he could.” – Durant, Vol. III, p. 194 [“one may compare each stage with a corresponding moment of our own cultural trajectory, and be warned by the ancient aftermath.” – preface vii-viii]
“When public discontent became acute, some cause could be found for a war that would provide universal employment, spread depreciated money, and turn the wrath of the people against a foreign foe.” – Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. III, p. 80
“Religion shared with the family the honor and responsibility of forming the iron character which was the secret of Rome’s mastery of the world.” – Durant, Vol. III, p. 67
“The first to defy, the first to die. The first to pour out his blood as a precious libation on the altar of a people’s rights.” – Crispus Attucks, a seaman of African and Native American ancestry killed by two musket balls from British soldier William Warren during the Boston Massacre.
“Formerly the blessing of children was woman’s pride; now she boasts that she ‘would rather face battle three times than bear one child.
The fertility, order, and courage of a nation requires moral commandments supported by religious belief.” – Marcus Terentius Varro, first public librarian of Rome, 18 B.C.; Durant, Vol. III; p. 159
“Ever since the State fell under the sway of a few powerful men all influence, rank, and wealth have been in their hands. To us they have left danger, defeat, prosecutions, poverty…What have we left save our breath of Life? Is it not better to die valiantly than to lose our wretched and dishonored lives after being the sport of other men’s insolence?” – Cicero, 70 B.C.; Durant, Vol. III
“We call [God] and men to witness that it is not against our country that we have taken up arms, nor against the safety of our fellow citizens. We, who through the violence and cruelty of usurers [and politicians, judges, prosecutors, etc.] are without a country, condemned to scorn and indigence, are actuated by only one wish: to guarantee our personal security against wrong. We demand neither power nor wealth, those great and external cause of strife among mankind. We only ask for freedom, a treasure that no man will surrender except with Life itself. We implore you, Senators, have pity on your miserable fellow citizens!” – Cicero, 65 B.C.
“We shall learn more of the nature of man by watching his behavior through sixty centuries than by reading Plato and Aristotle, Spinoza and Kant. “All philosophy,” said Nietsche, “has fallen forfeit to history.” That panorama…resembles significantly, and sometimes with menacing illumination, the civilization and problems of our day. This is the advantage of studying a civilization – that one may compare each stage with a corresponding moment of our own cultural trajectory, and be warned by the ancient aftermath.
There is the war that consumes our interludes of peace; and the desperate effort of the soul to maintain some freedom against a despotic state is an augury of our coming task.”
– Will Durant, The Story of Civilization III, Caesar and Christ; preface vii-viii.
“Cesar Chavez, iconic migrant agriculture union leader, established a “wet” line to prevent illegal aliens from entering the U.S. and taking jobs from legal day workers. …and to deport those who were already here.” – Wikipedia
“History would have no value if it taught us nothing. For it is proven by the whole course of history that society, torn as it is by inner contradictions, conclusively reveals in a revolution, not only its anatomy, but also its soul.” – Leon Trotsky, The Russian Revolution: The Overthrow of Tsarism and the Triumph of the Soviets, 1959; translated from the Russian by Max Eastman; p. 245
“The fundamental premise of a Revolution is that the existing social structure has become incapable of solving the urgent problems of national development.”
“Insurrection comes into being at exactly that moment when direct action alone offers a way out of oppression.” – p. 315
“The first task of every insurrection is to bring the troops over to its side.” – p. 318
“There is no doubt that the fate of every revolution at a certain point is decided by a break in the disposition of the army.” – p. 116
“Either the machine gun will wipe out the insurrection, or the insurrection will capture the machine gun.” – p. 115
“In a serious struggle there is no worse cruelty than to be magnanimous at an inopportune time.” – p. 351
“It usually takes three generations of intense [and general] disillusionment to undermine traditional loyalties.” – Lyford P. Edwards, The Natural History of Revolution, 1970
“There are times when silence is not neutrality, but assent.” – George Soule’, The Coming American Revolution, 1934; p. 197
“Every man has the right to examine the origin and foundation of every power and measure in a nation. It ought to give no more offense to say Congress has erred or is mistaken than to say it of a private man. If the assertion can be proven, it is a kindness to show them the Truth. It is the duty of every good citizen to point out what he thinks erroneous in the nation.” – James Otis, Rights of the Colonies, 1761; Annals of America, Vol. 2; p. 109
“Americans will not tolerate any political institution which is founded on fear.” – John Adams, The Foundation of Government, January 1776; Annals of America, Vol. 2
“Political Parties are old, arbitrary hierarchies represented by puppet symbols.” – William Faulkner, On Privacy, Annals of America, Vol. 17, p. 30
“One is a sick child, the other an utterly stupid man.” – opinion of the Russian [and American] population of tsarevich Alexei and Tsar Nicholas [and Hunter and Joe Biden] Leon Trotsky, The Russian Revolution, p. 168; translated by Max Eastman, 1989
“Once a man is weak-minded he can no longer be king.” – Ibid, 168; quoting Danton referring to King Louis XVI. [“those who fail to learn from history….!”]
“Past experience has inevitably found that the source of investigative corruption has been politicians in power.” – Robert Homans, Ukraine SitRep 9/9/2023; Graham Seibert Newsletter.
“We run carelessly to the precipice after we have put something before us to prevent us from seeing it.” – Blaise Pascal, Pensees, 1670
“If any question why we died,
tell them because
Our Father’s lied.” – Rudyard Kipling, Epitaphs of the War, 1914-1918
To All Politicians and Commanders Who Lied to Keep their Careers – Especially the Marine “commander” who told his sniper “I don’t know.”
“I could not dig; I [chose to] rob;
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my Lies are proved Untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?” – Kipling, Ibid
(See: The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War by Craig Whitlock, August 2021. Compare with The Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg, 1971
“For rising generations, it will become a real problem at what point the policies you are ordered to carry out have become so iniquitous that a decent man must seek some other profession.” – C. S. Lewis
“It is said relationships are a lot like algebra. Haven’t you looked at X and pondered Y?” – anon
“Tis time there should be a separation between the honest man and knaves,… between respectable stockholders and mere unprincipled gamblers.” – Alexander Hamilton, 1792 from The Dumbest Moments in Business History by Adam Horowitz, 1968; p. 112
“The higher a monkey climbs a pole the more you can see his butt.” – anon.
“Tonight, turn your weapons to the Capitol!” – Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games
“To do Justice is the king’s first business.” Plutarch, Lives; 2 A.D.; p. 743
“This was the only satisfaction of the distressed citizenry, that they need not require any other justice on their oppressors than seeing them murder each other.” Ibid, p. 859
“Nothing is more terrible than a military force moving about in an empire upon uninstructed and unreasoning impulses.” – Ibid.
***See: The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War by Craig Whitlock, 2021 and The Pentagon Papers by Daniel Elsberg, 1971. Compare the two!
“Today the Christian constitutionalist mourns for his country. He sees the spiritual and political faith of his fathers betrayed by wolves in sheep’s clothing. He sees the forces of evil increasing in strength and momentum under the leadership of Satan, the arch-enemy of freedom. He sees the wicked honored and the valiant abused. He senses that his own generation faces Gethsemanes and Valley Forges that may yet rival or surpass the trials of the early Apostles and the men of ’76. And this gives him cause to reflect on the most basic of fundamentals – the reason for our existence. Once we
understand that fundamental, the purpose for mortality, we may more easily chart a correct course in the perilous seas that are engulfing our nation.”
“The fight for freedom is God’s fight… . When a man [or woman] stands for freedom he stands with God. And as long as he stands for freedom he stands with God. And, were he to stand alone he would still stand with God – the best company and the greatest power in or out of this world. Any man will be eternally vindicated and rewarded for his stand for freedom.” – p.656)
See Blog this site dated November 25, 2013; Ezra Taft Benson, A Warning Voice From the Past, 1969
“The meaning of music is how it makes you feel. Sometimes those feelings are so special and so deep they can’t even begin to be described in words. That’s where music is so marvelous. It expresses how we feel.” – Leonard Bernstein, Young People’s Concert, 18 January 1958; from the movie Tar with Cate Blanchett
“The only way to stop usurpation of power is to copy it.” – Sergei Chakotin, The Rape of the Masses: The Psychology of Totalitarian Political Propaganda.1940; p. 255
“Moral, effective government is the basis for survival and the foundation of warfare. The State must thrive economically while limiting expenditures, foster appropriate values and behavior among the populace, implement rewards and punishments, employ the worthy, and refrain from disturbing and harming the people.” – Jiang Ziya, The Six Secret Teachings #1, The Civil Strategy 475-521 B.C.
“Attracting the disaffected weakens the enemy and strengthens the State; employing subterfuge and psychological techniques allows manipulation of the enemy and hastens its demise.” – Ibid, #2 The Military Strategy
“The belief in a supernatural source of Evil is unnecessary. Man himself is quite capable of every wickedness.” – Joseph Conrad
“An unmoored generation surrenders itself to luxury, corruption, and a restless disorder of family. Few souls feel “it is honorable to die for one’s country.” A failure of leadership may allow a state to weaken itself with internal strife. At the end of the process a decisive defeat in war may bring a final blow, or barbarism invasion from without may combine with barbarism welling up within to bring that civilization to a close.” – Will and Ariel Durant, Lessons of History, p. 93.
“When a civilization declines, it is through no mystic limitation, but through the failure of its political or intellectual leaders to meet the challenges of change.” – Durants, Ibid, p 92
“A great empire and little minds go ill together.” – Durants, Ibid, 85
“You can’t fool all the people all of the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.” – Abraham Lincoln; Durants’ Lessons of History, p. 78
“The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual.”
“Patriotism unchecked by a higher loyalty can become a tool of greed and crime [and ultimately of oppression]. – Durants, Lessons of History, p.. 44
“A youth boiling with hormones wonders why he should not give full freedom to his sexual desires; and if he is unchecked by custom, morals, or laws, he may ruin his life before he matures sufficiently to understand that sex is a River of Fire that must be banked and cooled by a hundred restraints if it is not to consume in chaos both the individual and society.” Durants, p. 35-36
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” – Durants, p. 37
“It remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily lives, we are dominated by threats relatively small in number – a trifling fraction- of persons who understand the mental and social processes of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.” – p. 38
“Invisible government, in the shape of Political Parties, arose almost overnight. Ever since then it has been agreed that Party machines should narrow down the field of choices to two candidates.” – Durants, LoH, p. 38
“Sometimes the old and the infirm, those who have been wounded by Life and whose choices have been constrained, reveal what is most important in Life. Sometimes those choices which have become limited can demonstrate that, by focusing on others and not on oneself, Life is defined not by the limited options available to us but by the strength of our commitments.” – David Brooks, The Canadian Way of Death, The Atlantic, June 2023
“It’s painful and difficult, but there can be no spiritual progress without self-knowledge and accountability.” – Dante, Inferno, 1314
“We shall strike Traitors wherever they may be found, even in our own Party!” – Jean-Paul Marat, 1790
“Each industry will have to act with increasing understanding in its relationship to the public if it is to maintain the goodwill of those upon whom it depends for its very life.” – Edward Bernays, Crystallizing Public Opinion, 1923
“Although ancient states were great, they inevitably perished when they grew fond of war” – Sima Fangiu
“Propaganda bears the same relationship to education as to business or politics. It may be abused. It may be used to over-advertise an institution and to create in the public mind artificial values. There can be no absolute guarantee against its abuse.” – Edward Bernays, Propaganda; cover.
“The union of all the powers of government in the same hands is but the definition of despotism.” – Rhode Island Supreme Court, 1854; The Dorr Rebellion
“Democracy has been defended with courage and energy against the assaults of foreign dictatorship; but, if war continues to absorb and dominate it, or the itch to rule the world requires a large military establishment and appropriation, the freedoms of democracy may one by one succumb to the disciplines of arms and strife.” – Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History, 1968; p. 79
“The fundamental design of those who control the Soviet Union and the international communist movement is to retain and solidify their absolute power, first in the Soviet Union and second in the areas now under their control. In the minds of the Soviet leaders, achievement of this design requires the dynamic extension of their authority and the ultimate elimination of any effective opposition to their authority.
The design, therefore, calls for the complete subversion or forcible destruction of the machinery of government and structure of society in the countries of the non-Soviet world and their replacement by an apparatus and structure subservient to and controlled from the Kremlin. To that end Soviet efforts are now directed toward the domination of the Eurasian land mass. The United States, as the principal center of power in the non-Soviet world and the bulwark of opposition to Soviet expansion, is the principal enemy whose integrity and vitality must be subverted or destroyed by one means or another if the Kremlin is to achieve its fundamental design.” – A Report to the National Security Council by the Executive Secretary, United States Objectives and Programs for National Security, (NSC-68), Washington D,C., 14 April 1950; p. 6. Declassified 4 March 1975; (Lawrence Freedman, U.S. Intelligence and the Soviet Strategic Threat, 1977; p. 63)
See also: Disinformation by Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, 2013
“When Religion declines Communism grows.” – Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History, p. 42
“The basic phenomenon of our time is not Communism; it’s the decline of religious belief, which has all sorts of effects on morals and even on politics.” – Will Durant, p. 1
“Good Lord! Who can account for the fathomless folly of the public?” – Rudyard Kipling
“We cannot live long in that celestial realm of all genius without becoming a little finer than we were. And though we shall not find there the poignant delirium of youth, we shall know a lasting, gentle happiness, a profound delight which time cannot take from us until it takes all.” – John Little (from The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time by Will Durant; 2002; p. 4)
“If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his cultural heritage and transmit it to his children. And to his final breath he will be grateful for this inexhaustible legacy, knowing that it is our nourishing mother and our lasting life.” – Will Durant, Intro to The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time; 2002
“I have struck a city – a real city – and they call it Chicago. The other places don’t count. Having seen it, I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages!” – Rudyard Kipling
“The dignity of the mind is to be estimated by the energy of its efforts for its own enlargement. It becomes heroic when it reverences itself and asserts its freedom in a cowardly and servile age; when it withstands society through a calm but invincible love of Truth and a consciousness of the dignity of its powers.” – Anon.
“It is not good to run public institutions on permanent funds. A permanent fund carries in itself the seed of the moral fall of the institution. A public institution means an institution conducted with the approval (and from the taxes) of the public. When such an institution ceases to have public support, it forfeits the right to exist.” – Ghandi
“When did the Senate ever represent the people? You are all aristocrats! Your feet have never touched the ground! Your arses have never sat a horse!” – Sulla, 84 B.C.
“Only one thing keeps a nation small – civil strife.” – Julius Caesar.
“Morality is the basis of things; and Truth is the substance of all Morality.” – Ghandi
“If education is the transmission of civilization, we are unquestionably [regressing] . Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one [generation], civilization would die, and we would be savages again.” – Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History, 1968; p. 101 (brackets mine)
“Do not draw up laws on the spur of the moment; judge according to those already established – and established by yourselves.” – Pascal, Pensees, p. 272
“Presidents need our protection less than the rest of us need protection from Presidents.” – Arthur Schlesinger, The Times, January 2, 1987
“A little group of men [and women] reflecting no opinion but their own have rendered the Great Government of the United States helpless and contemptible.” – Woodrow Wilson, March 4th 1917
“Truth is so obscured nowadays and lies so well established that unless we love the Truth we shall never recognize it. Weaklings are those who know the Truth, but maintain it only as far as it is in their interest to do so, and apart from that forsake it.” – Pascal, Pensees, 1711; 334 pgs. p. 229
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then they kill you.” – Anon
“The movement is as likely to grow with ridicule as it is certain to flourish on repression.” – Ghandi
“It is for the citizens to return an effective answer to repression with organized non-cooperation and change ridicule into respect. Ridicule is like repression. Both give place to respect when they fail to produce the intended effect.” – Ghandi
“The testing time has now arrived. In a civilized country when ridicule fails to kill a movement it begins to command respect.” – Ghandi
“Plato and Aristotle wrote Laws and Politics as if to lay down rules for a madhouse. They pretended to treat it as if it were something really important because they knew that the madmen they were talking to believed themselves to be kings and emperors. They humored these beliefs in order to calm down their madness with as little harm [to society] as possible.” – Pascal, Pensees, 1711; 334 pgs. p. 188
“There is only one efficacious remedy to combat the evils that equality [equity] can produce: it is political freedom.” – AT, Democracy in America; p. 488
“To submit state governments to the [federal] Capitol is to put the destiny of the whole nation not only in the hands of a small portion of the people, which is unjust, but it is also to put it in the hands of people acting for themselves, which is very dangerous.” – AT, Democracy in America, p. 266
“If ever freedom is lost in America, one will have to blame the omnipotence of the Majority that will have brought minorities to despair and have forced them to make an appeal to material force. One will then see anarchy, but it will have come as a consequence of despotism.” – Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, p. 149
“Omnipotence is an evil and dangerous thing in itself. Only God can be omnipotent without danger because His wisdom and justice are always equal to his power. There is no authority on earth so omnipotent that I would allow to act without control and to dominate without resistance. ” – AT
“I believe freedom to be in peril when that power finds no obstacle before it that can restrain its advance and give it time to moderate itself.” – AT
“In political Parties, one sees them contest for a majority everywhere they can. When they lack it among those who have voted, they place it among those who have abstained from voting, and when it still happens to escape them there, they find it among those who did not have the right to vote.” – AT
“The members of [Political] associations respond to an order like soldiers on a campaign, they profess the dogma of passive obedience; in uniting, they have made the entire sacrifice of their judgment and their free will in a single stroke; thus there often reigns within [Political] associations a tyranny more insupportable than that exercised on society in the name of the government. This very much diminishes their moral force. They lose the sacred character that attaches to the struggle of the oppressed against the oppressors. For one who consents to obey with servility some of those like him, who delivers his will to them, and submits even his thought to them – how can that person claim that he wants to be free? – De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835; p. 186
“The spirit of the journalist in America is to attack coarsely, without preparation and without art, the passions of those whom it addresses, to set aside principles in order to grab men; to follow them into their private lives, and to lay bare their weaknesses and their vices. As a result, the personal views expressed by journalists have no weight in the eyes of readers. It is only in altering the facts that the journalist can acquire some influence for his opinions.” – De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835; p. 177
“In a country where the sovereignty of the people reigns, censorship is not only a danger but also a great absurdity.” – De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835, p. 173
“Political Parties are an evil inherent in free governments. America has had Great Political Parties; today they no longer exist. This is the time of great intrigues and Small Parties. As a result, America has gained much in material well-being but lost its morality.” – Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835; p.166-167
“When citizens are all nearly equal, it becomes difficult for them to defend their independence against the aggressions of power. Since no one among them is strong enough to struggle alone, it is only the combination of forces of all that can guarantee freedom.” – Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835; p. 52
“The palsied decrepitude of the capitalist world is the keystone of Communist philosophy. Exhibitions of indecision, disunity, and internal disintegration within this country have an exhilarating effect on the whole Communist movement.” – George F. Kennan, Sources of Soviet Conduct, July 1945; Annals Vol. 16, p. 441
“Insurrection is the flat, downright, and unqualified affirmation of interests to which those in charge of affairs have denied existence. It is a flash in the eyes of those who will not see; a blast in the ears of those who will not hear. Insurrection demonstrates beyond question the bankruptcy of oligarchic morality.” – Robert Barton Perry, The Moral Economy, 1909; 286 pages, p 143
“No fact has been more strongly insisted upon by writers on the psychology of crowds than the low degree of intelligence displayed by their collective actions. Not only mobs or simple crowds, but such bodies as juries, committees, corporations of all sorts, are notoriously liable to pass judgments, form decisions, to enact laws, so obviously erroneous, unwise, or defective that any one, even the least intelligent, individual member of the group, might have produced a better result.” – William McDougall, The Group Mind: A Sketch of the Principles of Collective Psychology, 1920; 430pgs.
“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison.” – Henry David Thoreau
“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” – Ayn Rand
“Until philosophers who love the Truth are kings, or the kings and princes of the world have the spirit of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet as one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils, – no, nor the human race – and then only will our State have a possibility of Life and behold the Light of day. Those only who possess such a union of qualities, and those only, should be rulers of the State.” – Plato (427-347 B.C.), Government by Philosophers
“If Heaven Ain’t a Lot Like Dixie, I don’t wanna go. Just send me to Hell or New York City. It’d be about the same to me.” – Hank Williams, Jr., If Heaven Ain’t a Lot Like Dixie; 1982
“It is useless to argue Principles with a man who doesn’t believe there are any.” – Aristotle (384-322 B.C.); Reasoning Book 1; On Sophistical Refutations, p. 259
“The consequences of desires contrary to nature are their own extinction. For contraries [to Nature] are mutually destructive. And to try to prove what is obvious by what is not is the mark of a man who is unable to distinguish what is self-evident from what is not.” – Aristotle 384-322 BC; Reasoning Book I; Chapter 1, Physics; p. 268
“The vilest form of self-abasement and self-destruction is the subordination of your mind to the mind of another, the acceptance of his assertions as facts, his say-so as Truth, his edicts as middle-man between your consciousness and your existence.” – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged; p. 932
“It was strange to obtain news by means of nothing but denials, as if existence had ceased, facts had vanished and only the frantic negatives uttered by officials and columnists gave any clue to the reality they were denying.” – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, p. 916
“Questions of Truth do not enter into social issues. A personal opinion is the one luxury that nobody can afford today. Principles have no influence on public affairs. Reason has no power over human beings. Logic is impotent. Morality is superfluous.” – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, p. 760
“Why” is a word nobody uses anymore. We’re supposed to pretend to believe that “public welfare” is the only reason for any decision.” – Rand, Ibid, p. 767
“In a world that proclaims the non-existence of the mind, the moral righteousness of rule by brute force, the penalizing of the competent in favor of the incompetent, the sacrifice of the best for the worst – in such a world, the best have to turn against society and have to become its deadliest enemies.” – Ayn Rand, Ibid, p. 725
“I came here in order to bring up my [children] as human beings. I would not surrender them to the educational systems devised to stunt a child’s brain, to convince them that reason is impotent, that existence is irrational chaos with which they’re unable to deal, and thus reduce them to a state of chronic terror. It does take an exceptional mind and a still more exceptional integrity to remain untouched by the brain-destroying influences of the world’s doctrines, the accumulated evil of centuries – to remain human.” – Ayn Rand, Ibid, p. 720
“The scientist [or doctor, or politician] who places his mind in the service of brute force is the longest-range murderer on earth.” – Ayn Rand, Ibid, p. 683
Job 16: 20 “Knowest thou not this of old time, since man was placed upon the earth, That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joys of the godless but for a moment? Yet forever shall he perish for ever like his own dung.”
Plutarch’s Lives:
“One can be a powerful speaker and still have no Judgment.” – p. 567
“The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of Virtue or Vice in men; sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations.”- p. 571
“Any social science book will tell you that if you subject people to an unpleasant environment, you can predict they will rebel against it.” – Eldridge Cleaver, Chairman of the Black Panthers, 1968
“It is possible to end the quarrel among the people by arresting the leaders.” – Chanakya, (375-283 B.C.), Arthashastra, Chapter IV; p. 241
“There’s more religion in the end of a nightstick than in any sermon preached to the likes of them. That doesn’t mean you’ve got to beat up drunks and boys, but when you’re dealing with real criminals, let ‘em have it. It’s the only language they understand.” NYPD Sergeant to rookie Cornelius Willemse, 1897; Island of Vice by Richard Zacks, p. 165
“When an officer lets out or causes to be let out prisoners from jails, he shall be condemned to death and the whole of his property confiscated.” – Chanakya, Arthashastra; Chapter IX, Protection of All Kinds of Government Departments; p. 165
Advice to Frat Brothers, Gang members, MC “Club” members, Jan 6 protestors, etc.: “To bring oneself into troubles and danger upon the account of evil and foolish men does not become a man [anyone] that has any wisdom or discretion.” – Favonius’ response to Brutus at the suggestion of assassinating Caesar; Plutarch’s Lives, p. 806
“Faction prevails; power and arms are now the only measures of justice.” – Licinia to Caius; Plutarch’s Lives, p. 687
“For this, indeed, is the true condition of men in public life, who, to gain the vain title of being the people’s leaders and governors, are content to make themselves the slaves and followers of all the people’s humours and caprices. The man who is completely wise and virtuous has no need at all of glory.” – Plutarch’s Lives, p. 648
“Arms and Laws have each their own time.” – Caesar to Metellus after seizing Rome; Plutarch’s Lives, p. 591
[Politicians] are confidently wicked; they have practiced corruption so long that they believe it is good; they know it is. . . for it pays.” – Lincoln Steffens
“For an official to permit [or promote] violation of law whenever he thinks that the sentiment of a particular locality [or Party] does not favor its enforcement inevitably leads to anarchy and violence. ” – NYC Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt, July 16, 1895; Island of Vice by Richard Zacks, p. 139
“I would rather fail enforcing the law than succeed by ignoring them.” – T. Roosevelt, Zacks, Ibid
“I am incapable of discriminating against any man. . . so long as he is honest and a good American citizen.” – T. Roosevelt; Zacks, Ibid
“What amazes me most about the Republican machine is not their being wrong but their utter stupidity. The issue [anti-corruption] was their chance and they neither rejected you nor supported you. Anything more idiotic I have never seen.” – Henry Cabot Lodge to T. Roosevelt, 1895; Zacks, Ibid, p. 174
“Me and the Republicans are enemies just one day of the year – Election Day. . . the rest of the time it’s live and let live.” – George Washington Plunkitt, Democrat Boss, Tammany Hall, NYC 1897; Zacks, Ibid
“The contest now is not for office, but for Liberty against Tyrants and Usurpers.” – Cato 234-149 B.C.; Plutarch’s Lives, p. 524
“For a king who governs his subjects lives only by taking away the comforts of life must admit that he does not know how to rule free men.” – Sir Thomas More, Utopia; 1516
“The Law of the Macarensis: On the day he ascends the throne, their king is bound by an oath that he will never at one time have over a thousand pounds of gold in his Treasury or the equivalent weight in silver. This law acts as a bar to a king’s piling up enough gold to create poverty among his people. That amount would suffice whether the king had to fight against rebels or another kingdom – but not enough to incite him to invade another man’s property. ” – More, Ibid
“If we ought to omit everything as being strange and inappropriate which the corrupt ways of men have made appear odd, then we ought to cover up among Christians practically everything that Christ taught and so strongly forbade us to cover up by ordering us to proclaim it upon the housetops.” – More, Ibid
“You can do as you choose; but as for me, I will not survive my nation. I will not live to bewail the miserable destruction of a brave people who deserved a better fate.” –Wicocalind, Delaware Chief; 1778, Fort Pitt
“So long as there remains one square mile of land occupied by a weak and helpless owner, there will be a strong and unscrupulous [Corporation] ready to seize it, and a weak and unscrupulous politician, who can be hired for a vote or for money, to back it. The precedents of a century’s unhindered and profitable robbery have mounted up into a veritable Gibraltar of defense and shelter to those who care for nothing but safety and gain.” – Helen Hunt Jackson: A Century of Dishonor, 1881; p. 30
“All Law presupposes the exercise of force in its execution; hence we find that crime increases proportionately as this power deteriorates. In 1906 in the United States there were one hundred and eighteen murders to each million of population; in England less than nine, in Germany less than five.” – Homer Lea, The Valor of Ignorance, 1902; p. 87
“Commercialism grows as militancy deteriorates, since it is in itself a form of strife, though a debased one – a combat that is without honor or heroism. Most nations that have reached this point of fraud the military spirit returns not again forever.”
- Once a nation is invaded [by] the machinery of government, …unity of effort is thrown down and the arsenal of national strength is strewn fragmentary over the whole land. Resistance [January 6th] is reduced to a sporadic flaring-up, a sickly sputtering of small flames and much smoke, sulphuric and bitter.”
- “A man who enlists in the army has the right to demand that those who are his leaders shall know to the fullest extent the duties appertaining to their office. Lives are placed in their hands but they are offered upon the altar of their country and not to satisfy the vanity of individuals (i.e. George Bush, Jr.). If they must perish, let it be by the kindly singing bullets and not by the ignorance of their [Woke] commanders.” p. 56;
- “The most promiscuous murderer in the world is an ignorant military officer [General Milley]. He slaughters his men by bullets, by disease, by neglect; he starves them, he makes cowards of them and deserters and criminals. The dead are hecatombs of his ignorance; the survivors, melancholy spectres of his incompetence.” p. 57
- “A nation that is rich, vain, and at the same time unprotected, provokes wars and hastens its own ruin.” p. 58 – Homer Lea, The Valor of Ignorance, 1902;
“I believe that difficulties are more important to the human mind than what we call ‘assistances‘ [welfare, charity]. Work we all must, if we mean to bring out and perfect our nature. No business or study which does not present obstacles, tasking to the full the intellect and the will, is worthy of a man. Alas, for the man who has not learned to work! He is a poor creature. He does not know himself. He depends on others, with no capacity of making returns for the support they give; and let him not fancy that he has a monopoly of enjoyment. Ease, rest, owes its deliciousness to toil; and no toil is so burdensome as the rest of him who has nothing to task his energy.” – William Ellery Channing, The Elevation of the Laboring Classes, Lecture I; February 11, 1840
“I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our [Russian] revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.'” – Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn
Why Gender Matters: Go buy a rooster for eggs and a bull for milk. You will soon realize that God knew what He was doing. – Anon
Definition of a Lawyer: The larvae stage of a politician. – Anon
“If any people or sect, no matter what, comes to America, lives by itself, speaks its own language, refuses to learn the genius of citizenship, it is a weakness to all and, if not arrested, threatens destruction to all.” – Francis W. Parker, Democracy and the Common School, 1894; Annals of America.
“Only a Socialist bureaucracy can arrange shortages in a fertile country.” – Jean-Francois Revel, How Democracies Perish, 1983; p. 319
“Privilege can generate cowardice.” – Ion Mihai Pacepa, Disinformation, 2013
“He who understands the real interests of the people is more truly their supreme magistrate than he whom they elect to public office.” – Plutarch, p. 314
“Luxury: the corruption and tumor of riches.” – Plutarch, p. 289
“It is more honorable to conquer those who possess the gold than to possess the gold itself.” – Marcus Cato, 234-149 B.C.; Plutarch Lives: p. 277
Grand Jury Description of Public Officials: “We have before us many of those who have been, and most of those who are now, members of the House of Delegates. We found a number of these utterly illiterate and lacking in ordinary intelligence, unable to give a better reason for favoring or opposing a measure than a desire to act with the majority. In some, no trace of mentality or morality could be found; in others, a low order of training appeared, united with base cunning, groveling instincts, and sordid desires. Unqualified to respond to the ordinary requirements of life, they are utterly incapable of comprehending the significance of an ordinance and are incapacitated, both by nature and training, to be the makers of laws. The choosing of such men to be legislators makes a travesty of justice, sets a premium on incompetency, and deliberately poisons the very source of the law.
Our investigation, covering more or less fully ten years, shows that, with few exceptions, no ordinance has been passed wherein valuable privileges or franchises are granted until those interested have paid the legislators the money demanded for action. Combinations [Parties] in both branches of the Municipal Assembly are formed by members sufficient in number to control legislation. To one member of this combination [Party] is delegated the authority to act for the combination [Party] and to receive and to distribute to each member the money agreed upon as the price of his vote in support of or opposition to a pending measure. So long has this practice existed that such receipt of money for action on pending measures is seen as a legitimate perquisite of a legislator.” – Annals of America Vol 12, p. 483; Statement of the St. Louis grand jury; McClure’s Magazine, October 1902.
“There is no perfecter endowment in man than political virtue.” – Plutarch Lives; p. 291
“The first destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who first gave them bounties and largesses.” – Plutarch, Coriolanus, p. 180
Politicans: “Flatterers of the rabble” – Plutarch
“Fame is but the empty noise of madmen.” – Epictetus
“As a nation we have little capacity for deception.” – John F. Kennedy, 1962
“Do not call a wolf to help you against the dogs.” – Russian Proverb
“The yes-man is your enemy, but your friend will argue with you.” – Russian Proverb
- “Violence can only be withstood by firmness. Power with continual subservience is no power at all.” (referring to the U.S. State Department).
- “New generations are growing up which are steadfast in their struggle with evil; which are not willing to accept unprincipled compromises; which prefer to lose everything – salary, conditions of existence and life itself – but are not willing to sacrifice conscience; not willing to make deals with evil.” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn: America, You Must Think About the World, November 1975; Annals Vol. 20, p. 175
“Experience should teach us to be more on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. . . The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” – U. S. Supreme Court Justice Brandeis
Q. “What is the moral responsibility of the citizen who thinks he sees his government doing evil?”
A. “The basic problem is we have a system with a lot of people who don’t know what it means to be accountable to the public. The Congress is the enemy, just as the press is the enemy. And the public is seen by members of the Executive in general as the great beast, treacherous, ignorant, irrational, not to be respected, either individually or in the mass.” – Daniel Ellsberg: Interview on the Pentagon Papers, October 5, 1971; Annals Vol. 19, p. 226
“The 1968 Civil Rights Act prohibits persons from crossing state lines with intent to incite riots.” – John N. Mitchell: What Kind of World Do You Want? May 13, 1969; Annals Vol. 19, p. 15
“The underlying problems are ones that the criminal justice system can do little about. The unruliness of young people, widespread drug addiction, the pursuit of the dollar by any available means are phenomena the police, the courts, and the correctional apparatus, cannot confront directly. They are strands that can be disentangled from the fabric of American life only by the concerted action of all of our society. Unless society takes concerted action to change the general conditions and attitudes that are associated with crime, no improvement in law enforcement and administration of justice will be of much avail.
What appears to be happening throughout the country is that parental control, and especially paternal [father’s] authority over young people is becoming weaker. The community is accustomed to rely upon this force as one guarantee that children will learn to fit themselves into society in an orderly and peaceable manner, that the natural and valuable rebelliousness of young people will not express itself in the form of warring violently on society or any of its members. The programs and activities of almost every kind of social institution with which children come in contact – schools, churches, social service agencies, youth organizations, – are predicated on the assumption that children acquire their fundamental attitudes toward life their moral standards, in their homes. The social institutions provide children with many opportunities: to learn, to worship, to play, to socialize, to secure expert help in solving a variety of problems. However, offering opportunities is not the same thing as providing moral standards.”- President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice: The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, February 1967; Annals Vol. 18, p. 442
“I have not forgotten how often the professors have been proved to be wrong, how often the academic judgment has been confounded by some solitary thinker or artist, how often original and innovating men have been rejected by the universities, only to be accepted and celebrated after they are dead. The universal company of scholars is not an infallible court of last resort.” – Walter Lippman: The University, May 28, 1966; Annals Vol. 18, p. 382
For a real man, there are few things more rewarding than teaching a good kid how to kick a bully’s ass. The tragedy is that there are few real men left with that knowledge. – Ligon Law
“Criticism is more than a right – it is an act of patriotism – a higher form of patriotism than the familiar rituals of national adulation.” – J. William Fulbright, The Arrogance of Power, May 15, 1966; Annals Vol. 18, p. 362
“What is often misunderstood is that Communists [all Political Parties] are capable of subverting, manipulating, and, finally, directing for their own ends, the legitimate grievances of a society.”
“Neither conscience nor sanity itself suggests that the United States is, should, or could be the global gendarme. . . The United States has no mandate from on High to police the world, and no inclination to do so. There have been classic cases in which our deliberate nonaction was the wisest action of all. Where our help is not sought, it is seldom prudent to volunteer. . . “ – Robert S. McNamara: Military Hardware, Economic Assistance, and Civic Action; June 1, 1966; Annals Vol. 18, p. 356.
“Until the Industrial Revolution, the European city existed for essentially one reason – protection. People had to come in from the fields at night to keep from being killed. Today we leave the cities at night for the same reason.” – Frank L. Whitney: The Total Redevelopment of Cities, April 15, 1966; Annals Vol. 18, p. 338
“President Kennedy said in 1961 technology has made all-out war highly unlikely because it means the end of civilization as we know it. And we are faced, instead, with
“another kind of war – new in its intensity, ancient in its origin – war by guerillas, subversives, insurgents, assassins, war by ambush instead of by combat, by infiltration instead of aggression, seeking victory by eroding and exhausting the enemy instead of engaging him.
Their essence is political – a struggle for the control of government, a contest for the allegiance of men. Allegiance is won as in any political contest – by an idea and a faith, by promise and performance. Governments resist such challenges only by being effective and responsive to the needs of their people.
A government cannot make war on its own people, cannot destroy its own country. To do so it to abandon its reason for existence – its responsibility to its people – and its claim to their allegiance.
Insurgents of the modern variety continually institute at least a facsimile of reforms in every area they control.” – Robert F. Kennedy: Counterinsurgency, August 15, 1965; Annals Vol. 18, p. 323
“I believe that overt aggression against smaller neighbors is now unlikely. The world suffered too recently and directly from Hitler’s aggression to accept any longer armies crossing the frontiers in the full panoply of war.” – Adlai E. Stevenson: The Meaning of the United Nations, August 1, 1965; Annals Vol. 18, p. 320
“The fear of leisure is at base the fear of boredom, of what the medieval monks called acedia or what Robert M. MacIver has called “the great emptiness,” the restlessness that comes upon us when we have time and nothing to do with it, or when we look inward and find nothing there.
Modern experiments in sensory deprivation (in which the subject spends as much time as he can tolerate at rest in a sightless, soundless cubicle) have emphasized the obvious: that if you force a man to do literally nothing, he will eventually go mad.” [Note: The same goes for teenagers.]
Deprived of variety, the mind begins to oscillate and empty itself until a new message, whether in brainwashing or a mystical conversion, comes to it radiant with ineffable Truth. Multiply individual boredom by the millions and you have all the unattractive attributes of mass culture: the worst of the mass media and the ever present possibility of mass hysteria. “When men and women find nothing within themselves but emptiness,” in the words of Report of the Commission on the Humanities last year, “they turn to trivial and narcotic amusements, and the society of which they are a part becomes socially delinquent and politically unstable.” – Eric Larrabee: Automation, Jobs, and Leisure; September 20, 1965; Annals Vol. 18, p. 285
“The term integrity of science connotes the importance of a unified internal structure to the success of science – the search for objective knowledge. On this understanding depends the welfare and safety of mankind.
In modern circumstances, science has not adequately met this responsibility, and it becomes important to inquire into the possible reasons for this deficit. There is a common tendency in the execution of large-scale experimentation and technological operations to neglect the principles of disciplined experimentation, of consideration for experimental controls, and the open disclosure and discussion of results. These erosions in the integrity of science reflect important changes in the relationships between the acquisition of new scientific knowledge and its use for the satisfaction of social needs. Under these conditions, the laboratory of basic science inevitably loses much of its isolation from cultural effects and becomes subject to strong social [and political] demands for particular results.
Support for science which does not permit the free and balanced development of all aspects of a problem tends to narrow the range of available scientific information and dangerously unbalances our control of new interventions into natural phenomena. The scientist now often finds himself in a powerful position to influence social decisions which are not solely matters of science.
When scientists serve as advisors to a governmental or private agency which is committed to a particular point of view, questions arise concerning the influence of the parent agency’s viewpoint on the advice given to it. Where such advisory bodies operate under the rules of secrecy, or for some other reason do not make their deliberations accessible to the scrutiny of the scientific community, the normal self-correcting procedures of scientific discourse cannot be brought to bearW.” – – Gerald Holton: The Integrity of Science, 1965; Annals Vol. 18, p. 238
“The FDA has made enemies in the past by the ineptitude of some of its procedures: by long delays in answering the simplest of queries, by peremptorily demanding voluminous data from firms within a short period of time and then postponing action on such data for many months, by assigning untalented and inexperienced scientists or physicians to discuss matters with drug-house experts who felt “insulted” at the quality of their interrogators and their questions.” – Louis Lasagna: Problems of Drug Development, July 24, 1964; Annals Vol. 18, p. 232
“Where experiment or research is necessary to determine the presence or the degree of danger, the product [vaccine] must not be tried out on the public, nor must the public be expected to possess the facilities or the technical knowledge to learn for itself of inherent but latent dangers. The claim that a hazard was not foreseen is not available to one who did not use foresight appropriate to his enterprise.” – Mr. Justice Jackson: The Duty of Manufacturers, 1953; Annals Vol. 18, p. 293
“There has always – and inevitably- been some divergence between the realities of foreign policy and our ideas about it. This divergence has in certain respects been growing rather than narrowing; and we are handicapped, accordingly, by policies based on old myths rather than current realities. This divergence is, in my opinion, dangerous and unnecessary – dangerous because it can reduce foreign policy to a fraudulent game of imagery and appearances ; unnecessary, because it can be overcome by the determination of men in high office to dispel prevailing misconceptions by the candid dissemination of unpleasant, but inescapable facts.” – J. William Fulbright: Old Myths and New Realities, March 25, 1964; Annals Vol. 18, p. 225
“It is the responsibility of the central government to protect the people from invasion by the states of whose rights which are guaranteed to them by the federal Constitution. It is equally the obligation of the states to initiate and to prosecute to fruition the necessary procedures to protect the states and the people from unwarranted assumption of power by any department of the federal government.”
“The most sacred duty of all public officials whether state or federal, and the highest patriotic responsibility of all citizens is to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, including that portion of the Constitution intended to guarantee a government of dual sovereignty. When it becomes apparent that purposely or inadvertently, any department or agency of government has embarked upon a course calculated to destroy the balance of power essential to our system, it behooves all other departments and agencies acting within their respective spheres of jurisdiction to take all steps within their power necessary to avert the impending evil. We believe that imbalance now exists.” – Lloyd W. Lowrey: For Strengthening the States in the Federal System, 1963; Annals Vol. 18, p. 138
“Television and all who participate in it are jointly accountable to the American public for respect for the special needs of children, for community responsibility, for the advancement of education and culture, for the acceptability of the program materials chosen, for decency and decorum in production, and for propriety in advertising. This responsibility cannot be discharged by any given group of programs, but can be discharged only through the highest standards of respect for the American home, applied to every moment of every program presented by television. Program material should enlarge the horizons of the viewer, provide him with wholesome entertainment, afford helpful stimulation, and remind him of the responsibilities which the citizen has toward his society.” – The Television Code
“We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.” [NOTE: This creates a false “war” economy that is counterproductive, inflationary, and destructive to the character and soul of the United States.]
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower: Farewell Address, February 6, 1961; Annals Vol. 18, p. 1
“The consequence of technological progress is that man must use his mind more and his body less. We still think in terms of a more primitive era; we overvalue physical prowess and undervalue intellectual competence. This has a profound effect on our attitude toward education. The kind of school which prepares young people adequately for life in a less complicated environment is of little use today. Nor do we need schools that concentrate primarily on adjusting the children of immigrants to this new country; on helping them become Americans quickly and painlessly.
Today we must have schools which develop in all children – talented, average, and below average – the highest level of intellectual competence of which they are capable; schools that help young people to understand the complex world of today and how it came to be what it is. This means that our schools must return to the traditional task of formal education in Western Civilization – transmission of the nation’s cultural heritage, and preparation for life through rigorous training of young minds to think clearly, logically, and independently.” – Hyman G. Rickover: Education, Our First Line of Defense, January 1959; Annals Vol. 17, p. 536
“We are not mute prisoners of history. That is a doctrine for totalitarians; it is no creed for freemen.
World War II should have taught us all one lesson: To vacillate, to hesitate – to appease even by merely betraying unsteady purpose – is to feed a dictator’s appetite for conquest and to invite war itself. Because it was ignored, the record of these policies is a record of appalling failure.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower: I Shall Go to Korea, October 25, 1952; Annals Vol. 17, p. 199
“There is one solution and only one; that is for the free world to develop the will and organize the means to retaliate instantly against open aggression by Red armies, so that, if it occurred anywhere, we could and would strike back where it hurts, by means of our choosing.
We deter potential aggressors by making it probable that if they aggress, they will lose in punishment more than they can gain by aggression.
Everywhere free nations should have ability to resist attack from within so that they will dare to put up sturdy resistance to Communist inroads.” – John Foster Dulles: A Policy of Instant Retaliation, May 19, 1952; Annals Vol. 17, p. 124
“The prestige of the United States in today’s world depends not only on our military power and our economic strength but also on a reputation for integrity and character. Without such a reputation, how can we hope to win and retain loyal allies?
Is it not a part of our duty as senators to encourage within the Senate standards of morality and justice?
The failure of any senator to set a high standard of morality is not the failure of man alone. In the eyes of the world, it is a failure of a nation.
If your committee tolerates corruptibility, shame is brought to a whole people. Such toleration undermines the capacity for leadership in a world desperately requiring their leadership.
Freedom to lie is not a freedom which membership in the U.S. Senate confers upon any man, nor does membership confer the freedom to commit unethical acts of any kind.” – William Benton: For the Expulsion of Senator McCarthy, September 28, 1951; Annals Vol. 17, p. 108
“There is loose in the United States today the same evil that once split the Salem Village between the bewitched and the accused and stole men’s reason quite away. We are informers to the secret police. Honest men are spying on their neighbors for “patriotism’s” sake. We may be sure that for every honest man two dishonest ones are spying for personal advancement today and ten will be spying for pay next year.” – Bernard de Voto: Due Notice to the FBI, 1949; Annals Vol. 16, p. 608
“Organized charity or free government welfare service to the whole population can destroy the freedom and also the character of the people to whom it is extended. It can increase the power of Washington until Washington bureaus govern the daily lives of every family in the U.S. Incentives and initiatives can be paralyzed. We will be ruled by people who take no personal risks and create no jobs. The people will be taxed without realizing it, through a deduction from payroll, and perhaps get some part of those taxes back in the form of government services and activity, which they may or may not want. There is a real danger to liberty in the welfare state.” – Robert A. Taft: The Republican Party, April 1949; Annals Vol. 16, p. 565
“The Constitution does not deny to the Congress the power to enact laws which will defend the nation from those who would use liberties guaranteed by the Constitution to destroy it.” – House Un-American Activities Committee Report, April 30, 1948; Annals Vol. 16, p. 523
“Any government is in itself an evil insofar as it carries within it the tendency to deteriorate into tyranny. The danger of such degeneration is more acute in a country in which the government has authority not only over all the armed forces but also over all the channels of education and information as well as over the economic existence of every single citizen.” – Albert Einstein: An Open Letter to Russian Colleagues, February 1948; Annals Vol. 16, p. 519
“Those who wrote our Constitution well knew the danger inherent in special legislative acts which take away the life, liberty, or property of particular named persons because that legislature thinks them guilty of conduct which deserves punishment. They intended to safeguard the people of this country from punishment without trial by duly constituted courts . . . And even the courts to which the important function was entrusted were commanded to stay their hands until and unless certain tested safeguards were observed.” – Hugo Black: United States v. Lovett, Watson, and Dodd; 328 U.S. 303; Annals Vol. 16, p. 404
“The reporting team of Knight-Ridder Newspapers has been called “The only ones who got it right’ about Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.” – Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter
“Most of the administration’s case for that war made absolutely no sense, specifically the notion that Saddam Hussein was allied with Osama bin Laden. That one from the get-go rang all the bells – a secular Arab dictator allied with a radical Islamist whose goal was to overthrow secular dictators and reestablish his Caliphate?
The more we examined it, the more it stank. The second thing was rather than relying entirely on people of high rank with household names as sources, we had sources who were not political appointees. One of the things that has gone very wrong in Washington journalism is ‘source addiction,’ ‘access addiction,’ and the idea that in order to maintain access to people in the White House or vice president’s office or high up in the department, you have to dance to their tune. That’s not what journalism is about. We had better sources than she (Judith Miller) did and we knew who her sources were. They were political appointees who were making a political case.
I first met him (Ahmed Chalabi) in ’95 or ’96. I wouldn’t get dressed in the morning based on what he told me the weather was, let alone go to war.” – John Walcott, Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau Chief: 2003 Invasion of Iraq [see movie: Shock and Awe by Rob Reiner, 2007
“Our difficulties and dangers will not be removed by closing our eyes to them. They will not be removed by mere waiting to see what happens; nor will they be relieved by a policy of appeasement. From what I have seen of [the Communists] I am convinced there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for military [or Political] weakness. For that reason, the old doctrine of a balance of power is unsound. We cannot afford it, if we can help it, to work on narrow margins, offering temptations to a trial of strength.” – Winston Churchill: The Iron Curtain, March 15, 1946; Annals Vol. 16, p. 365
“There must be no [United Nations] veto to protect those who violate their solemn agreements not to develop or use atomic energy for destructive purposes. Peace is never long preserved by weight of metal or by an armament race. Peace can be made tranquil and secure only by understanding and agreement fortified by sanctions.” – Bernard M. Baruch: A Choice Between the Quick and the Dead, June 23, 1946; Annals Vol. 16, p. 360
“As Justice Jackson has said, the principle of these decisions “lies about like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need.” All in all, the case of the relocation of the Japanese-Americans is the worst blow our liberties have sustained in many years. Unless repudiated, it may support devastating and unforeseen social and political conflicts. ” – Eugene V. Rostow, Our Worst Wartime Mistake, September 1947; Annals Vol. 16, p. 345
“An educated person knows a good man when he sees one.” – William James. General education is especially required in a democracy where the public elects its leaders and officials; the ordinary citizen must be discerning enough so that he will not be deceived by appearances and will elect the candidate who is wise in his field.” – General and Special Education in a Free Society, 1945; Annals Vol. 16, p. 280
Democrat Dystopia: 1. an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. – Ligon Law (with an assist from Webster)
Democrats: 1. Pilgrims to an empty shrine. – Ligon Law (with an assist from Walter Lippman)
Brandon Martin: perennial ‘grinning baboon’ Republican candidate for Arizona CD 2. 1. A boy politician rotten before he is ripe. [see Vetting Brandon Martin blog] – Ligon Law (with an assist from Will Rogers)
“The outbreak of revolution is due as much to the revelation of the inability of the ruling class to handle even an ordinary riot as to anything else. A ruling class which cannot perform even the common duties of police at once reveals itself as impotent. It invites repeated attack and receives it until it is destroyed.” – Lyford P. Edwards: The Natural History of Revolution, 1927
“Modern“ education for the most part signifies giving the people the faculty of thinking wrong on every conceivable subject of importance to them.
I wish you to see that both well-directed moral training and well-chosen reading lead to the possession of power over the ill-guided and illiterate.” – John Ruskin (1829-1900): Lecture 1; Of Kings’ Treasures; December 6, 1864. Harvard Classics, The Five-Foot Bookshelf, Vol. 28.
“When you put the hotheads in jail, these cooler people do not get arrested – they just keep quiet. And so we lose things they could tell us, which would be very advantageous for the future course of the nation. Once the prosecutions begin, then the hush-hush begins too. Discussions that need to be threshed out do not get threshed out.
What counts is what the local United States judges do. Still more important is the attitude of the prosecutors and police, because they can stifle free speech by breaking up meetings by arrests and confiscating pamphlets, and then not bothering to bring many persons to trial.” – Zechariah Chafee: Free Speech in America, 1941; Annals Vol. 16, p. 78
This earth doesn’t need a “New World Order.” It needs the “Old Moral Order” taught by the Savior of the World. The “New World Order” planned by oligarchs is diametrically opposed to that of the celestial plan taught by the Prince of Peace. There is no difference between the NWO oligarchs of today and the money changers Jesus drove out of the Temple.” – Ligon Law
“There is no harm greater than killing innocent people and supporting unjust rulers. There is no calamity worse than exhausting resources to provide for the desires of an individual.” – Huainanzi: Lessons from the Chinese Masters; 2 B.C.
Men compensate for personal inadequacies in many ways. I don’t think it is coincidental that if you add an extra “T” to Putin you have what we in America call a game of short strokes….. Just sayin’ – Ligon Law
“History – if honest history continues to be written – will have one question to ask our generation, people like ourselves. It will be asked of the books we have written, the carbon copies of our correspondence, the photographs of our faces, the minutes of our meetings in the famous rooms before the portraits of our spiritual begetters. The question will be this: Why did the scholars and the writers of our generation in this country, witnesses as they were to the destruction of writing and of scholarship in great areas of Europe and to the exile and the imprisonment and murder of men whose crime was scholarship and writing – witnesses also to the rise in their own country of the same destructive forces with the same impulses, the same motives, the same means – why did the scholars and the writers of our generation in America fail to oppose those forces while they could – while there was still time and still place to oppose them with the arms of scholarship and writing?” – Archibald MacLeish: The Irresponsibles, 1940; Annals Vol. 16, p. 1
“Is there a way to keep America out of war? If there is such a thing as intelligence left in the craniums of mankind, a thing so monstrous as another modern World War must be avoided. Yet the postwar era [WW I] has come to an end and the world is once again in that precarious condition in which the bad temper of a dictator, the ineptness of a diplomat, or the crime of a fanatic may let loose irremediable disaster.” – Bennett Champ Clark: Detour Around War, December 1935; Annals Vol. 15, p. 344
“I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I do know what weapons World War IV will be fought with – sticks and rocks.” – Albert Einstein
“Irving Berlin, one of the foremost American songwriters of the twentieth century, composed “God Bless America” in 1917 but never used the work until 1938, when Kate Smith introduced it on her radio program for an Armistice Day broadcast. The song gained an enormous and sustained popularity during World War II, and has even been suggested as a new national anthem. The proceeds from the song were turned over by Mr. Berlin to a special God Bless America Fund for distribution to the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America, and the Campfire Girls.”
[NOTE: This is actually the first verse of the song:]
“While the storm clouds gather
Far across the sea
Let us swear allegiance
To a Land that’s Free;
Let us all be grateful
For a land so fair,
As we raise our voices
In a solemn prayer” – Irving Berlin: God Bless America; Annals Vol. 15; p. 525
Question: How many Americans have known that they are actually praying when they sing God Bless America? How many can sing it now without weeping?
“I can see no justification for the behavior of the Party.”
“How much strength and influence the Communist Party has lost remains to be seen, but it is my belief that the events of these past weeks have in large measure destroyed its effectiveness.”
“The most intelligent leaders and the hardest workers in trade unions were Communists.” – Granville Hicks: On Leaving the Communist Party, October 4, 1939; Annals Vol. 15, p. 565
“Whenever any government begins to exercise political authority in areas beyond the limits of its lawful jurisdiction, there develops inevitably a situation in which the nationals of that government demand and are accorded, at the hands of their government, preferred treatment, whereupon equality of opportunity ceases to exist and discriminatory practices, productive of friction, prevail.
Fundamental principles such as the principle of equality of opportunity which have long been regarded as inherently wise and just, which have been widely adopted and adhered to, and which are general in their application are not subject to nullification by a unilateral affirmation.” – Joseph C. Grew: Protest Against Japan’s “New Order” in the Far East, December 31, 1938; Annals Vol. 15, p. 556
“It seems to me that something greatly needs to be said [and done!] in behalf of ordinary humanity against the present practice of carrying the horrors of war to helpless civilians, especially women and children. May it not be that the heart of mankind is so filled with horror at the present needless suffering that that force could be mobilize in sufficient volume to lessen such cruelty in the days ahead?
It seems to be unfortunately true that the epidemic of world lawlessness is spreading. War is a contagion, whether it be declared or undeclared. It can engulf states and peoples remote from the original scene of the hostilities.
If civilization is to survive, the principles of the Prince of Peace must be restored. Shattered trust between nations must be revived. Most important of all, the will for peace on the part of peace-loving nations must express itself to the end that nations tempted to violate the rights of others will desist from such a cause. There must be positive endeavors to preserve peace.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt: Quarantine the Aggressors, October 5, 1937; Annals Vol. 15, p. 502
“It is a distressing fact that the Jeffersonian dream of a great Western world-empire of men made free through widely distributed ownership of the means of production and the natural resources of the land is proving to be vacuous.
The progressive centralization of money power is rapidly transforming the United States into a nation of propertyless people. In the industrial and distribution areas the process of disenfranchisement has been under way, and with mounting intensity, for approximately a hundred years, with the result that the status of the rank and file of our so-called common people in the cities – the factory workers and the small business and tradesmen – differs slightly from that of slavery.
This is abhorrent to the American mind; it troubles the American heart. And still more important, it provides a threat to the very existence of American democratic institutions.” – Ralph Adams Cram: What is a Free Man? 1937; Annals Vol. 15, p. 499
“With the ending of Prohibition in 1933, organized crime turned to labor unions as a field to exploit. They later infiltrated the administrative structure of the unions to gain control of their finances. Racketeering has manifested itself in such diversified fields as prostitution, lotteries, bail bonding, and liquor, as well as in legitimate forms of business activity. In each case the purpose is the unlawful extortion of tribute for the personal gain of a few individuals. In each case these individuals are found to be criminals who may be cloaked in the trappings of respectability but whose illegal activities are not confined to the labor racket. A similar technique is found in unfair trade practices in the motion picture industry. In each case the lawful becomes unlawful because of the element of extortion.” – Labor Racketeering, 1937; Annals Vol. 15, p. 484
“Elections are mere substitutes for Civil War.” – Lyford P. Edwards, The Natural History of Revolutions, 1934. [NOTE: It follows then if there is a significant enough perception of illegitimacy in elections the only recourse is Civil War.]
“What is meant by recommending ‘permanent studies’? They are those books which have attained the status of classics. A classic is a book that is contemporary in every age. The conversations of Socrates raise questions that are as urgent today as they were when Plato wrote. In fact, they are more so, because society in which Plato lived did not need to have them raised as much as we do. We have forgotten how important they are.
“If we can secure a real university in this country and a real program of general education upon which its work can rest, it may be that the character of our civilization may slowly change. It may be that we can outgrow the love of money, that we can get a saner conception of democracy, and that we can even understand the purposes of education. It may be that we can abandon our false notions of progress and utility and that we can come to prefer intelligible organization to the chaos that we mistake for liberty. It is because these changes may be that education is important. Upon education pin scientific and technological advance, but under the direction of reason; of true prosperity, which includes external goods but does not overlook those of the soul.” – Robert M. Hutchins: American Higher Learning, 1936; Annals Vol. 15, p. 400
“In central Europe the march of Socialist or Fascist dictatorships and their destruction of liberty did not set out with guns and armies. Dictators began their ascent to the seats of power through the elections provided by liberal institutions. Their weapons were promise and hate. The offered the mirage of Utopia to those in distress. They flung the poison of class hatred. They may not have maimed the bodies of men, but they maimed their souls.
“Once seated in office, the first demand of these European despotisms was for power and “action.” Legislatures were told they “must” delegate their authorities. Their free debate was suppressed. They all adopt a planned economy. They regimented industry and agriculture. They put the government into business. They engaged in gigantic government expenditures. They created vast organizations of spoils henchmen and subsidized dependents. They corrupted currency and credit. They drugged the thinking of the people with propaganda at the people’s expense.” – – Herbert Hoover: The New Deal and European Collectivism, June 10, 1936; Annals Vol. 15, p. 384
Biden’s “Brain Trust” looks more like “Pappy” O’Daniel’s than one ordained by the Trilateral Commission. O Brother! Where Art Thou? Indeed! – Ligon Law
“Stubborn adherence to an outworn plan is not a mark of intelligence but stupidity, whether in the life of individuals or of nations. Prudence would dictate that reasonable stability should not be endangered by capricious or arbitrary shift of plans, but would with equal force insist that policies must be promptly modified as emerging trends and new situations necessitate recasting. The Truth is that it is not necessary or desirable that a central system of planning actually cover all lines of activity or forms of behavior. Such planning overreaches itself.” –The National Resources Board: The Goals of National Planning, June 30, 1934; Annals Vol. 15, p. 272
NOTE TO Biden from a Fellow Democrat: “The simplest way for each of you to judge recovery lies in the plain facts of your own individual situation. Are you better off than you were last year? Are your debts less burdensome? Is your bank account more secure? Are your working conditions better? Is your faith in your own individual future more firmly grounded? Have you lost any of your rights or liberty or constitutional freedom of action and choice? Read each provision of the Bill of Rights and ask yourself whether you personally have suffered the impairment of a single jot of these great assurances.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt, Relief, Recovery, and Reform; June 28, 1934; Annals Vol. 15, p 264.
“The days of the seeking of mere Party advantage through the misuse of public power are drawing to a close. We are increasingly demanding and getting devotion to the public service on the part of every member of the administration, high and low.” FDR, Ibid! LMAO.
If only all the American Sheeple could be corralled and sent to their eventual market – along with their Useful Idiot, COVID Gestapo herders! – Ligon Law
Senator Wheeler: “One hears so much these days about the corruption and crookedness of city officials and school boards. I hope an aroused public opinion will come about in Chicago and other large cities that are suffering from lack of funds against these thieving public officials who have been responsible to some extent, at least, in breaking down the finances of the cities, counties, and states of our country.” – Irvin A. Wilson: Teachers in the Depression, May 9, 1932; Annals Vol. 15, p. 194.
“The kindergarten arguments of those in high places, who are still waiting for economic disease to cure itself, merit only contempt. Economic illness is primarily man-made and can be cured by the use of human intelligence or aggravated by human timidity and folly. The social and business structures which we have built up are not creations of Providence – they are man-made and, if they are not working correctly, they are subject to correction by the men who created them.
The menace to the future is not merely the danger of revolt but the danger of destruction of character and confidence and faith of the people until they are unable to adopt and carry forward real programs for their salvation.
The patience of the American people with leaders who are either unable or unwilling to lead has been astounding; but it cannot be everlasting.
The [previous] leadership was a result of lawfully constituted authority, but we find that the system is breaking down and showing cracks and there is a rise of irregularly constituted leaders. In every avenue of our public life I think that condition is developing.” (Brackets mine) – Donald R. Richberg: Counsel for the Railway Labor Executives Association; testimony before the Senate Committee on Manufactures, January 1933; Annals Vol. 15, p. 197
“A careful study of the concentration of business showed that our economic life was dominated by some 600-odd corporations who controlled two-thirds of American industry. It appears that if the process of concentration goes on at the same rate, at the end of another century, we shall have all American industry controlled by a dozen corporations, and run by perhaps 100 men. Plainly, we are steering a steady course toward economic oligarchy, if we are not already there.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt: Commonwealth Club Address, September 24, 1932; Annals Vol. 15, p. 164
“As far back as the 1870s, mobs of unemployed men looted shops, and burned railroad stations; in fact, they frightened substantial citizens so much that the movement to build armories and recruit state militia was set under way. For the first time in the history of this country, the idea was born that troops might be necessary as a protection of [the wealthy] against the working class.” – George Soule: Are We Going to Have a Revolution? August 1932; Annals Vol. 15, p. 152
[COVID Policies]: “Plainly, a regulation which has the effect of denying or unreasonably curtailing the common right to engage in a lawful private business cannot be upheld consistently with the Fourteenth Amendment. Under that Amendment, nothing is more clearly settled than that it is beyond the power of the state, “under the guise of protecting the public arbitrarily [to] interfere with private business or prohibit lawful occupations or impose unreasonable and unnecessary restrictions upon them. . .
It is plain that unreasonable or arbitrary interference or restrictions cannot be saved from the condemnation of that [14th] Amendment merely by calling them experimental. It is not necessary to challenge the authority of the states to indulge in experimental legislation; but it would be strange and unwarranted doctrine to hold that they may do so by enactments which transcend the limitations imposed upon them by the federal Constitution.” – George Sutherland and L.D. Brandeis: New State Ice Company v. Liebman, 285 U.S. 262; Annals Vol. 15, p. 140
“Our leaders stand before us helpless. They would have us believe that panics will cure themselves. Intelligence, courage, and common sense are to be displaced by optimistic blindness. All this means we are suffering from a helpless and misguided leadership. When poverty and misery and unemployment stalk abroad in the midst of plenty, the time has come for an accounting of the leadership that produced such conditions.” – Lotus D. Coffman, Adult Education for the Unemployed, February 25, 1931; Annals Vol. 15, p. 99
“I am firmly opposed to the government entering into any business the major purpose of which is competition with our citizens. To go out and to build up and expand such an occasion to the major purpose of a business [Pharmaceuticals] is to break down the initiative and enterprise of the American people; it is destruction of equality of opportunity among our people; it is the negation of the ideals upon which our civilization has been based.” – Herbert Hoover: Veto of the Muscle Shoals Bill, March 3, 1931; Annals Vol. 15, p. 79
“Pessimists, whom public opinion in America will not tolerate, have bitter, much-needed Truths to tell their country.” – Ernst Toller: Annals Vol. 15, p. 45
“In the right hands the rocket would bring universal peace. In the wrong hands it would lead to conquest more absolute than anything the world has ever known. The largest empires of past and present could not exist without great numbers of loyal soldiers to hold them together. An empire using rockets would need only governors and spies. The mechanics who made the rockets could be slaves, and a mere handful could direct them.” – James R. Randolph: Rockets and World Politics, August 1928; Annals Vol. 14, p. 602
[Joe Biden] could make statistics sit up, beg, roll over and bark!” – Robert Moses
“As far as the United States is concerned, the first and foremost direct effect of unrestricted immigration is a retardation, if not a definite lowering, of the standard of living of the common citizen.”
“It has been repeatedly stated that the consequence of non-assimilation is the destruction of nationality. This is the central Truth of the whole problem of immigration and it cannot be overemphasized.”
“Every well-developed nationality is a priceless product of social evolution. Each has its peculiar contribution to make to future progress. The destruction of any one would be an irreparable loss to mankind.”
“Any program or policy which interferes in the slightest degree with the prosecution of this great enterprise must be condemned as treason to our high destiny. Any yielding to a specious and superficial humanitarianism which threatens the material political, and social standards of the average American must be branded as a violation of our trust.” – Henry Pratt Fairchild, American Nationality and the Melting Pot, 1926; Annals Vol. 14, p. 512
“A preponderating influence of foreigners is a sure solvent of the existence of states. It takes away from a people its most precious possession – its soul.” – Gustave LeBon
“The chief duty that a people owes both itself and the world is reverence for its own soul.” – Rabbi Joel Blau
“Ink, n. A villainous compound chiefly used to facilitate the infection of idiocy and promote intellectual crime. There are men called journalists who have established ink baths which some persons pay money to get into, others to get out of. Not infrequently it occurs that a person who has paid to get in pays twice as much to get out.” – Ambrose Bierce, DD
Idiot: n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but “pervades and regulates the whole.” He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions of opinion and taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a deadline.” [example: Politician, Government Bureaucrat, Diplomat, Public Educator]– Ambrose Bierce, DD
Principles of Progressive Education: 1919; Annals of America Vol. 14, p. 236 “It is the duty of the parents to know what the school is doing and why, and to find out the most effective way to cooperate. It is the duty of the school to help the parents to a broader outlook on education and to make available all the resources of the school that can give information or help to the home.”
[NOTE TO TRUDEAU AND BIDEN]: “The more they think to terrorize the enemy by depriving them of procuring the means of existence, the more they make the men savage, and, to avenge a single offense, inspire an ineradicable hatred of themselves.” – Polybius, Histories of, 220 B.C. p. 488
[Fill in the blank] was an empty-headed braggert and very far from being a competent statesman. When we look at his utterances we admire the man and his high-souled words, but when we turn to his actual behavior we are amazed by his ignobility and cowardice. As regards public or political affairs he was perfectly incapable of concentrated attention and clear insight, as well as of preparing and delivering a speech.” – Polybius, Histories of ; 220 B.C.; p. 594
NOTE TO BIDEN AND BIG PHARMA: “No corporation engaged in commerce shall acquire, directly or indirectly, the whole or any part of the stock or other share capital or another corporation engaged also in commerce, where the effect of such acquisition may be to substantially lessen competition between the corporation whose stock is so acquired and the corporation making the acquisition, or to restrain such commerce in any section or community, or tend to create a monopoly of any line of commerce.” – The Clayton Antitrust Act, 1914 (see also The Sherman Antitrust Act, and the Charter of the Federal Trade Commission)
Carl Sandburg: Chicago, March 1914; Annals Vol. 13, p. 499: “…And they tell me you are crooked and I answer; Yes, it is true. I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.”
“When I ask what do the people find wrong in our state government, my mind goes back to those periodic fits of public rage in which the people rouse up and tear down the political leader, first of one Party then of the other Party. It goes on to the public resentment against the control of Party organizations, of both Parties and of all Parties – the system they call “Invisible Government. The governor did not count, the legislatures did not count; comptrollers and secretaries of state and whatnot did not count. It was what Mr. Conklin said “Invisible Government.” – Elihu Root: The Invisible Government, August 10, 1915; Annals Vol. 13, p. 528
“The strength of self-government and the motive power of progress must be found in the characters of the individual citizens who make up a nation. Weaken individual character among a people by comfortable reliance upon paternal government and a nation soon becomes incapable of free self-government and fit only to be governed; the higher and nobler qualities of national life that make for ideals and effort and achievement become atrophied and the nation is decadent.” – Elihu Root: “The Proper Pace of Political Change; April 1913; Annals Vol. 13, p. 436
Biden’s and Trudeau’s COVID Hysteria Policies: “I wonder how some men sleep at night because they deceive themselves and deceive others all day long, and then actually go home and go to sleep. I don’t know what their dreams can be. And they speak things they know are not true because they are afraid of something.
Fear is abroad in America. The only way to dispel fear is to bring the things you are afraid of out in the open and challenge them to meet the great moral force of the people of the United States. If these gentlemen will come out and avow their purposes, they will destroy all possibility of realizing those purposes.” – Woodrow Wilson: The Fear of Monopoly, Oct. 5, 1912; Annals Vol. 13, p. 356
“The Republican conception of government is that the people cannot organize their opinions in such a fashion as to control their own government. And that it is necessary to constantly consult with the trustees of material wealth larger than anyone else’s to administer the government not through the people but “for” the people.” – Woodrow Wilson: The Fear of Monopoly, Oct. 5, 1912; Annals Vol. 13, p. 356 [NOTE: this is basically the same idea Marx and Lenin proposed. “All Animals are Equal. But some are more equal than others.” George Orwell, Animal Farm]
“It is of profound importance that our financial system should be promptly investigated and so thoroughly and effectively revised as to make it certain that hereafter our currency will no longer fail at critical times to meet our needs.”
“I believe that every national officer, elected or appointed, should be forbidden to perform any service or receive any compensation, directly or indirectly, from interstate corporations; and a similar provision could not fail to be useful within the states.” – Theodore Roosevelt: The New Nationalism, 1910; Annals Vol. 13, p. 254
“No one need be afraid that any [public] officer who commits oppression will pass with impunity.” [O’Henry level irony!]
“If the impeachment provision in the Constitution of the United States will not reach the offenses charged here, then perhaps that eighteenth century document should be fed into a twentieth century paper shredder.” – U.S. Representative (D) Barbara Jordan: hearing on Nixon impeachment, May-July, 1974.
[RE: the COVID Psychosis:] “The Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice may destroy it, … but there it is.” – Winston Churchill, House of Commons, May 17, 1915
“Wars are managed best when the warriors preserve a good conscience; but that such as are ill men in private life will not only have those enemies which attack them, but God himself also for their antagonist.”
“When you shall have once proceeded so far by your wealth, as to a contempt and disregard of virtue, you will also forfeit the favor of God; and when you have made him your enemy, you will be beaten in war, and will have the land which you possess taken away from you by your enemies.”
“As long as you desire to have Him as your protector in your pursuits after Virtue, so long will you enjoy His care over you.” – Flavius Josephus: The Complete Works of; p. 498
“Poisonous Pedagogy: those Progressive forms of child rearing which can turn babies with a potential for happy creative spontaneity into neurotic, vengeful adults.”
“Throughout history the possession of psychopathic traits has proved a useful passport to high office.” – Norman Dixon, Our Own Worst Enemy, 1987
“If you shoot a Republican out of season, the fine will be ten dollars and costs.” – A Saying in Jackson, Mississippi, 1870: Annals of America, Vol. 13
“It should be as much the aim of those who seek for social betterment to rid the business [and political] world of crimes of cunning as to rid the entire body politic of crimes of violence. The first requisite is knowledge, full and complete – knowledge which may be made public to the world.” Theodore Roosevelt: Controlling the Trusts [Monopolies], December 3, 1901; Annals Vol. 12, p. 435
“Some political candidates take to campaigning like a snake to squirming.” – David Graham Phillips
“Suppose you were an Idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” – Samuel Clemens
“Now and then an innocent man is sent to Congress.” – Kin Hubbard
“Lies! Lies! It cannot be! The Wars we wage
Are noble, and our battles still are won
By justice for us, ere we lift the gage
We have not sold our loftiest heritage.
The proud republic hath not stooped to cheat
And scramble in the marketplace of war…” – William Vaughn Moody: An Ode in Time of Hesitation, 1900; Annals Vol. 12, p. 355
“[Americans] are not willing to make merchandise of blood.” [Or are they?] – William Jennings Bryan: The Paralyzing Influence of Imperialism, August 8, 1900; Annals Vol. 12, p. 349; [Brackets mine]
“What is liberty? It is not the exercise of individual will. It means law. First of all, it is a common rule of action, applying equally to all within its limits. Liberty means protection of property and life without price, free speech without intimidation, justice without purchase or delay, government without favor or favorites.” – Albert J. Beveridge, In Support of an American Empire, January 9, 1900; Annals Vol. 12, p. 339
Why Bush Erred in Starting TWO WARS: “Let men beware how they employ the term “self-government.” It is a sacred term. It is the watchword at the door of the inner temple of liberty, for liberty does not always mean self-government. Self-government is a method of liberty – the highest, simplest, best – and it is acquired only after centuries of study and struggle and experiment and instruction and all the elements of the progress of man. Self-government is no base and common thing to be bestowed on the merely audacious. It is the degree which crowns the graduate of liberty, not the name of liberty’s infant class, who have not yet mastered the alphabet of freedom.” – Albert J. Beveridge: In Support of an American Empire, January 9, 1900; Annals Vol. 12, p. 339
Q. What is the difference between the Biden Administration’s coercive and extortionist flue season policy and the Mafia?
A. Not a damn thing. – Ligon Law
As a young Marine, I had the opportunity to sit at Lincoln’s feet and bask in the majesty of his memorial one sweltering day in August. I was going to Vietnam in the near future. I waded thoughtfully [and illegally] in the cool, knee-deep water of the Reflective Pool between Lincoln and Washington with a girl I fancied. Her name was Nancy. Today I recommend we build another Reflective Pool – this one placed between Congress and the White House. Of course this one could only be ankle deep…. – Ligon Law
“If any question why we died, Tell them because our Fathers lied.” – Rudyard Kipling, Epitaphs of the War, 1918
“Take up the white man’s burden –
The savage wars of peace –
Fill full the mouth of famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
(The end for others sought)
Watch sloth and heathen folly
Bring all your hope to nought. – Rudyard Kipling, The White Man’s Burden, 1899
“The greatest fortune of a people would be to keep ignorant people from public office and secure their wisest men to rule them.” – Confucius
“[Democrats] are like the hen who laid an egg but cackle as if it had laid an asteroid.” – Samuel L. Clemens (“Mark Twain”), Following the Equator. [Brackets mine.]
The individual who is to be educated is a social individual and that society is an organic union of individuals. If we eliminate the social factor from the child, we are left only with an abstraction; if we eliminate the individual factor from society we are left with an inert and lifeless mass.”
“School is primarily a social institution. Education being a social process.” — John Dewey: My Pedagogic Creed, 1897; Annals Vol. 12, p. 125
“Democratic citizens are likely to feel incapable on their own and to seek the protection, while becoming the dependents, of a state that suffocates them with its mildness.” – Alexis de Tocqueville, “Mild Despotism” Democracy in America, p. xxxv
“We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase our currency.” – Republican Party platform, 1896; Annals Vol. 12, p. 100 (a few weeks later the Democrat Party platform demanded the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver.)
“Our Constitution is color blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. All citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.”
“There is a dangerous tendency in these latter days to enlarge the functions of the courts by means of judicial interference with the will of the people as expressed by the legislature. Each department of the government must keep within the limits defined by the Constitution.” – U.S. Supreme Court Justice John M. Harlan: Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537; 1896; Annals Vol. 12, p. 92
“There is no way of getting rich by short cuts or by legislation or by merely increasing the means of exchanging goods.”
“The greater or less quantity of money there is roaming about in circulation is no reason why anyone gets more of it.”
“Those who can by their wealth control political parties and legislatures, who make the very seat of our national government their private offices, and turn the Senate into a bureau for bulling the prices of their product – to those men we say, beware!”
“Those of us who belong to the rank of plain citizens, who are thinking only of the country as a whole, who believe in the honesty and intelligence of the people, hold that when a question of right or wrong is presented in a campaign of education the people will decide for right and for justice. We cannot believe that a special interest, led by millionaires, can go on unchecked in their plan of sacrificing the taxpayers in order to heap up riches, especially when this is done on the most fallacious of all economic grounds – which have been proved wrong by the experience of every country of modern times.” – James Laurence Laughlin: Against Free Coinage of Silver, 1895; Annals Vol. 12, p. 75
“The public is not satisfied with an unlimited veto power in any individual. If the Court establishes the doctrine of change [in the Constitution], the people, by adding new Justices, can control and direct the movement. That, probably, is inevitable.”
“When some new Socialistic law is wanted, they can demand a convenient constitutional power from their packed Supreme Court, as a congressional majority looks to its Speaker for a convenient parliamentary rule.” Edward B. Whitney: Political Dangers of the Income Tax Decision, August 1895; Annals Vol. 12, p. 74
“The evolution of democracy must needs have its horrors; patriots will bear and at the same time strive to overcome, them. But the culmination of horrors is to place the interests of innocent children in the hands of expediency politicians. Let them steal public money, rob treasuries, and enrich themselves by boodle; but in the name of High Heaven let them keep their corrupt hands away from the priceless treasures of home and the dearest hopes for the future.”
“The spirit of democracy respects all rights of parents as sacred, except the right to deprive a child of a good education; it never compels a parent to send a child to the common school. Every parent should be left perfectly free in the choice of a school for his children.” – Francis W. Parker: Democracy and the Common School, 1894; Annals Vol. 11, p. 581
[January 6th Defendants]:
“We were accused and convicted of conspiracy by the real conspirators.”
“My defense is your accusation; the causes of my alleged crime your history!”
“The murder of these men, whose only crime is that they have dared to speak the Truth, may open the eyes of the suffering millions; may wake them up.” – August Spies: Address at the Haymarket Trial, October 7, 1886; Annals Vol. 11, p. 117
“There is plain evidence that the expansion of federal power is to continue, and that there exists an evident necessity that it should be known what to do and how to do it when the time comes for public opinion to take control of the forces which are changing the character of our Constitution.”
“The prestige of the presidential office has declined with the character of the presidents. And the character of the Presidents has declined as the perfection of selfish Party tactics have advanced.” – Woodrow Wilson: The Declining Prestige of the Presidential Office, 1885; Annals Vol. 11, p. 87
“No dishonest legislator can long keep his reputation good with honest men. Reform has got to come from the people at large. It will be hard to make any great improvement in the character of politicians until respectable people become more fully awake to their duties, and until the newspapers become more truthful and less reckless in their statements.
“When people are struggling for the necessaries of existence, and feel they are struggling against an unjust system of life, it is hard to convince them that an ounce of performance on their own part is worth a ton of legislative promises to change that system.” – Theodore Roosevelt, 1885; Annals Vol. 11, p. 78
NOTE TO “HOMELAND SECURITY” SECRETARY Alejandro Mayorkas: “It is more than negligence, more than wrong on the part of the government to permit its own statute[s] to remain unenforced. So long as it is a law it is worse than neglect on the part of any officer to set the example of ignoring it or violating it.” – Samuel Gompers: Labor and Capital, 1885; Annals Vol. 10, p. 563
“The selfish, mercenary motives which govern individuals in their struggle to accumulate wealth ought not to exist in our government, although they do exist to a morbid degree in too many of our legislators.” – Samuel Gompers: Labor and Capital, 1885; Annals Vol. 10, p. 563
“Not even the character of a great political organization can be changed by a new platform. It will be the same old snake in a new skin.” – Frederick Douglass: The Color Line in America, September 24, 1883; Annals Vol. 10, p. 584:
“Human beings are so constituted that it is absolutely impossible that they shall tie themselves to any one political party. Every thinking person knows this; it is a truism.” – Samuel L. Clemens (“Mark Twain”): Political Liberty in the South, 1883; Annals Vol. 10, p. 531
“The names of all the voters should be recorded at least six months before an election, which record should be handed over to the judges of their election districts, and if the name of an applicant to vote should not be found thereon his vote should not be received. And every person offering his name, for record should prove his citizenship and qualify that he had not had it recorded in any other district, except in the case of a removal, when he should distinctly state the same, of which a proper entry should be made. It would affect transient persons only who have nothing at stake and prevent them and others from voting several times, at different polls, at the same election, as may easily be done in large cities or populous districts. Thus would the purity of suffrage be defended, the poor citizen be protected in his rights, and wandering persons be debarred the privilege that exclusively belongs to settled inhabitants.” – Niles’ Weekly Register, October 21, 1820; Annals Vol. 4; p. 640
“Mobs are the devil in his worst shape. I would shoot the leader of a mob sooner than a midnight ruffian.” – Noah Webster, Diseases of the Body Politic, 1786; Annals Vol. 3; p. 65
“Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered.” – Tom Paine: The American Crisis, December 19, 1775; Annals Vol 2, p. 456
“There is no longer any room for hope if we wish to remain free. We must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!” – Patrick Henry, Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, March 23, 1775; Annals Vol. 2,
“The chief advantage of poverty is that it inspires the wish and supplies the capacity to escape from it, and in the long struggle for liberty we acquire the power and the ambition for something higher and nobler than wealth. The impulse sends us farther than we had dreamed; stung by early deprivation to the painful search for gold, we often find treasures that gold cannot buy.” – George M. Beard: Modern Civilization and American Nervousness; 1866; Annals Vol. 10, p. 487
“The office of Vice-President isn’t worth a warm bucket of piss.”
“A general conviction was emerging that some kind of revolution was a distinct possibility.”
“If Socialists worked as much as they talked, they would be the most prosperous style of Government in the World. But the thing is they don’t know anything about it themselves. There is not two of them in the world with the same idea of what it is. …The whole idea of Communism is based on propaganda and blood.”
“The Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey have come to resemble each other so closely that it is practically impossible to tell them apart; both of them make the same braying noise, and neither of them ever says anything.” – Will Rogers: A Biography by Ben Yagoda, 1993:
“When men are robbed of the true value of their labor, when they feel it unsafe to speak in their interest, it is time to look farther and deeper for means of defense.
“When monopolies become stronger than the law, when legislatures become the servants of monopolies, when corporations can successfully bid defiance to public good and trample on individual rights, it is time for the people to come together to erect defenses for personal rights and public safety.” – National Labor Tribune: Secret Labor Organizations; April 24, 1875; Annals Vol. 10, p. 333
“As the Party organizations grew in strength, the Senate became more and more the seat of intrigues; and when the Party organizations discovered their power would be greatly increased by controlling executive patronage. The legislature exercising executive power has produced in Congress and in the country an indifference to strict rules of wrong and right, a contempt for personal dignity, a cynical assumption of official dishonesty, and a patient assent to the supposed necessity of corruption.
Nothing remains but to act outside of all Party organizations and to appeal with all the earnestness that the emergency requires, not to Congress nor to the President, but to the people, to return to the first principles of the government and to shut off forever this source of corruption.” – Henry Adams: 1869; Annals Vol. 10, p. 212
“We have now reached a period when everything valuable in the Constitution and in government as formed by our Fathers is brought into peril. Men’s minds are unsettled by the civil strifes through which we have passed. The body of traditional ideas which limited the struggle of parties within narrow and fixed boundaries is broken up. A temporary party majority, having complete sway over the legislative bodies, discards all standards, whether embodied in laws, constitutions, or in elementary or organic principles of free government; acts its own pleasure as absolutely as if it were a revolutionary convention; and deems everything legitimate which can serve it Party aims.” – Samuel J. Tilden: Arraignment of the Republican Party, March 11, 1868; Annals Vol 10, p. 123
“If my blood is to be shed because I vindicate the Union and the preservation of this government in its original purity and character, let it be shed; let an altar to the Union be erected; and then, if it is necessary, take me and lay me upon it, and the blood that now warms and animates my existence shall be poured out as a fit libation to the Union of these states. But let the opponents of this government remember that when it is poured out, “the blood of martyrs will be the seed of the church.” – Andrew Johnson, Against the Radical Republicans, February 22, 1866; Annals Vol. 10, p. 10
“When the attempt is made to take away our rights, and the only instrumentalities peaceably of reforming and correcting abuses – free assemblages, free speech, free ballot, and free elections – then the hour will have arrived when it will be the duty of freemen to find some other and efficient mode of defending their liberties.”
“Resolved: That we put forth every effort, endure every fatigue, and shrink from no danger, until, under the gracious guidance of a kind Providence, every [anarchist, AntiFa, Socialist, Communist] shall be conquered, and traitors at home shall quake with fear, as the proud emblem of our national independence shall assert its power and crush beneath its powerful folds all who dared to assail its honor, doubly hallowed by the memory of the patriot dead.” – Clement L. Vallandigham, May 5, 1862; Annals Vol. 9, p. 412 – 418
“Lay not your hands at the foundation of the fabric of our liberties; you may lop off a branch here and there, and it will survive; we may tolerate that for the sake of the greater good; but whenever your reach your hand to strike at the very vitals of public liberty, then the people must and will determine in their sovereign capacity what remedy to occasion demands.” – George Washington
“Mr. Buchanan [Biden]seems to have thought that if to govern little was to govern well, then to do nothing was the perfection of policy. But there is a vast difference between letting well alone and allowing bad to become worse by a want of firmness at the outset.”
“Either we have no government at all or else the very word implies the right, and therefore the duty, of protecting itself from destruction and its property from pillage!” – James Russell Lowell: The Government’s Right to Self-Defense, February 1861; Annals Vol. 9, p. 230
“But for clubhouses [sports bars] and newspapers, what would social life be to you? Alas! for the folly and vacancy that meet you there!”
“We would not tax man to take care of us. No, the Great Father has endowed all His creatures with necessary powers for self-support, self-defense, and protection. We do not ask man to represent us; it is hard enough in times like these for man to carry enough backbone to represent himself. So long as the mass of men spend most of their time on the fence, not knowing which way to jump, they are surely in no condition to tell us where we had better stand.” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton: The Natural Rights of Civilized Women, February 18, 1860; Annals Vol. 9, p. 151
“Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice and mingle my blood with the blood of my [ancestors] and the blood of millions in this country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust policies – I say, let it be done!” – John Brown: Last Speech to the Court, November 2, 1859; Annals Vol. 9, p. 144
“We think a man who cannot make his living aside from the ministry of Christ unsuited to that office.” – Brigham Young: Interview with Horace Greeley, July 13, 1859; Annals Vol. 9, p. 134
“I went to the store the other day to buy a bolt for our front door, for as I told the storekeeper, the President was coming here. “Aye” said he, “and the Legislature too,” “Then I will take two bolts”, said I. He said that there had been a steady demand for bolts and locks of late, for our protectors were coming.” – Henry David Thoreau, Journal, Sept. 8, 1859
Roger B. Taney: Dred Scott v. Sandford, March 4, 1857; Annals Vol. 8, p. 444 “The Constitution remains unaltered, it must be construed now as it was understood at the time of its adoption. It is not only the same in words but the same in meaning, the same powers to the government, and secures the same rights and privileges to the citizen; and as long as it continues in its present form, it speaks not only in the same words but with the same meaning and intent with which it spoke when it came from the hands of its framers and was voted on and adopted by the people of the United States. Any other rule of construction would abrogate the judicial character of this Court and make it the mere reflex of popular opinion or passion of the day.”
Limerick for Today:
Biden’s brain is bollox’d
Leaving the rest of us flummoxed!
Kamala is clueless
Their policies totally toothless
Only God can get us through this! – Ligon Law
“No man, or set of men, in a government whose suffrage is in the hands of the masses will deny that the people are sovereign. While this sovereignty may be yielded to the people in words, it will be qualified away, denied and abrogated in actual operation.”
By [politicians’] limitations and constructions the people will turn out to be very great sovereigns with very great powers but without any possible right to exercise that sovereign power short of rebellion against the government of their own creation!”
“Let the people of this country, whatever else they may yield, never yield by remotest implication the great right to originate, frame, remodel, and amend government!” – Benjamin Hallett: The Sovereignty of the People, January 1848; Annals Vol. 7, p. 414
“The day is not far distant when the American-born voter will find himself a minority in his own land!”
“We are now struggling for national character and national identity, and not for the need of courtesy, or the extent of a generous disposition. We stand on the very verge of overthrow, by the impetuous force of invading foreigners. Each hour will behold this tide of foreign immigration, rising higher and higher, growing stronger and stronger, and rushing bolder and bolder.” – Lewis C. Levin, Native Americans and the Foreign-Born, December 15, 1845; Annals Vol. 7; p. 315
“O! let us build monuments to the past! Let them tower on mound and mountain; let them rise from the corners of our streets, and in our public squares, that childhood may sport its marbles at their basements, and lisp the names of the commemorated dead, as it lisps the letters of the alphabet. Thus shall the past be made to stand out in a monumental history, that may be seen by the eye, and touched by the hand. Thus shall it be made to subsist to the senses, as it still lives in the organization of the social mind; an organization from which its errors have died out, or are dying, and in which nothing but its Herculean labors do, or are to endure. Yes, Let us sanctify the past, and let no hand, with sacrilegious violence dare mar its venerable aspect.” – Job Durfee: Science and Political Progress, September 6, 1843; Annals Vo. 7, p. 128
“The time to guard against corruption and tyranny is before they shall have gotten hold on us; it is better to keep the wolf out of the fold than to try drawing in his teeth and talons after he has entered.” – Thomas Jefferson
“When any disposition is manifested to amend our Constitution in a different mode from that prescribed in it, it will be time for alarmists to suggest the danger and instability that will probably occur from any irregular action of the people.” – Thomas Dorr: The People’s Right to Remake Their Constitution, May 1, 1843; Annals of America, Vol 7, p. 58
“The motive for the Declaration of Independence was on its face avowed to be “a decent respect for the opinions of mankind.” – John Quincy Adams: The Declaration and the Constitution, April 30, 1839; Annals Vol. 6, p. 471
“All that democracy means is as equal a participation in rights as is practicable. As nothing is more self-evident than the impossibility of raising all men to the highest standard of tastes and refinement, the alternative would be to reduce the entire community to the lowest. The whole embarrassment on this point exists in the difficulty of making men comprehend qualities they do not themselves possess.”
“He is a sneaking Democrat who will submit to being dictated to in those habits over which neither law nor morality assumes a right of control. The groundwork of all their arguments being self.”
“Prejudice is the cause of most of the mistakes of bodies of men. It influences our conduct and warps our judgment in politics, religion, habits, tastes and opinions. We confide in one statesman and oppose another as often from unfounded antipathies as from reason; religion is tainted with uncharitableness and hostilities, without examination; usages are condemned; tastes ridiculed; and we decide wrong from the practice of submitting to a preconceived and an unfounded prejudice, the most active and the most pernicious of all the hostile agents of the human mind. … in morals, habits, and tastes. Few nations have less liberality to boast of than this.”
“Conscience and Revelation have made us acquainted with the laws of Virtue.”
“It ought not to be forgotten that every citizen is entitled to indulge, without comment or persecution, in all his customs and practices that are lawful and moral. Neither is morality to be regulated by the prejudices of sects or social classes, but is to be left strictly to the control of the Laws, Divine and human.” – James Fenimore Cooper: The American Scene, 1838; Annals Vol. 6; p. 438
Elijah Parish Lovejoy, Abolitionist Publisher killed by a pro-slavery mob in Alton, Illinois in 1837:
“As long as I am an American citizen, and as long as American blood runs in these veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to speak, to write and to publish whatever I please, being amenable to the laws of my country for the same.”
“So long as man is in the body, physical force must be used to secure moral results. God always has used it and always will.”
“The certainty of an ultimate appeal to force is all that gives law any terrors to the wicked.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson: The American Scholar, 1837; Annals Vol 6; p. 37
“The one thing in the world of value is the active soul – the soul, free, sovereign, active. This every man is entitled to; this every man contains within him, although in almost all cases obstructed and as yet unborn. The soul active sees absolute Truth; and utters Truth, or creates. In this it is genius.”
“Genius always looks forward; the eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead, man hopes, genius creates. To create – to create – is the proof of a divine presence. Whatever talents may be, if the man create not, the pure efflux of the Deity is not his; cinders and smoke there may be, but not yet flame.”
Joseph Story: Associate Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; February 14, 1837:
“Now we sadly realize that we are to be under the reign of little men – a pygmy race, and that the sages of the last age are extinguished.”
“No citizen who loves his country would resort to forcible resistance unless he clearly saw that the time had come when a freeman should prefer death to submission.” – Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address, March 4, 1837; Annals of America Vol. 6, p. 299
“The Constitution cannot be maintained nor the Union preserved in opposition to public feeling by the mere exertion of the coercive powers confided to the government” – Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address, March 4, 1837; Annals of America, Vol. 6, p. 299
“The most basic paradigm of Economics is “You can’t spend your way to prosperity” – Alan Greenspan. He quickly forgot this when he became Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
“There must always be a Zorro.” – Mask of Zorro
No matter how many times you may feel destroyed, it doesn’t have to mean your are defeated. For even in death you can be victorious if you are True to God and to yourself. – Ligon Law
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel:
- The only two things we can give our children are roots and wings.
- Sometimes the difference between what we want and what we fear is the width of an eyelash.”
I don’t believe it is a coincidence that the cycle of Life is so much like the cycle of the weather. The sun rises at dawn, there are days of sunshine and days of storms – they both come and go. Cold days and hot days. And perfect days that make you want to shout out loud with the joy of just being alive – as if there were a rainbow in your soul. And, at the end of the day, the beautiful colors of sunset fade from pink and violet to gray to black illuminated only by the long ago starlight of cherished memories. – Ligon Law
“When you love a woman without liking her a night can be long and cold – and contempt comes up with the sun.” – Shenandoah
It is only when you discover cheating that you totally realize how closely Love is to Hate – and Hurt. – Ligon Law
“There is no shame in a man dying in the way in which he lived.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
One of the several things that separates Man from animals is his inspired transformation of emotion into music. – Ligon Law
“There’s nothin’ finer than a fine lookin’ woman carryin’ a gun.” – The Whole Nine Yards
COVID PANDEMIC: The government’s masterful manipulation of the masses’ penchant for self pity. – Ligon Law
Ruby, Cold Mountain:
- “Every piece of this is Man’s bullshit. They say this war is a curse over the land but they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say “Shit! It’s raining!”
- “This world won’t stand long – God won’t let it stand this way long.”
“Don’t piss down my back and tell me its’ raining.” – The Outlaw Josey Wales
“I’m glad that I am born to die, From Grief and Woe my soul shall fly. And I don’t care to stay here long.” – Sacred Harp Singers, Cold Mountain
Socialists, Liberals, Snowflakes and their ilk don’t comprehend syllogistic thought. They stare at “If A is true, and B is true; then C must be True” like a hog staring at a watch. – Ligon Law
“God already left Africa.” – Tears of the Sun
“My Spirit shall not always strive with man…”- Genesis 6:1-3, The Bible KJV
“For, as long as ye shall keep my commandants, ye shall prosper in the land.” – Book of Mormon
“It has become appallingly clear that our technology has surpassed our humanity.” – Albert Einstein
“Only the Man who says No is truly free.” – Herman Melville, Moby Dick
Colonel Kurtz: Apocolypse Now
- “The war was being conducted by a bunch of 4-star clowns who would end up giving the whole circus away.”
- “Charging a man with murder in this place is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indianoplois 500.”
- “Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not they are your enemies to be feared.”
- “There is nothing I detest more than the stench of lies.”
The “New World Order” -referred to as inevitable by such luminaries and Britain’s monarchy and Bush, Sr.- is neither “New” nor “Orderly”. It never has been and never will be. Ask Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged, and look around you. The one thing it will provide is power and wealth in the hands of a chosen few by lulling the masses into the belief that only the State can provide prosperity and security. When a healthy, young man in California receives $938.00 each week from the Biden “administration” in “recovery compensation” without lifting a finger Atlas has already Shrugged. – Ligon Law
“Games – 150 days of games. Fear and Wonder – a powerful combination. The power of Rome is in the mob. Take away their freedom and they will still make war for their tyrants. But the beating heart of Rome is not in the Senate or the mob. It is in the Coliseum (or stadium or Octagon). Bring them Death and they will love you for it.” – Gladiator
“Give me people where boiling passions and worldly greed are calmed by faith, hope, and charity; a people who see this earth as a pilgrimage and the other Life as their True Fatherland; a people taught to admire and revere in Christian heroism its’ very poverty and its’ very sufferings; a people who love and adore Jesus Christ the firstborn of all the oppressed, and His cross the instrument of universal salvation. Give me a people formed in this mold and Socialism will not only be easily defeated, but impossible to be thought of…” – Civilta’ Cottolica
If someone doesn’t learn some Truth today that he didn’t know yesterday he regresses in Life. It is unbearable to listen to some opine about anything who haven’t learned anything to increase their intelligence since … who knows when, if ever? Chief among them are mainstream and social media addicts – those shortcut, pseudo scholars. These are those of whom Tolstoy refers in The Idiot who are absolutely convinced they are right – yet totally wrong. – Ligon Law
“The age at which a person begins drinking alcohol is the age at which they stop growing emotionally.” – Alcoholics Anonymous
“In Life, it’s the second act, that’s where the depth comes in.” – Grown Ups
“Words are witnesses which often speak louder than documents.” – Eric Hobbsbawm, The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848
“The privilege of self-government is one which the people will never be permitted to enjoy unmolested. Power and wealth are continually stealing from the many to the few. There is a class continually gaining ground in the community who desire to monopolize the advantages of the government, to hedge themselves round with exclusive privileges, and elevate themselves at the expense of the great body of the people. These, in our society, are emphatically the aristocracy; and these, with all their means of persuasion, or corruption, or intimidation, constitute the party which are now struggling against the democracy, for the perpetuation of an odious and dangerous moneyed institution.” – William Leggett: The Struggle for Power Between the Many and the Few; November 4, 1834; Annals of America Vol. 6, p. 76
“Under the ‘New Normal’ you are only as free as ‘The State‘ allows you to be.” – Man in the High Castle
“When the great disinterested body of the people hesitate to protect each other in their common rights and privileges, they are gone forever, and nothing but revolution can redeem them. ” – Frederick Robinson, A Brief Exposure of the Bar Association, June 25, 1831
“It is within the power of every daring man to overturn a sickly commonwealth.” – Plutarch
“A moment’s courage or a lifetime of regret? That’s always the choice.” – Endeavor; Deguello
“We have nothing to fear from our little, yellow brethren.” – Winston Churchill, 1939
“We’ve been trained to think we are invincible. And now our proudest ships have been destroyed by an enemy we considered inferior.” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt, December 7, 1941
“There’s nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.” – Jimmy Doolittle
I enjoy small towns. But I detest the small minds of some people living in them. – Ligon Law
“Only a coward leaves his kids.” – Trouble with the Curve
“To deal with it you have to find something to defend. It it’s music, go home, put on your most favorite music. And with every note remember that it is something the Darkness can’t take away from you.” – Endeavor, Season 2; Episode 2, Fugue
“After kids, everything else is ….just filling.” – BBC’s Unforgotten
“My first responsibility to myself, my family, and my community is to follow the dictates of my own conscience.” – Socrates
“State sponsored education is like the swirling of a stick in a swill bucket.” – George Orwell
“No matter how low you go, there is always a right and a wrong.” – Last Man Standing
“Life should be measured in deeds, not years.” – Sheershaah
“The magic in one’s Life is working toward a dream that no one but you can see.” – Million Dollar Baby
“Real love means giving someone else the power to hurt you. Being hurt is part of being alive.” – The Dowager Duchess, Downton Abbey
“An education is the gateway to anything worth having.” – Mr. Molesly, Downton Abbey
The greatest thing about the Truth is the freedom it brings in so many ways. Chief among is the freedom from fear. – Ligon Law
“”The business of Life is the acquisition of memories. And, in the end, that’s all there is.” – Mr. Carson, Downton Abbey
“The price of great Love is great Misery.” – Downton Abbey
“Divisions may spring up, ill blood may burn, parties be formed, and interests may seem to clash, but the great bonds of the nation are linked to what is past. The deeds of the great men to whom this country owes its origin and growth are a patrimony of which its children will never deprive themselves. As long as the Mississippi and the Missouri shall flow, those men and those deeds will be remembered on their banks. The sceptor of government may go where it will, but that patriotic feeling can never depart from Judah! As long as the name of America shall last, a father will take his children on his knee and recount to them the events of 22nd of December, the 19th of April, the 17th of June, and the 4th of July!” – Edward Everett, The Circumstances Favorable to the Progress of Literature in America, August 26, 1824; Annals of America, Vol. 5, p. 125
Thomas Jefferson: A Firebell in the Night, April 22, 1820; Annals Vol 4, p. 603. “I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be that I live not to weep over it. If they would but dispassionately weigh the blessings they will throw away against an abstract principle more likely to be effected by union than by scission, they would pause before they would perpetuate this act of suicide on themselves, and of treason against the hopes of the world.
Euclidean Liberal: “A point is that which has no parts.” – Ligon Law (with an assist from Euclid)
“Lovers of wisdom value Truth above friends.” – Aristotle, Ethics; 340 B.C.
“As a nation of free men we must live through all time or die by suicide.” – Abraham Lincoln, 1838; Introduction to Annals of America
How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Dorn:
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- “To regard anyone except yourself as responsible for your judgment is to be a slave”
- “Most people think winning the argument is what matters most, not learning from the Truth.” – p. 145
- “A bone can always be found to pick a quarrel over. It makes no difference whether the bone is a chip on your own shoulder.” – p. 14
- “The relatively ignorant often disagree with the relatively intelligent about matters exceeding their knowledge.” – p.146
- “The trouble is most people regard disagreement as unrelated to either teaching or being taught. They think that everything is just a matter of opinion.” – p. 147
- “No higher recommendation can be given any work of the human mind than to praise it for the measure of Truth it has achieved.” – p. 163
Jeanne Kirkpatrick on Socialism:
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- “As I read the utopian socialists, the scientific socialists, the German Social Democrats and revolutionary socialists – whatever I could in either English of French – I came to the conclusion that almost all of them, including my grandfather, were engaged in an effort to change human nature. The more I thought about it, the more I thought this was not likely to be a successful effort. So I turned my attention more and more to political philosophy and less and less to socialist activism of any kind.”
- “Moral Imperialism” [Bush, Jr.] was not taken seriously anywhere outside a few places in Washington, D.C.”
- “The difference between an authoritarian government and a totalitarian government is the latter has a command economy.” – The Kirkpatrick Doctrine
Albert Einstein:
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- “Without the belief that it is possible to grasp reality with our theoretical constructions, without the belief in the inner harmony of our world, there could be no science. This belief is and always will remain the fundamental motive for all scientific creation.”
Under the Category of DUH! (since common sense doesn’t rule these days):
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- “There is NO SAFE LIMIT to consuming alcohol during a woman’s pregnancy.”- Centers for Disease Control and Preventions, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs). Believe it or not SCIENCE outweighs the biased opinions of your alcoholic relatives and friends – and even social media!
- This means “ONE BEER EVERY NOW AND THEN WON’T HURT THE BABY” is poppycock and balderdash. Since ONE drink of ANY TYPE OF ALCOHOL can be observed to immediately and permanently damage the amygdala it naturally follows it does the same to your unborn child’s brain.
- If you can’t give up booze for nine months to ensure your child has every chance to be strong and healthy both mentally and physically, maybe you shouldn’t get pregnant in the first place – regardless of your fear your boyfriend is thinking of leaving you. If that’s why you get pregnant, he will leave eventually anyway. – Ligon Law
- “There is NO SAFE LIMIT to consuming alcohol during a woman’s pregnancy.”- Centers for Disease Control and Preventions, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs). Believe it or not SCIENCE outweighs the biased opinions of your alcoholic relatives and friends – and even social media!
“It is astounding to what lengths people will go to avoid thinking!” – Mark Twain
“Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never has been a democracy that did not commit suicide.” – John Adams
Upon America’s Bicentennial: Ourselves as Others See Us: Annals of America, Vol.22
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- Alain Clement, Le Monde, Paris May 11, 1976:
- “Americans are merely witnesses to a political system that narrowly rations their participation in government.”
- “The electorate, sovereign in theory, is consulted only on fixed dates.”
- “Thus institutions originally conceived to obliterate hereditary power come to codify succession, preventing recourse to the polls until a time fixed by an inflexible calendar.”
- “What is called the power of public opinion in America is merely an accumulation of emotions and tensions between electoral dates unchanged by the most acute crises.”
- In fifty years the State has almost sextupled in personnel. It has grown by 215 new bureaus and agencies which consume four times as many dollars. How much better it would be if the gardener were master of his own garden?
- Congressional committees have been investigating the monstrous Pentagon, CIA, and FBI. Their monstrous sin is not in the abuses revealed, it is in their exposure as the apparatus of a secular power which betrays the spiritual basis of American democracy by imitating the vile intrigues and sordid despotisms of Europe.”
- The external enemy they had fought, totalitarianism, the police state, spying on private citizens, tyranny in all its forms, has invaded the sanctuary of freedom.
- Alain Clement, Le Monde, Paris May 11, 1976:
“A despot [or an illegitimately elected president] doesn’t fear eloquent writers preaching freedom – he fears a drunken poet who will crack a joke that will take hold.” – E. B. White
“Fate whispers to the Warrior ‘A Storm is coming!’ And the Warrior whispers back ‘I Am the Storm.’ – Bona Fides in Mission Impossible: Fallout
“It is even more important now, while we plan for peace, that we don’t do it on some preconceived notions or half-baked concepts of what other nations are likely to do. We must build on the solid ground of what is actually happening, not on what we would like to see happen.” – William (“Wild Bill”) Donovan, Call for a Central Intelligence Agency, April 13, 1946
Walter B. Weisenburger, Objections to Industry-Wide Collective Bargaining, The Sign, February 1947:
- “The public has a stake in the maintenance of effective competition.”
- “Industry-wide bargaining tends to stifle competition in two ways:
- 1) collective bargaining on an industry-wide basis may lead to other activities on an industry-wide basis equally inconsistent with free competition;
- 2) to the extent industry-wide bargaining results in higher wages. it drives marginal companies out of business, thereby throwing workers out of jobs.”
- “Aside from industry-wide strikes, bargaining on an industry-wide basis tends to become less and less an economic problem and assumes a more and more a political complexion.”
- “Opinion polls show that the public is concerned about the excessive powers of national union leaders.”
- “Industry-wide bargaining leads to ever greater concentration of industry in fewer hands.”
- “Industry-wide bargaining offers an extremely fertile field for those whose primary interest lies, not in advancing the people’s standard of living, but in overthrowing our system of competitive enterprise and political freedom.”
- “A spokesman for the CIO has said that he is looking forward to the day when the presidents of the CIO and AFL can sit down and bargain collectively, with appropriate representatives of industries for all the workers of the United States [this became the AFL-CIO].
- “With all the vehemence at my command, I say that I hope that day never comes, For when it does, free collective bargaining and free competitive enterprise will both be dead.”
- See What is to Be Done? by Lenin It has been done exactly as he planned.
- See: Trading With the Enemy: A Expose’ of the Nazi-American Money Plot, 1933-1949 by Charles Higham. During WW II the president of the AFL or CIO was promised the presidency of the “New World Union” if he supported American industry barons who were not-so-secretly enabling the Nazis to wage war against the free world.
Ralph B. Wagner, Public Relations, January 1944:
- “The average person instinctively resent being challenged to think things out for himself. He is bored when he has to exert himself to understand.”
- “Most people are inclined to believe what they like or want to believe rather than what they deduce through a process of reasoning on the strength of evidence.”
- “Chief among the more significant discoveries about human nature is the fact that normal human beings, generally are still rather primitively selfish, inquisitive, imitative, and emotional. They are almost as interested as children in conflicts, mysteries, pictures, success stories, and secrets. And if people are not inclined to be followers, why do they congregate – go with crowds and prevailing currents?”
- “Most judgments of the average person are controlled less by logic than by suggestibility and unreasoned drives’.”
- “It points the way to the important process of molding the mind.”
- “Couple this formula with some sparkling idea-symbols and you have a technique resulting in the mass-mind reaction needed…”
The Harvard Committee, General Education in a Free Society, Cambridge, 1944:
- “We must distinguish between liberalism in education and education in liberalism. The former, based on the doctrine of individualism, expresses the view that the student should be free in his choice of courses. But education in liberalism states there are truths which none can be free to ignore if one is to have that wisdom through which life can be useful.
- “Democracy is the view that not only the few but that all are free, in that everyone governs his own life and shares in the responsibility for the management of the community. This being the case, it follows that all human beings stand in need of an ampler and more rounded education.
- “The task of modern democracy is to preserve the ancient ideal of liberal education and to extend it as far as possible to all the members of the community. To believe in the equality of human beings is to believe that the good life, and the education which trains citizen for the good life, are equally the privilege of all.”
- “A society controlled wholly by specialists [techies] in not a wisely ordered society.”
- “In order to discharge the duties of a citizen adequately, a person must be able to grasp the complexities of Life as a whole.”
Reinhold Niebuhr, The Children of Light and Darkness, New York 1944:
- “The Children of Light have not been as wise as the Children of Darkness.”
- “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible. But Man’s inclination for injustice makes democracy necessary.”
- “If men are inclined to deal unjustly with their fellows, the possession of power aggravates this inclination.”
- “That is why irresponsible and uncontrolled power is the greatest source of injustice.”
- “The Children of Darkness are evil because they know no law beyond the self (solipsism). They are wise, though evil, because they understand the power of self interest.”
- “The Children of Light are virtuous because they have some conception of a higher law than their own will. They are usually foolish because they do not know the power of self will. They underestimate the peril of anarchy in both the national and international community.”
- “The result of this persistent blindness to the obvious and tragic facts of man’s social history is that democracy has to maintain itself precariously against the guile and the malice of the Children of Darkness, while its statesmen and guides conjure up all sorts of abstract and abortive plans for the creation of perfect national and international communities (see Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott, 1998).”
- “The preservation of a democracy requires the wisdom of a serpent and the harmlessness of a dove. The Children of Light must be armed with the wisdom of the Children of Darkness but remain free from their malice. They must know the power of self-interest in human society without giving it moral justification. They must have this wisdom in order that they may beguile, deflect, harness, and restrain self-interest, individual and collective, for the sake of the community.”
“Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, and we’ll all stay free!” – Frank Loesser, 1942
Herbert Hoover, American Ideals Versus The New Deal, Republican National Convention, June 10, 1936
“…the American people have a right to know NOW, while they still have the power to act. What is going to be done after the election with these measures which the Constitution forbids and the people by their votes have never authorized? They [Democrats] have kept on [imposing] some new restriction or burden or fright down to a week ago.”
[COVID-19] President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Quarantine the Aggressors, Chicago, October 5, 1937:
- “Innocent people are being cruelly sacrificed to a greed for power and supremacy which is devoid of all justice and humane consideration.”
- “”Perhaps we will see a time when men will become exultant in the technique of homicide, will rage so hotly over the [nation] that every precious thing will be in danger, every book, and picture and harmony, every treasure garnered through two millenniums, the small, the delicate, the defenseless – all will be lost or wrecked or destroyed.”
- “If those days come there will be no safety by arms, no help from authority…The storm will rage until every flower of culture is trampled and all human beliefs are leveled in a vast chaos.’
- “If those days are not to come- if we are to have a nation in which we can breathe freely and live without fear [from the COVID Gestapo] then peace-loving [citizens] must make a concerted effort to uphold laws and principles on which alone peace can rest secure.”
- “There must be a return to the belief in a pledged word, in the value of a signed [ballot]. There must be recognition that national morality is as vital as private morality.”
- “If civilization is to survive, the principles of the Prince of Peace must be restored.”
Ralph Adams Cram, What is is Free Man? St. Paul, 1937
“The ballot is a symbol, an empty symbol, but still a symbol of liberty. It deludes men into thinking they are free men – which they are not.” –
[COVID-19] Harold J. Laski, The Obsolescence of Federalism, New Republic, May, 1939:
- “Imposed solutions from a distant Washington, blind to the subtle minutiae of local realities, cannot solve the ultimate problems of the day.”
- “The wider the powers exercised from Washington the more ineffective its capacity for creative administration.”
- “Giant capitalism has concentrated the control of economic power in a small proportion of the American people,”
- “It has transcended political boundaries making the federal government incapable of independent governance.”
- “It has made the federal government a parasite to extreme capitalism.”
- “Men who are deprived of faith by inability to attain results they greatly desire do not long remain content with the institutions under which they live.”
- “No political system is immortal.“
“We must not forget that our history shows…that while the rich get richer, their brains are growing poorer.” – William Allen White, The Challenge to the Middle Class, Atlantic Monthly, August 1937
Ferdinand Lundberg, The American Plutocracy, America’s 60 Families, New York, 1937:
- “The United States is owned and operated today by a hierarchy of sixty of the richest families buttressed by no more than ninety families of lesser wealth. Outside this plutocratic circle there are perhaps three hundred and fifty other families less defined of the inner circle.”
- “These families are the living center of the modern industrial oligarchy which dominates the United States, functioning as the de jure democratic form of government.
- “This de facto government is actually the government of the United States – informal, invisible, shadowy.”
- “It is the government of money in a dollar democracy.”
- “The rich are a psychopathic class, waltzing toward a hidden precipice, dragging the nation down.”
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, 1939:
- “Here is the anlage of the thing you [monopolies, politicians] should fear: When “I lost my land [home, vote, freedom] becomes “WE lost our land [vote, freedom]. When “I have no food” and “I have a little food” becomes “WE have a little food.” This is the thing you should fear. This is the beginning – when “I” becomes “We”.
- “Fear the time when Man will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Man.”
- “The great companies [nor politicians] do not know that the line between hunger and anger is very thin.”
“Nothing will kill the movies [Facebook, video games, etc.] except education.” – Will Rogers
Andre’ Maurois, Impressions of a Long Voyage, 1939:
- “Often in the last few months I was struck with the question of whether the unity of the United States was not artificial, whether it was capable of survival.”
- “Most Americans are optimists – or they were.“
- “Workers ask if the system is likely to live long. [Politicians] appease discontent by redistributing acquired wealth; but when the day comes that the Reserves are exhausted, it will not be easy to govern America.”
- “In a world where propaganda and information spread in a few seconds, indifference no longer serves as a counterfoil to lies, ignorance is no longer a buffer to folly. The machine has lost its regulation. How can one talk of freedom in a period of cartels, trusts, and monopolies?”
- “No government has the right to hate.”
- “We will not emerge from our present difficulties by class war.”
Harold J. Ockenga, The UnVoiced Millions, National Association of Evangelicals, Boston, 1942:
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- “Unless we can have a true revival of Christianity, able to change the character of men and build up a new moral fiber, we believe Christianity, capitalism, and democracy are in peril.”
- “Already a revolution has taken place in our nation. Whenever the majority of the business in America is being done by the government rather than private interest, capitalism ceases and a “New Order” begins.”
- Calvary should not only be the dividing place between us [Christians] and the rest of the world but it should be our meeting place where we can jointly bow our heads in praise and thanksgiving for that which has been done for us.”
- “It is folly to speak of the union of the true Church and declare that those who profess doctrines of the true Church can never work in unity.” [especially when you continue to preach and teach that “those” are “cults”!]
- “This leads me to say that I am of the hearty opinion that our program must not be negative but it must be positive.”
- “If we are to guard our testimony and our purity, our great need is not for that which is negative but for something that is positive.”
- “I deplore the absence of consecrated love and tolerance among men of mutual convictions.”
- “If Love is absent then the Holy Spirit is absent from our midst.”
- “Are we teachable or are we determined to have our own way? Are we clean? Have we put aside our prejudices, our differences, even our hates, to be of one mind?”
- “God help us to humble ourselves. God help us to be sane. God help us to do His will.”
- “We stand together in the shadow of the cross cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. There let us unite for His glory [and His victory!].”
Frederic C. Crawford, Jobs, Freedom, and Opportunity, June 1, 1944
“[Corporations] say ‘Yes! Free, competitive, private enterprise must be the source of only ‘a majority’ of jobs but then they look to the government to provide the rest of the jobs through government spending. That is as ridiculous and as immoral as a part-time wife!”
“Just boil the ocean!” – Will Rogers solution to German submarine warfare in WW II.
Zechariah Chafee, Free Speech in America, Cambridge, 1941:
- “Reason is less praised nowadays than a century ago. Instead, emotions dominate men’s conduct. Is it any longer possible to discover the truth amid the clashing blares of advertisements, loud speakers, giant billboards, party programs, propaganda of a hundred kinds? To sift through the truth from all the these half truths demand a statistical investigation beyond the limits of anybody’s time and money.”
- ‘Some modern thinkers conclude the great mass of voters cannot be trusted to detect the emotional fallacies of communists and so on [Socialists, BLM, AntiFa, Democrates, etc.].”
- “Perhaps the Truth will win in the long run – but in the “long run” we will all be dead – and not peacefully in our beds either.”
- “Debating is only fiddling while Rome burns.”
- Reason remains the best guide we have, better than emotions, better even than the most exalted guide, however exalted his position.”
“Ideas need to be hardened by the hammer blows of free and open discussion.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Casablanca Conversation, February 12, 1943. [This is the Democrat who betrayed half of Europe by giving them to the Russians!]
“Axis propaganda seems to divide the United Nations (not “Allied Powers!) by creating the idea that if we win this war, Russia, England, China, and the United States are going to get into a cat-and-dog fight…in the vain hope that …any of us may be so gullible and so forgetful as to be duped into making “deals” at the expense of our allies.”
Cicero “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” –
“Demonstrated behavior is stronger evidence of love, attitude, opinion, and feelings. Words can be spoken under all kinds of different emotions and within many different contexts with varying degrees of intent and conviction. Saying “I love you” feels hollow and insincere if nothing is done to show it. Actions do speak louder than words.” – Dad
– Confucius “To see Right and not do it is a lack of Courage.”
James Bryant Conant, Education for a Classless Society, Atlantic Monthly, May, 1940:
- “Those in positions of power and privilege (including college presidents) need to be under constant vigilant scrutiny and be objects of [editorial] attack. Tyrannies of ownership and management spring up all too readily.”
- “Freedom of mind, social mobility through education, and universal schooling – the Jeffersonian model of education.
- “It is from weakness that people reach for dictators and concentrated government. Only the strong can be free.”
Matthew Kelly: “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body and prayer is to the soul. We become the books we read.”
Archibald McLeash, The Irresponsibles, New York, 1940:
- “Nothing is more characteristic of the intellectuals than their failure to understand what is happening in their world. Nothing explains that failure as their unwillingness to see what they have seen and to know what they do truly know.”
- “The truth is that the disorder of our time is a revolt against the common culture of the West.”
- “Without this attack on the mind and upon the spirit this revolution could not have succeeded.”
- “It is a revolution of negatives. It is a revolution created out of misery by dread of more misery, by disorder out of fear of more disorder. It is a revolution of gangs, a revolution against. Their enemy is the rule of moral law, the rule of spiritual authority, the law of intellectual truth. Their only aim is power.”
- “They have only one goal; the destruction of the whole system of idea citizens, the whole respect for Truth, the whole authority of excellence which places law above force, beauty above cruelty, singleness above numbers.”
- “Only in our time has the revolution of the gangs discovered a strategy and a leadership brutal enough, cynical enough, cunning enough to destroy the entire authority of our inherited culture…”
- “Had the citizens of our time been whole and loyal it would have been impossible for the gangs of revolution to have succeeded.”
- “Against treason, corruption, and lies, battle fleets and grand armies are impotent.”
– Helen Keller: “Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
Christine Cain: “Sometimes when you find yourself in a very dark place you feel as if you have buried. In reality, you just been planted.”
Senator Reed Smoot: “The cost of government will continue to increase regardless of which party is in power.” –
Granville Hicks, On Leaving the Communist Party, New Republic, October, 4, 1939:
- “They offer apologetics completely devoid of clarity and logic.”
- “If the Communist Party could not defend the Soviet Union intelligently, they would do it stupidly.”
- “The leaders of the Communist Party have tried to appear omniscient, and they have succeeded in being ridiculous.”
- “They have clutched at straws, juggles sophistries, shut their eyes to the facts.”
- ” Their predictions have almost been uniformly been proven wrong within twenty four hours.”
- “They have shown that they have been strong in faith and weak in intelligence.”
- “The Party has retreated from one untenable position after another.”
- ” When the Communist Party reverses itself overnight and offers nothing but nonsense in explanation, who is likely to be influenced by a Communist’s recommendations?”
- “I can understand those members who have been made bitter by a series of betrayal…”
Ligon Law: “If childrens’ persistent pessimism and destructive behavior are destroying what would lead to a happy and prosperous life, it is still incumbent upon parents to provide constructive, optimistic advice to their children- even if they are adults and however unwelcome that advice may be. You never stop being a parent because they never stop being your children.
Mae West: “I like a man who takes his time.”
Robert M. Hutchins, American Higher Learning, 1936:
- “Our people will strike out blindly under economic pressure; they will destroy the best and preserve the worst until we make the distinction between the two somewhat clearer to them.”
- “Anti-intellectualism is so much a part of the temper of these times it will be difficult to remedy to ensure the future liberty of this nation.”
- “The first cause of confusion in higher learning is the love of money. It is sad but true that when an institution does something in order to get money it loses its soul.
- “Dependence on donors means the curriculum will be whatever somebody is willing to pay to make it.”
- “The love of money turns a university into a service station.”
- ” Universities should be focused on scholarship, professional education and the training of the mind – and nothing else.”
- “Everybody supposes that students are important. The emphasis on athletics, and social life that infects all colleges and universities has done more than most things to debase higher learning in America.”
- “An anti-intellectual university is a contradiction in terms [but that’s exactly what we’ve had for the last thirty years].
- “Adding to the confusion in universities is their interpretation of democracy – thinking they have a social obligation to the community – and their ‘Great Man’ theory in which they hire ‘great men’ as faculty despite their inability to teach.”
“It doesn’t matter how many votes are counted. What matters is who counts the votes.” – Josef Stalin (and countless other dictators and politicians)
“Today in America there is only one political party – the banker’s party.” – Charles E. Coughlin, Money Changers in the Temple, June 19, 1936
“A man who leaves a woman unsatisfied is like a coward who flees the field of battle.” – Kama Sutra, 400 A.D.
“If there’s one thing I know it’s women and special operations.” “That’s two things!” “No, grasshopper. It’s not.” – R.E.D. 2
Richard Tregaskis (author of Guadalcanal Diary}, China Bomb, 196
“All you have to do is compare the life of the family unit on this side [America] with the communist [Democrats, Socialists, COVID Gestapo] side. Their side is like being in jail – plenty of people in your cell, always listening for you to say something that’ll send you up for re-education or discipline. But these people are not your family – and certainly not your friends.”
Herbert Hoover, The New Deal and European Collectivism, June 10, 1936:
– “You cannot spend yourselves into prosperity” – “Billions have been spent to prime the economic pump. The government employed a horde of paid officials to man the pump handle. We have seen frantic efforts to find new taxes on the rich. Yet three quarters of the bill will be sent to the average man and the poor. He and his wife and his grandchildren will be giving a quarter [now half!] of their working days to pay taxes. Freedom to work for himself has changed into a slavery of work for the follies of government. – “Must we condemn unborn generations to fight again and to die again for the right to be free?” – – – “We have seen the building up of a horde of political officials. We have seen the pressures build upon the helpless and destitute to trade political support for relief. Both are a pollution to the very foundations of liberty.” – There are some principles which came into the universe with the shooting stars of which worlds are made, and they have always been and ever will be true. Such are the laws of mathematics, the laws of gravity, the existence of God, and the ceaseless struggle of mankind to be free.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Second New Deal, January 4, 1935
– “The lessons of history show conclusively that continued dependence on relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber.
– To dole out relief…is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. The federal government must and shall quit this business of relief.” (after the U.S. Supreme Court revoked the first New Deal for it’s unprecedented capitulation of law-making authority from the legislature to the President’s arbitrary interpretations of NRA “codes”.
Henry A. Wallace, Old and New Frontiers; New Frontiers, Chapter 6; 1934
– “Unfortunately, many of the oncoming generation now in our schools, or idling in our homes, are handicapped…being misled by demagogues and half-baked educators. They may be inclined more and more to believe that the world owes them not only a living but a limousine.” (LMAO!)
Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Charles Evan Hughes, A.L.A. Schecter Poultry Corporation et al. v. United States, May 27, 1935 (a date known as “Black Monday” overturning FDR’s usurpation of the Constitution’s separation of powers by arbitrary code enforcement.)
– “Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional power.”
Robert Morss Lovett, A Century of Progress?, January 1934
– “Technology has replaced culture as the motive of this present century. If the accelerated advances in technology lead to nothing better than a population whose highest ambition is material comfort and their lowest is in crass vulgarity in their recreation, it may be doubted whether the “advance” was worth it.”
Polybius’ Opinion of Philosophers’ [Moral Relativism This is hilarious!]
“In their effort to puzzle the minds of those with whom they are arguing about the comprehensible and incomprehensible, they resort to such paradoxes and are so fertile in inventing plausibilities that they wonder if it is possible for those in Athens to smell eggs being roasted in Ephesus, and are in doubt as to whether all the time they are discussing the matter in the Academy they are not in reality lying in their beds at home and composing this discourse in a dream and not in reality. Consequently, people have come to disbelieve in legitimate subjects. And apart from their own purposelessness that they have implanted in the minds of our young men, they never give a thought to ethical and political questions which really benefit students of philosophy, spending their lives in the vain effort to invent useless paradoxes.” – Polybius, Histories of; 264-146 B.C. p. 366
Edgar W. Howe, Notes for My Biographer
“The government is mainly an expensive organization to regulate evildoers, and to tax those that behave; government does little for fairly respectable people except annoy them.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
“Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the false belief that public office and high political positions are to be valued only for position [power] and personal profit.”
Bette Midler, The Rose
“Just remember that in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow; Lies the seed that, in the spring time, becomes the rose.”
Alfred E. Smith, Defense of Catholics in Public Office, Atlantic Monthly, May 1927
“I join with fellow Americans in all creeds in a fervent prayer that never again in this land will any public servant be challenged because of the faith in which he [or she] has tried to walk humbly before God.”
10 Meaningful Bible Verses About Children and Parenting by Country Living Staff, March 27, 2020:
“Having a child is like having your heart walking around outside your body.”
- “Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” – Fifth Commandment
- “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” – Proverbs 22:9 [NOTE: Children can NOT train themselves!]
- “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.” – Isaiah 54:13
- “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teachings, for they are a garland for your head and pendants for your neck.” – Proverbs 1:8-9
- “Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.” – Proverbs 17:6
- *** “I have no greater joy than to hear my children are walking in the Truth.” – 3 John 1:4
- “Oh that their hearts would be inclined to fear Me and keep all my commands always, that it might go well with them and their children forever!” – Deuteronomy 5:29
- “These commandments I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” – Deuteronomy 6:6-7
- “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace.” – Deut. 54:13
- “Discipline your children and they will give you peace of mind and will make your heart glad.” – Proverbs 29:17 –
Santayana, Materialism and Idealism in America, 1920
-“Experience is necessary to pertinent and concrete thinking.”
Stephen Vincent Benet, By the Waters of Babylon, (The Place of the Gods), July 31, 1937
“Sometimes too much Truth is a bad thing.” [especially within families]
Alan Quartermain, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,
“Old Tigers, sensing the end, are at their most dangerous. They go down fighting.”
H.L. Mencken, Prejudices, 5th Series, 1926
“If you find so much that is unworthy of your reverance then why do you live here?”
Heywood Broun, Plea for Sacco and Vanzetti, August 5, 1916
“Did any man [or woman] ever find power within his hand and not use it as a whip?” –
Father Mapple, (extremely well played by Gregory Peck -his last role before his death), Moby Dick by Herman Melville
“Heavenly Father, let us strive to be thine more than the world’s – or our own.”
Oscar Ameringer, Testimony Before the House Committee on Labor, February 1932: “I have not come here to stir you in a recital of the necessity for relief of our suffering fellow citizens. However, unless something is done for them, and done soon, you will have a revolution on your hands. And when that revolution comes it will not be made by the communists [BLM, AntiFa, Socialists, or Anarchists]. When it comes it will bear the label “Made in the U.S.A.” and its chief promoters will be the American citizen. “There is a feeling among the people that something is radically wrong. They are despairing of political action. They say the only thing you do in Washington is take money from the pockets of the [middle class] and put it in the pockets of the rich [and the lazy]. “They say that this government is a conspiracy against the common people to enrich the already rich [and support the indolent]. I hear such remarks every day.”
Herbert Hoover, Rugged Individualism, 1928 – “We are faced with a peacetime choice between the American system of rugged individualism and a European philosophy of diametrically opposed doctrines – paternalism and socialism. The acceptance of these doctrines will mean the destruction of self-government through centralized government. It will mean the undermining of individual initiative and enterprise through which our people have grown to unparalleled greatness.” – “Shall we depart from the principles of our American political and economic system, upon which we have advanced beyond all the rest of the world in order to adopt methods based on principles destructive of its very foundations?” – “You cannot extend mastery of the government over the working life of a people without at the same time making it the master of the people’s souls and thoughts. Every expansion of government means that government in order to protect itself from the political consequences of its errors is driven irresistibly to greater and greater control of the nation’s press and platform [media]. Free speech does not live many hours after free industry and free commerce die.”
Henry Ford, Youth, Industry, and Progress, October 1928: – “Most people will spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them. Problems are a challenge to your intelligence. Problems are only problems until they are solved and the solution conveys a reward upon the solver. Instead of avoiding problems we should welcome them and through right thinking make them pay us a profit. – “Economic stoppage is not natural. Our selfishness and ignorance have created it.” – “Some people think everything will be rectified when war is abolished. Sound thinking insists that war will not be abolished until the root is cut; and one of its’ main roots is a false money system and the high priests thereof. What causes war is not patriotism, not that human beings are willing to die in defense of their dear ones. It is the false doctrine fostered by the few that war spells gain. It is this that makes war – and there are not enough [citizens] who see it.” – “…conscious allegiance costs something. …it means a division between those who are loyal to moral convictions and those who are not. The majority of people are straddlers. They are not in this world to pioneer but to be as happy as possible. If pioneering in a cause brings discomfort, they would rather not be among the pioneers. They would rather stand on the sidelines and, in the combat between Truth and Error, wait and see which proves the stronger. Though they may have a lazy faith that Truth at last will win, they do not wish to lend it premature support.” – “A man who cannot think is not an educated man, no matter how many degrees he has.” – “If a man is right he need not fear to stand alone; he is not alone. Every right idea has many adherents. He may seem lonely but they are only silent – waiting for a leader to declare them.”
“Laborare est Orare” – To Work is to Pray – Rule of Saint Benedict, 516 A.D.
Andrew Furuseth, Work is Worship, 1927
“Fear – the mother of hatred and treachery. Let the American people beware of bondage being imposed upon any class. Toleration of it by workers in any field of endeavor is treason to American ideals. To resist it is the highest duty, though the result may be prison or death…”
Alexander Hamilton, Testimony in Defense of Peter Zenger, August 4, 1735:
“Power may justly be compared to a great river; while kept within its bounds it is both beautiful and useful, but when it overflows its’ banks it bears down all before it, and brings destruction and desolation wherever it goes. If this then is the nature of power, let us do our duty like wise men who value freedom to use our utmost to support liberty, the only bulwark against lawless power, which, in all ages, has sacrificed to its wild lust and boundless ambition the blood of the best men that ever lived.” – “I should think it my duty to go to the utmost part of the land to quench the flame of prosecutions by the government to deprive the people of the right to complain of the arbitrary attempts of men of power. Men who injure and oppress the people provoke them to cry out and complain; then make their complaints the foundation for new oppressions and prosecutions. …They are greedy dogs who can never have enough!”
Edwin L. James, America As a World Power, October 1930
“America’s great world political leadership is not due to our moral leadership but to our wealth and economic position; not to our moral teachings but to our material power.” –
Elihu Root, The Proper Pace of Political Change, April, 1913: – “A dictator once established by what is, or alleged to be, public choice never permits an expression of public will which will displace him, and he goes out only through a new revolution because he alone controls the machinery through which he could be displaced peaceably. . – We should reject, therefore, every proposal which involves the idea that the people can rule merely by voting, or merely voting and having one man or group of men to execute their will. Law cannot give to depravity the rewards of virtue, to indolence the rewards of industry, to indifference the rewards of ambition, or to ignorance the rewards of learning. The utmost that government can do is is to protect men, not against the wrong they do themselves but against wrong done by others, and to promote the long, slow process of educating mind and character to a better knowledge and nobler standards of life and conduct.” The habit of undue interference by government in private affairs breeds the habit of undue reliance upon government at the expense of individual initiative, energy, enterprise, courage, and independent manhood. The strength of self-government must be found in the character of the individual citizen. Weaken individual character by comfortable reliance upon paternal government and a nation becomes incapable of free self-government, achievement becomes atrophied and the nation is decadent.”
Walter Lippman, The Trusts and Private Property, 1914
“The real problem with collectivism is the difficulty of combining popular control with administrative power.”
Mary Anton, Judges in the Gate: A Complete Gospel of Immigration, 1914
“Better a hard bed in the shelter of justice than a stuffed couch under the black canopy of despotism.”
“There’s a sucker born every minute – and that’s especially true in Denver!” – P.T. Barnum.
“Every politician talks about Lincoln – but none of them imitate him.” – Will Rogers, The Normal Majority, 1925
“Some days are diamonds. Some days are stones.” – John Denver
“The creator of Facebook knew he was creating an addiction – and did it anyway.” Loreena McKennitt, Why I Cancelled Facebook, April 17, 2018
“Whom the gods would destroy, first they make mad with power [or money].” – Sophocles, Antigone, verses 620-623; 441 B.C.
“To attack Liberals intellectually is to slay the slain.” – Ligon Law
“Democrats on the Judiciary Committee: Crows pecking at Eagles” – Ligon Law (with help from Shakespeare’s Coriolanus
Frank H. Knight, The Ethics of Competition, August 1923: – “Business became a new religion, the factory was the church, work was worship, [money the golden idol], and advertising the new ideology.” – Frank H. Knight, The Ethics of Competition, August 1923 – “The striking fact in modern life is the complete separation between spiritual ethics and unethical efficiency practiced by commercial sales managers.” – “All the while there is multiplying evidence of a spiritual hunger in the modern people. They have got away from the spiritual attitude toward life and do not know how to get back.” – “As for spirituality, commercialism has made that term incomprehensible to living men.” [ESPECIALLY AT CHRISTMAS! When cartoon animals have replaced the Nativity Scene in front yards]
“I never knew how ugly I am until I saw how beautiful you are.” – Quasimodo to Esmeralda, Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1831
H.L. Mencken, On Being American, 1922: : – “It is one of my firmest beliefs, reached after an inquiry extending scores of years and supported by incessant prayer and meditation, that the government of the United States, in both the legislative and executive arm, is ignorant, incompetent, corrupt, and disgusting. I except no more than twenty persons in each department. …the administration of justice in this Republic is stupid, dishonest, and against all reason and equity. I exempt no more than thirty judges, including two upon the Supreme Court of the United States.’ – “The main business of the nation is the setting up of heroes – mainly bogus.” – “The typical American today has lost all the love of liberty that his forefathers had, and all their distrust of emotion, and pride in self-reliance. He is no longer led by Davy Crocketts, he is led by cheerleaders, press agents, word mongers, uplifters. I do not believe that such a fellow, shoved into a war demanding every resource of courage, ingenuity and pertinacity, would give a good account of himself. He is fit for lynching bees and heretic hunts, but he is not fit for tight corners and desperate odds.”
“The business of paid clergy is as successful as a celluloid dog chasing an asbestos cat through Hell.” – Elbert Hubbard, 1923
James Bryce, Public Opinion in America, 1921: – “There is no better test of the excellence of a government than the strength of popular opinion as a ruling power.” – “the founders of the Republic expected from the average citizen a keener sense of his duty to vote wisely than he has shown.” – “Americans are an impressionable people, among whom excitement rises suddenly and spreads fast, quickened by the contagion of numbers [and Twitter, Facebook, etc.].” –
William Allen White, Criticism of the Ku Klux Klan, September 17, 1921
“Any man foolish enough to be Imperial Wizard would have power without responsibility and both without sense. That is social dynamite. The picayunish cowardice of a man who would substitute Klan [BLM, AntiFa, Socialist, Anarchist] rule and mob law for what our American fathers have died to establish and maintain should prove what a screw outfit the Klan [BLM, AntiFa, Socialism, Anarchism] is.”
President Calvin Coolidge, The Destiny of America, 1924
“The authority of the law in America is not something which is imposed upon the people; it is the will of the people themselves. Their sovereignty is absolute and complete.”
Theodore Roosevelt: “There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100 percent Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else.”
“How can a wise man have two countries?” – Archibald MacLeish, American Letter, 1930
Eric Hoffer, The True Believer, 1951: [Defines AntiFa, Anarchists, Black Lives Matter, etc.]
- “Failure in the management of practical affairs seems to be a qualification for management of public affairs. …some proud natures when suffering defeat in the practical world do not feel crushed but are suddenly fired with the absurd conviction that they are eminently competent to direct the fortunes of the community and the nation.” p. 77 (This describes Brandon Martin to a “T”, candidate for AZ CD 2 to a “T”)
- “There is an illiterate air about the most literate true believers. He seems to use words as if he were ignorant of their true meaning. Hence, his taste for quibbling, hair-splitting and scholastic tortuousness.” p. 81
- “The urge to escape our real self is also and urge to escape the rational and the obvious. The inability to see things as they are promotes both gullibility and charlatanism.” – p. 83
- Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all unifying agents. …He becomes an anonymous particle with a craving to fuse and coalesce with his like into one flaming mass.
- Unreasonable hatreds are an expression of a desperate effort to suppress an awareness of our inadequacy, worthlessness, guilt, and other shortcomings. Self contempt is transmuted into hatred of others – masked by seeking allies.” p. 94
Pascal: “Self-contempt produces in man the most unjust and criminal passions imaginable, for he conceives a mortal hatred against that truth which blames him and convinces him of his faults.”
Treischke: “The State is not the whole life of man or of society. It does not and should not touch his conscience or his religion. There is an inner life which is a man’s own.”
Norman Thomas, The Religion of Free Men, April 27, 1917:
- “In the evolution of the human mind we discover a gradually widening hiatus between physical competence and intellectual moral competence.”
- “There is no longer the sense of being able to appeal from manifestly unjust decisions”
- “Too many subordinate officials are being vested with tremendous authority over impotent human beings.”
- “The situation is…more sinister by the suspicion that many of the powerful men in the days of opportunity for social service and social justice failed to respond to social needs and are now controllers of our social destiny.”
- “An excess of power permits certain antisocial men to wield with utter unscrupulousness the whole machinery of anti-humanism.”
- “If the reigning editorial intolerance, directed and sanctioned by official autocrats, is permitted to assassinate the greater promises held in trust by the [citizens], the outlook for a greater [future] is indeed mournful.”
“Right is more precious than peace.” – President Woodrow Wilson’s War Message to Congress, April 2, 1917
Franz Boas, Patriotism, March 7, 1917: “We should bear in mind the difficulty of developing such strength of character and of reasoning power as to free ourselves of the prejudices that are the foundation of our whole life.”
Elihu Root, The European War and the Preservation of American Ideals, January 25, 1917“You cannot consider what men are going to do as if they were angels. Men are men, and greed and injustice and covetousness and a desire to overrun the rights of others stalk through the earth today as they did 2,000 years ago. He who does not defend his liberty is foolish and simple and unworthy of liberty.”
“It is only the weakling who finds nothing worth fighting for. Whoever cares greatly will give all, even life.” – Robert Hedrick, Recantation of a Pacifist, October 30, 1915
“I won’t take [advice] from anyone who never works except with their mouth (media, TV / Radio talk show hosts) and never cherished any memory except the face of the woman on the American silver dollar.” – Carl Sandburg, Poems for the American People; 1916
“The religious education of children needs to be deepened in the minds of most parents. Religion is the foundation of character and character is the first essential of education. Religion can no more be separated from education than light from color. [Without character development through the teaching of morality education is useless.] Morality can not adequately be taught apart from religion.” – Washington Gladden, Religion and the Public Schools, January 1915.
“[Wall Street and Congress] are doing what no conspirator or revolutionist could ever do; they are sucking the life out of private property. The traditional notion of [capitalism] has become meaningless, the name continues but the fact is disappearing. [Wall Street, Congress and Corporate Cannibals] are [legislating] private property out of existence and altering its nature so radically that very little remains but the title and the ancient memory.” – Walter Lippman, The Trusts and Private Property, 1914
Elihu Root, The Proper Pace of Political Change, April, 1913:
- “A dictator once established by what is, or alleged to be, public choice never permits an expression of public will which will displace him, and he goes out only through a new revolution because he alone controls the machinery [media] through which he could be displaced peaceably. We should reject, therefore, every proposal which involves the idea that the people can rule merely by voting, or merely voting and having one man or group of men to execute their will.”
- “Law cannot give to depravity the rewards of virtue, to indolence the rewards of industry, to indifference the rewards of ambition, or to ignorance the rewards of learning. The utmost that government can do is to protect men, not against the wrong they do themselves but against wrongs done by others, and to promote the long, slow process of educating mind and character to a better and nobler knowledge of life and conduct.”
- “The habit of undue interference by government in private affairs breeds the habit of undue reliance upon government at the expense of individual initiative, energy, enterprise, courage, and independent manhood.”
- “The strength of self-government must be found in the character of the individual citizen. Weaken individual character by comfortable reliance upon paternal government and a nation becomes incapable of free self-government, achievement becomes atrophied and the nation is decadent.”
“Freedom has a nice ring to it – and a bit of recoil.” – Anonymous
“The Minutemen are Turning In Their Grave!” – sung by Stonewall Jackson, Vietnam War Song Project.
“…when you see that in order to produce, you must obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed…” Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957
“Some…things with which we had grown familiar, and which had begun to creep into the very habit of our thought and of our lives, have altered their aspect as we have latterly looked critically upon them with fresh, awakened eyes; have dropped their disguises and shown themselves alien and sinister.” – President Woodrow Wilson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1913.
Quotes on Socialism:
- “Liberalism is the ideology of Western Suicide.” – James Burnham, Suicide of the West: Essays on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism; 2014; p. 341
- “Liberalism fosters new sorts of crimes through its permissive approach to education and discipline and its provocative egalitarianism some of our least of our multiplying juvenile delinquency is the logical outcome of liberal principles. In a way, a juvenile delinquent is a youth who takes literally the progressive educational stressing of self-expression and freedom.” – Burnham, p. 320
- “Corrupted by flattery and armed with power.” – John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government, p. 41
- “Subsidized Nirvana” [The Green “New” Deal, LBJ’s “Great Society”] – Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning,
- Intrepid Scribblers” – Goldberg, p. 22
- “Playing the movie backwards” – Goldberg, p. 26
- “Parts without a whole” – Goldberg, p. 32
- “Sophisticated show business” – Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students, 1987,
- “Those executioners of independent thought.” – Bloom, p. 369
- “…the logic of Socialism is to say we may persecute others because we are right, and you must not persecute us because you are wrong.” – John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, p. 308
- “The problem with Socialism is you eventually run out of other people’s money.” – Margaret Thatcher
- “The Socialist constitution is composed of three words: Famine, Force, and Fraud.” – Jean-Francois Revel, The Flight from Truth: The Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information, p. 101
- “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent value is the equal sharing of misery.” – Winston Churchill
- “The protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property is the first object of government.” – James Madison, The Federalist Papers.
- “Socialism is the only system politicians know how to build.” – G. Edward Griffin, The Creature from Jekyll Island, p. 103
- “The real problem with collectivism is the difficulty of combining popular control with administrative power.” – Walter Lippman, The Trusts and Private Property, 1914
- “Better a hard bed in the shelter of justice than a stuffed couch under the black canopy of despotism.” – Mary Anton, Judges in the Gate: A Complete Gospel of Immigration, 1914
- “To attack Liberals intellectually is to slay the slain.” – Ligon Law
- “Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich show that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.” – Abraham Lincoln, to the Workingmen’s Association of New York, 1864.
- “Western [politicians] do not study history they wait until they are elected to begin their on-the-job training. As a result, democratic politicians in the late twentieth (and even more so in the 21st!) century are even more ignorant of communism than the post WW II generation.”
- “Communism has never eliminated (or even addressed) social injustice or poverty; it has always and everywhere accentuated scarcity and privilege.” – Revel, How Democracies Perish, p. 327
- “International opinion” is a phrase that describes part of free countries opinions plus Soviet propaganda.” p.304
- International communism uses people’s aspirations to well-being , freedom, dignity, and independence to eliminate the democracies. It is not afterward compelled to satisfy these aspirations.” p. 304
- “Lumping together East and West injustices has become a witches trick for blaming the West to acquit the East. Dealing aces to the East gets people in the habit of inventing artificial equivalents.” p. 311
- “Only a Socialist bureaucracy can arrange shortages in a fertile country.” p. 319
- “It was the Russians who coined the monstrous euphemism “normalization” to describe redoubled totalitarian ferocity towards people who dare rebel against their masters. The term is equally precise in describing Western public opinion and leadership. Our indignation deflates and is notably short winded. We soon find that the abnormal is normal.” p. 320
- “What Liberals are really promoting is an imbalance that would enable the Russians to force their economic and political will on a growing number of countries without going to war.” p. 338
- “Communism is a necrosis of economics. Totalitarianism is a necrosis of politics, of the body civic and of culture.” p. 343
- “Communism is like a ship, it cannot open without sinking.” – p.344
Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of Our Cities, 1904
“The misgovernment of the American people is misgovernment by the American People.”
Jacob C. Burkhart, Force and Freedom, 1943; p. 40
“I have a premonition which sounds like folly, and yet which will positively not leave me: the military state must become one great factory! …What must logically come is a definite and supervised stint of misery, with promotions and in uniforms, daily begun and ended to the sound of drums.” –
Federalist Paper #63, p. 194:
“Before such a revolution (against the Constitution) can be effected, the Senate…must in the first place be corrupt itself; must next corrupt the State legislatures; must then corrupt the House of Representatives and must finally corrupt the people at large.” –
Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, Richard Arum and Josipa Rokso, 2011; p. 126-7
“In terms of needed reforms in elementary and secondary schools we believe that improving academic preparations is only half the story. Many students emerging from these schools have also not developed norms, values, and behaviors conducive to assuming productive lives as responsible adults, let alone the ability and interest to focus on academic learning at college. While students today express very high educational learning expectations and professional ambitions they have failed to develop realistic understandings of the steps necessary to achieve their goals. The students have not formulated what the social psychologist William Damon calls “Paths to Purpose” – that is, moral grounding that anchors their ambitions in the tasks, behaviors, and practices required to achieve the ends they view as meaningful. Youth today have been unable to develop a purpose in their lives not only because general changes in parenting and the larger culture, but because the schools have turned away from accepting responsibility for youth socialization and moral education. Elementary and secondary educational reform has focused almost exclusively on improving students’ standardized test scores. Often squeezed entirely out of the school day are questions of meaning and purpose that should underlie every academic exercise. Our obsessive reliance on standardized test scores deters both teachers and students from concentrating on the real mission of schooling: developing a love of learning for learning’s sake; a love that will then lead to self-maintained learning throughout their lifespan.”
Ellwood P. Cubberly, Changing Conceptions of Education, Boston, 1909
“The greatest obstacle to intelligent educational and social progress is the lack of intelligence and grasp of democracy itself.” –
Albert Einstein: “The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”
Elbert Hubbard, The Philistine, Annals of America: “This will never be a civilized country until we expend more money for books than we do for chewing gum (or toys, TV, video games, ad infinitum….). Each year the child is coming to belong more and more to the State and less and less to the parent.”
Giuseppe Giacosa, Impressions of America, 1908; Annals of America:
“Americans feel a violent need to paralyze cerebral activity with external aids.”
Jean-Francois Revel, The Flight From Truth: The Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information; 1991; p. 1
“The foremost of all forces that drive the world is falsehood.”
“Today, as yesterday, Man’s major foe is deep within him. But the enemy is no longer the same. Formerly it was ignorance; today it is falsehood.” – p. 18
“Democracy cannot live without the truth; totalitarianism cannot live without falsehood. Democracy commits suicide if it permits itself to be invaded by falsehood, totalitarianism if it lets itself be invaded by truth.” p. 28
“…present customs and habits being what they are, I think it more likely that falsehood will triumph, along with its political corollary: totalitarianism.” – p. 29
“Willful ignorance of the past engenders falsification of the present.” – p. 56
“The greatest possible ignorance of the past is the greatest guarantee of the greatest possible deception in the present.” – p. 60
“When one lacks the courage and honesty to tackle a thorny problem, when one’s sole concern is to use it as raw material for the delivery of self-righteous speeches, then one transforms the difficulty into a stinking corpse, and from then on it loses the moral right to stop up one’s nostrils when the cadaver begins to stink and attract vultures.” – p. 77
“False tragedies serve as an excuse for those who are unable to solve real problems.” – p. 80
“Impotent virtue being a more accessible luxury than active intelligence.” – p. 84
“Obstacles to sound scrutiny do not spring so much from the mind being devoid of science as from it being full of prejudices.” – Pierre Bayle, p. 84
“It is precisely scientific and medical considerations that carry the least weight in our debates.” – p. 84
“Inasmuch as the Socialist ideal was founded on the desire to juxtapose incompatible advantages, it can only survive intellectually in a tolerated confusion of contraries.” – p. 91
Daniel Webster, For Reform of the Naturalization Laws, 1844; Annals, Vol. 7
“The result of recent elections in several states has impressed my mind with one deep and strong conviction: that is, that there is an imperative necessity for reforming the naturalization laws of the United States. The preservation of any government, clearly and strongly demands it. It is not unreasonable that the elective branches should not be exercised by a person of a foreign birth until after such a length of residence among us that he may be supposed to have become acquainted with our Constitution and laws, our social institutions, and the general interest of the country; and to have become an American in feeling, principle, character, and sympathy…”
“When the people are sheep, the government is always a wolf.” – Theodore Parker, The Present Crisis in American Affairs, May 7, 1856
“There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.” – Alexis de Tocqueville
“When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce [citizens] under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to repudiate such government.” – Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence, 1776
“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 once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.” – Samuel Adams,
“A free nation once convinced of its wrongs must be avenged; and woe to them who have done the wrong!” – Calvin Cotton, 1830; Annals Vol. 7
Rufus Choate, The State and Mental Culture, Nov. 18, 1844.
“To the teachers I leave with one suggestion only, that I would not take the Bible from the schools so long as a particle of Plymouth Rock was left large enough to make a gun flint of, or as long as it’s dust floated in the air. I would have it read, not only for its authoritative revelations and its commands and actions, obligatory yesterday, today and forever, but for its English, for its literature, for its pathos, for its dim imagery, its sayings of consolation and wisdom and universal truth.”
“Men become politicians who are unwilling to labor and, after shouting at the polls and at ward meetings, they demand to be paid in the offices of the people, which probably they have not the character to claim nor the capacity to fill.” –
Thomas Dorr, The People’s Right to Remake Their Constitution, May 3, 1842; Annals Vol. 7, p.56
“The idea that government is the source of power in this country is of foreign origin, and at war with the letter and the spirit of institutions. The moment we admit the principle that no change in government can take place without the permission of the existing authorities, we revert to the worn out theory of Europe; and whether we are the subjects of the czar of Russia, or of the monarch of Great Britain, or of a landed oligarchy, the difference to us is only one of degree; and we have lost the reality, though we may retain the forms, of a democratic republic.”
“Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.” – Henry David Thoreau, Resistance to Civil Government, 1849; Annals Vol. 7, p.60
“I think the demons in Hell would be more ashamed to do to their fellow demons what many of our clergy do their own church members.” – Stephen S. Foster, A Brotherhood of Thieves, Annals Vol 7, p.84
“Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own soul.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self Reliance”
Orestes A. Brownson, “Labor and Democracy”, 1840; Annals, Vol. 6, p. 543
“He who is worthy of the name of Man speaks what he honestly believes the interests of his race demand, and seldom disquiets himself about what may be the consequences to himself. Men have, for what they believed the cause of God or man, endured the dungeon, the scaffold, the stake, the cross, and they can do it again.”
“The world is his who can see through it’s pretensions. See it to be a Lie, and you have already dealt it a mortal blow.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar“, 1837; Annals, Vol.6, p. 374
“Is the republic bent on dying by its own hands? Does not every man feel that, with war for our habit, our institutions cannot be preserved? A country has no right to adopt a policy…which will determine it to a career of war.” – William Ellery Channing, 1837, Annals, Vol. 6, p. 362
Gilbert Vale, “Happiness for All Through the Diffusion of Wealth“, 1841; Annals, Vol. 7, p. 23
“…there is something very discouraging to the political philanthropist in the fact that generations have passed away, one after another, without establishing truths known to many in each generation. A man may leave his property to his successors, but he cannot his information, and the most valuable truths are suffered to die, and are again eternally brought forward as something new when they are really old and ought to have been acted upon, successively, since the first formation of society.” –
Polybius, Histories, p. 593
“A man who is timid and afraid of speaking his mind should neither be considered a true friend, nor be regarded as a good citizen if he leaves the path of Truth because he is afraid of giving temporary offense to certain person.”
“I observe that at the present day, as in the case of other arts and professions, what is true and really useful is always treated with neglect, while that which is pretentious and showy is praised and coveted as if it were something great and wonderful.”
“…Monarchy changes to tyranny, and the abolishment of both gives rise to aristocracy. Aristocracy by its’ very nature degenerates into oligarchy; and when the commons inflamed by anger take vengeance on the oligarchy for its’ unjust rule, democracy comes into being; and in due course the license and lawlessness of this form of government produces mob-rule… . But when a new generation arises and the democracy falls into the hands of the grandchildren of its founders, they have become so accustomed to freedom and equality that they no longer value them, and begin to aim at pre-eminence…So when they lust for power and cannot obtain it through themselves or their own good qualities, they ruin their estates, tempting and corrupting the people in every possible way. And by their foolish thirst for reputation they have created an appetite for gifts [COVID-19 bailouts] and the habit of receiving them, democracy in its turn is abolished and changes into a rule of force and violence. For the people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others, as soon as they find a leader who is enterprising but is excluded from the houses of office by his penury, institute the rule of violence; and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder [ANTIFA], until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and a monarch.” p. 237-238
“…that is no democracy in which the whole crowd of citizens is free to do whatever they wish or purpose, but when, in a community where it is traditional and customary to reverence the gods, to honor our parents, to respect our elders, and to obey the laws, the will of the greater number prevails, this is to be called a democracy.” p.235
“Nature has proclaimed that Truth is the greatest of gods and has invested her with the greatest power,…when all are trying to suppress her and all probabilities are on the side of falsehood, she somehow finds her own means of penetrating into the hearts of men and sometimes shows her power at once, sometimes after being darkened for years at last by her own force prevails and crushes falsehood.” – p. 371
“There are two things to which a state owes its preservation, bravery against the enemy and concord among the citizens.” – p. 264
“The records of posterity should be kept free from any taint of falsehood, so that instead of the ears being agreeably tickled for the present, young minds may be reformed in order to avoid falling more than once into the same errors.” – p. 593.
“Do not cling to life at the sacrifice of honor!” – p. 531
” Many men are desirous of doing good, but few have the courage to attempt it…” p. 507
“Never place any reliance on present prosperity. It is chiefly at those moments when we ourselves or our country are most successful that we should reflect on the opposite extremity of fortune; for only thus, and then with difficulty, shall we prove moderate in the season of prosperity.” p. 524
– Dad (Grandpa Mike): “The parents of any kid who has not had a vanilla ice cream cone before the age of five should be horsewhipped for child neglect. One of the things wrong with America is there are too many mothers who think a vanilla ice cream cone every now and then is bad for their kids. It is untrue and unAmerican.”
Eliot Janeway, The Economics of Crises, p.55
“…for the U.S. at least, war has been made to pay as a substitute for economic management despite its inherent wastefulness and disruptiveness.”
“Opposition to a War President is at best risky business – the more principled, the trickier.” p. 54
“American folkore teaches us to supect all who play the political game as professional deficients.” p.53
“Allow a President to invade a ..nation whenever he shall deem it necessary…and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary.., and you allow him to make war at pleasure… . If today he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade “xyz” to prevent “xyz” from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him ‘I see no probability of xyz invading us’; but he will say to you, ‘Be silent, I see it, if you don’t.” – Abraham Lincoln, Janeway, p. 57 (Lincoln was prophetically describing Bush, Jr.)
“I don’t get my wisdom from teenagers” – Dennis Prager. [nor from sophomoric, educated adults – Dad]
John Taylor, An interpretation of the Constitution; 1823
“It is as impossible for politicians to increase the intellectual powers of men beyond their natural limits as it is for priests to turn bread and wine into flesh and blood.”
“To those who will inquire and reflect, the encouragement of philosophy is as strong as the instinct of patriotism. But the empire of habit and of prejudice is in strong opposition to the supremacy of thought and reason.”
Thucydides, Peace 102-3; in The Rise and Fall of States by Jacqueline de Romilly, 1977, p.18
“Supreme power, which everybody longs to acquire, is indeed hard to manage, and it breeds folly in those that court it, for its nature can be compared with that of prostitutes, who compel people to fall in love with them, but ruin those who indulge in their intercourse.”
Thomas Jefferson, letter to P.H. Rush on Sphere of Religion, March 13, 1815.
“Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to truth. …We value too much the freedom of opinion sanctioned by our Constitution not to cherish its exercise even where in opposition to ourselves.”
Henry M. Brackenridge, speech before the Maryland State Legislature supporting abolishment of Jewish exclusion from public office, 1825
“All persecution for the sake of opinion is tyranny; and the first speck of it that may appear should be eradicated as the commencement of a deadly gangrene, whose ultimate tendency is to convert the body politic into a corrupt and putrid mass.”
Samuel Harrison Smith, The Objects Proper to a Liberal Education, 1798. …or is there anything so mocked, ignored and denigrated today? – Dad, 2020.
“Is there anything in existence more interesting than an old man whose mind is stored with wisdom and whose heart is full of sensibility [common sense, experience, knowledge)? Samuel Harrison Smith, The Objects Proper to a Liberal Education, 1798. …or is there anything so mocked, ignored and denigrated today? – Dad, 2020.
“May you live in interesting times.” – Chinese curse
Preface to The Great Conversation by the editors of Collier Encyclopedia, 1953
“The West needs to recapture and re-emphasize and bring to bear upon its present problems the wisdom that lies in the works of its greatest thinkers and in the discussions that they have carried on. …We are as concerned as anybody else of the headlong plunge into the abyss that Western Civilization seems to be taking.”
“I can’t fiddle but I can make a great state out of a little city.” Themistocles (quoted by T.E. Lawrence)
“Plautus! No wonder mortals worship you! You are so tolerant of their sins!” – Theognis of Megara (he could just as well have been speaking to politicians and parents today)
Thomas Jefferson letter to Francis Walker Gilbert, June 7, 1816
“Our legislators are not sufficiently apprised of the rightful limits of their powers: that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to tak none of them from us(!). …the idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any of our natural rights.” Thomas Jefferson letter to Francis Walker Gilbert, June 7, 1816
“You can do the time or the time can do you.” – prison maxim
“In my experience poetry speaks to you at first sight or not at all – like falling in love.”
“This too shall pass.” – inscription on a ring given to Solomon who wanted a magic device that would bring him back to earth when he became too proud and lift him up when he became depress- ed.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African proverb
“Just because millions of people aren’t cheering doesn’t mean what you are doing is not important.” – Wrestling with the Family starring Duane Johnson
“I asked Hodja “How is it possible to enter heaven when we live among so much evil?” Hodja said “Ye are sheep among wolves. Be wise as serpents – yet innocent as doves.” – from Gone Baby Gone (or, quit being sheep and become wolf slayers! – Dad)
Dad: “It’s so easy for children to react to criticism from parents and siblings by withdrawing affection rather than resolving it through communication (“leveling”). That has to be taught at home. Otherwise we create snowflakes who disintegrate at the first moment of a conflict. The other half of the problem is parents withholding criticism (offered with tact and love) afraid their children won’t LIKE them – won’t be their FRIEND. These parents raise their children with NO moral or social guidelines thinking children will figure it out for themselves. “Those vacuums of guidance rarely lead to happiness.” Being a parent means wanting happiness and the best for those you love – and not being afraid to point out behaviors and choices that would rob them of it.”
David Ramsey, History of the American Revolution, 1789
“Those who, from indolence [laziness] or dissipation [squandering money, energy or resources] had been of little service to their country in times of peace, were found equally unserviceable in time of war.”
“Only brave warriors fall from their horses in battle. How can kneeling cowards know what a fall is? You HAVE to fight the battle!” – Monsoon Wedding
Noah Webster, The Union of the United States, 1785
“It is scarcely possible to reduce the enlightened [educated] mind to civil or ecclesiastical tyranny. Deprive them of knowledge and they sink almost insensibly into vassalage. Ignorance cramps the powers of the mind at the same time it blinds men to all their natural rights.”
“A standing army will probably never exist in America. It is the instrument of tyranny and ought to be forever banished from free government.”
“Put none but Americans on guard tonight.” – General George Washington’s order regarding selecting his body guards
“Thinking more important than acting. The age old excuse of cowards and slackers.” – Aydin, Winter Sleep
“I feel at home wherever my room and books are.” – Aydin, Winter Sleep
“You don’t need a GPS to discover America!” – Woody in Wild Hogs
“…for the repose of Europe as well as of America, the European and American political systems should be kept as separate and distinct as possible.” – John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State letter to Henry Middleton, July 5, 1820
“There are no real endings in this world – just discoveries. And the last one is the greatest.” – To Dance with the White Dog
“Felicity (intense happiness), the companion of content, is rather found in our own breasts than in the enjoyment of external things, and I firmly believe it requires but a little philosophy to make a man happy in whatsoever state he is. This consists in a full resignation to the will of Providence; and a resigned soul finds pleasure in a path strewn with briars and thorns.” – Daniel Boone
“Monarchy is like a splendid ship, with all sails set; it moves majestically on, then it hits a rock and sinks forever. Democracy is like a raft. It never sinks, but, damn it, your feet are always in the water!” – Fisher Ames
- “When all is Lost,
- and all is Gone;
- We MUST continue!
- We Must go on!
- And do the next RIGHT THING!” – Frozen II
“I haven’t changed! I’m just trying to keep a lid on it!” – John Rambo, Last Blood
“That’s what death is isn’t it? Forgetting. Being forgotten. If we forget where we’ve been and what we’ve done, we’re not men anymore – just animals.” – Sam, Game of Thrones
The word considered the most beautiful in the English language is Celador. It is a respelling of the word “cellar door”, a phrase whose sound is noted to be particularly euphonious.
“The brain’s fundamental secret will be laid open one day. But even when it has the wonder of it will remain – that mere ‘wet stuff’ can make this bright inward cinema of thought, of sight, and sound, and touch. Could it ever be explained how matter becomes conscious?” – Hugh McKuen, Saturday (from the great movie Words and Pictures with Clive Owen and Jacqueline Binoche
“Control your own destiny – or someone else will.” – Jack Walsh
“Nearly all men can stand adversity. But if you really want to test a man’s character, give him power.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Be strong…to be weak is to invite aggression, oppression, misery, tyranny and woe.” – Karoniatktajeh
“We try to live our lives beyond reproach, but sometimes we are crushed by the ignorance of the world.” – Tokue
“What makes a song beautiful is not always the quality of the voice, but the distance it has had to travel.” – Unfinished Song (NetFlix)
“An equation means nothing to me unless it expresses a thought of God.” – S. Ramanujan
“It’s easier to put a saddle on a stallion than make a mule into a racehorse.” –
“If your dreams don’t scare you they aren’t big enough.” –
“If anyone has changed the world without puking over it please msg me!” –
“How sharply our children will be ashamed…remembering so strange a time when common integrity should look like courage.” – Vera Atkins paraphrasing Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtusenko at OSS dinner aboard USS Intrepid 22 September 1983
- Q. How long does it take to make the average citizen into a Marine?”
- A. The average American citizen will never make a Marine.”
“Winners compare their achievements with their goals. Losers compare their achievements with those of others.” = Nido R. Qubian
“Crows pecking at eagles.” – Coriolanus, Act II by Shakespeare (Democrats impeachment of Trump)
“All crows are liars.” – Nanny, Game of Thrones
“It’s possible to be so sad – not about things you know have happened – but about things you know are going to happen.” – Portrait of Jenny
“An unwanted embrace from which you cannot escape is just a nicer form of tyranny.” – Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism, p. 357
“Everybody hurts sometimes – so hold on!” – R.E.M.
Charles Swindell, Attitude:
“The longer I live the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, that what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company….a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes.” –
“There’s a sickness in people. A sickness that stops them from seeing the truth.” – Lady Rose, The Secret Scripture
“Without a war what’s a warrior to do?” – Cadet Swain, The Last Ship, Season 5, Disc 1
“Stop punishing yourself for being alive.” – The Last Ship
“As long as a father lives a son should study his wishes; after he is dead his son should study his life. If for three years he does not forsake his father’s ways he may be called a dutiful son.” – Confucius
“Study without thought is vain; thought without study is dangerous.” – Confucius
“For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” – Ecclesiastes 1:18
“The loss of liberty to a generous mind is worse than death.” –
Being a parent sometimes seems just a long process of letting go – especially looking back after they’re gone. I guess it’s necessary. Maybe it’s easier for them to say the final farewell that way. Especially these days when they’re “busy” and live far away. But it only gets worse for the parent. I believe sometimes that’s why most of us cry when we know we’re dying. – Dad
“Men are not flattered by being shown there is a difference between them and the Almighty.” – President Lincoln’s Comments to Thurlow Weed, March 15, 1865 regarding Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address
“The death of the body is but the emancipation of the mind.” – Henry George’s Lecture on Moses, Progress and Poverty
“I’m not a smart man. But I know what love is.” – Forrest Gump
“Mostly I’m tired. Tired of all the meanness I see in so many people. There’s too much of it. It’s like pieces of glass in my head. …This [dying] is the hard part. I’ll be alright in a little while. I lie awake at night thinkin’ about death. How each of us walks the Green Mile in our own due time But for now the Green Mile seems sooo long.” – John Koffee, The Green Mile
“In the long run our mistakes don’t limit us – only our fears do.” – Jennifer Lopez, Second Act
“Familiarity breeds banality.” –
“By making yourselves free you are freeing the world.” – West German artist in Never Look Away
“The worst [or best!] advertisement for Socialism is its’ adherents: either a youthful snob-Bolshevik with vegetarian leanings.” – George Orwell, 1937
“We’re all just broken pieces looking for someone else with broken pieces who will fit ours hoping it will make a whole.” – Bruce Springsteen
“Know thyself…for the unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates (at his trial)
“When even one American is forced to shut his mouth and close his mind, all Americans are in Peril.” – President Harry Truman”
“Those who quit their proper character to assume what does not belong to them are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave and of the character they assume. Wholly unacquainted with the world in which they are so fond of meddling, and inexperienced in all its affairs on which they pronounce with so much confidence, they have nothing of politics but the passions they excite.” – Edmund Burke, Reflections…
“Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions than ruined by too confident a security.” – Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the French Revolution (Good advice for the U.S. State Department)
“Liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide.” – James Burnham, p. 341
James Burnham, Suicide of the West: Essays on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism, 2014; p.320.
“Liberalism ..fosters new sorts of crimes through its permissive approach to education and discipline and its provocative egalitarianism; some at least of our multiplying juvenile delinquency is the logical outcome of liberal principles. In a way, a juvenile delinquent is a youth who takes literally the progressive-educational stressing of self-expression and freedom.” – James Burnham, Suicide of the West: Essays on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism, 2014; p.320.
“The guilt that is always part of the liberal syndrome swells painfully when liberals gain power and find that the world’s sorrows show no tendency to vanish at their sovereign touch.” p.321.
“Liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide.” p. 341
Ma Joad, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 1939.
“There was a time we was on the land. There was a boundary to us then. Old folks died off and little fellers come. We was always one thing – we was family. Kind of whole and clear. But now we ain’t clear no more. There ain’t nothing that keeps us clear. Pa’s lost his place- he ain’t the head no more. We’re crackin’ up, Tom. There ain’t no family now. There’s Roseasharen, she’s gonna have that baby but she ain’t gonna have no family [husband ran away]. And Winfield [son], what’s he gonna be this way? Growin’ up wild. Ruthie [daughter] too! Just like animals. Got nothin’ to trust. “
“People give their lives for all kinds of reasons; friendship, love, ideals. People kill for the same reasons.” – Chinese proverb
Susan Jacoby, The Age of American Unreason, p.xviii
“20% of adults believe the sun revolves around the earth. More than 2/3s of Americans over the last two decades are unable to identify DNA as the key to heredity. Nine out of ten Americans do not understand radiation and what it can do to the body. This level of scientific illiteracy provides fertile soil for political appeals based on sheer ignorance.”
Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, 1963.
Definition of an Intellectual:
“A man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.” – President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican fundraiser 1954.
“Someone who in some sense lives for ideas – which means he has a sense of dedication to the life of the mind which is very much like a religious commitment.” –
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
Barry Goldwater, (R) Arizona congressman, nomination acceptance speech 1964 Republican National Convention.
“Tolerance in the face of tyranny is no virtue. Neither is moderation in the pursuit of justice. Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”
“Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven and earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies.” – Barry Goldwater
“A Lion keeps no den because the whole savannah is his domain.” – Blackbeard (Black Sails, Season 3, Disc 2)
“One [good] father is worth a hundred school masters.” – George Herbert, 1593-1633
There are two types of Marines (and lesser mortal men): Those who are full of shit, and those who don’t tolerate it. Tragically, most of those who are full of it are promoted the fastest and highest. They usually end up working at the Pentagon (or elected to Congress). – Dad
Telling “Truth to Power” briefs well but is rarely rewarded. Those who do are labeled as ‘loose cannons”. – Dad
“The advent of the crowd will mark the last stages of Western Civilization, a return to the confusion and anarchy…” – Gustave Le Bon
“It is more important to reason by first principles than by analogy.” – Elon Musk
“Respect your efforts. Respect yourself. Self respect leads to self discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.” – Clint Eastwood
The best way to rise above the Bullshit is to climb the ladder of success as high as you have the talents and abilities to do so. It won’t eliminate all of it but it sure as hell doesn’t smell as bad higher up the ladder of success. – Dad
“The excellent man seeks a standard superior to himself. The common man makes no demands on himself, but contents himself with what he is, and is delighted with himself. Life for the excellent man has no savor for him unless he places himself in service to something transcendental. He does not look upon service as oppression as the common man does. When such service is lacking he grows restless and invents some new standard, more difficult with which to challenge himself. This is the noble life.” – Jose’ Ortega y Gasset
“Stand up for what you believe in. Even if you are standing alone.” – Sophie Scholl, member of the White Rose, beheaded by the Naziis for speaking out against Hitler.
“The protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property is the first object of government” – James Madison, Federalist Papers
“Property is the fruit of labor, property is desirable; it is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich means that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.” – Abraham Lincoln to the Workingmen’s Association of New York City, 1864
“Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. It’s inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” – Winston Churchill
My definition of Socialists: “A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” – Allan Bloom, p.196
“Great men aren’t made great by politics, neither by prudence or propriety. They are made great by one single thing: The relentless pursuit of a better world. Great men don’t give up that pursuit. They don’t know how.” – Don Quixote de la Mancha (the world needs more Don Quixotes – dad)
The more uncommon things you do with your life, the less you have in common with those “cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” – Dad (with help from TR)
The higher your character the less you are able to tolerate those of lesser or no character – Dad
“President Bush (Jr.) told me the best way to revitalize our economy is war. And that the United States had grown stronger with war. Those were his exact words.” – Nestor Kuchner, former president of Argentina at the Summit of the Americas, Mar de Plata, 2005.
“If you don’t read the newspapers you are uninformed. If you do read the newspapers you are misinformed.” – Mark Twain
“Too often too many people enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” – John F. Kennedy [for orthorexics, vegans, Climate Changers, et al]
“A life lived in fear is only half lived.” – for Orthorexics, Vegans, Climate Changers, et al.
“When you educate a man in mind and not in morals you create a menace to society.” – President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“Man, when separated from laws and justice, is the worst of animals.” – Aristotle
“If men were Angels no government would be necessary.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers.
“Men must not love their country because it is great. They must make it great because they love their country.” – G.K. Chesterton
“Citizens who take no interest in politics are not just apathetic they are useless.” – Eulogy of Pericles by Thucydides
“A government which attempts to do everything for its citizens is aptly compared …to a schoolmaster who does all the students’ tasks for them. He may be very popular with the pupils but he will teach them little. A government on the other hand, which neither does anything itself that can possibly be done by anyone else, nor shows anyone else how to do anything, is like a school in which there is no schoolmaster, but only pupil teachers who have never themselves been taught.” – John Stuart Mill, Representative Government, p. 424
“But in proportion as the public freedom was lost in extent of conquest, war was gradually improved into an art, and degraded into a trade.” – Gibbon, Decline and Fall…; p. 12
“The proper person to be entrusted with power is the person most unwilling to accept it.” – Plato
“In America the miseries springing from her internal jealousies, contentions and wars would be more disastrous than those of Europe.” – James Madison, The Federalist Papers, #41.
“Hearts and Minds. The two best places to shoot the bad guys.” – U.S. Marine in Afghanistan
“A nation despicable by its weakness forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Paper #11
“Experience [and knowledge] needs to be repeated from age to age to exert any influence, or to be successful in merely shaking an erroneous opinion when it is solidly implanted in the mind of the masses.” – Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol I; p. 106
“Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional Liberty.” – Gibbon, Vol. II; p. 499
“Father’s [should] have a way of being that tells their children the truth of who they are. And if the fathers fail to tell them [or the children rebel] they are open to every Lie that anyone will tell them.” – The Heart of Man
“When you come to finally realize who you really are, the power of the Lie begins to vanish. Then you can start to live really free for the rest of your life.” – The Heat of Man
“Lions don’t concern themselves with the opinions of sheep.” – Lord Tyrean, Game of Thrones
“The disregard of custom and decency always betrays a weak and ill-regulated mind.’ – Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 3; p. 331
“The crowd is always intellectually inferior to the isolated individual.” – Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind
“The masses have never thirsted after truth. The turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduces them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.” – Le Bon, p.106
“The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency, the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity, both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economical opportunists.” – Ernest Hemingway, Notes on the Next War
“Those who don’t know how to make love, make war.” – Muslim women’s proverb
“The beauty of Persian women was wasted on Alexander and his Greeks – and continues to be wasted today on Muslim men” – Mike Ligon
“Propaganda is an art form. It has just one objective: to conquer the masses. Alluring people into an idea so in the end they are captivated by it, and can no longer free themselves from it.” – Paul Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Chief of Propaganda [“But I HAVE to watch my: Soaps! Football! News! TV!!!!]
“Time and attention. Better than Lamb’s blood on the altar!” – Mr. Wednesday, American Gods
“The past shows unvaryingly that when a people’s freedom disappears, it goes not with a bang, but in silence amid the comfort of being cared for. That is the dire peril in the present trend toward statism [Socialism]. If freedom is not found accompanied by a willingness to resist, and to reject favors, rather than to give up what is intangible but precarious, it will not be found at all.” – Richard Weaver, 1962
“…legislation since this period has followed this course: rapidly multiplying dictatorial measures have continually tended to restrict individual liberties, and this in two ways: regulations have been established every year in greater number imposing a constraint on the citizen in matters in which his acts were formerly free, and forcing him to accomplish acts which he was formerly at liberty to accomplish or not to accomplish at will. At the same time heavier and heavier public and especially local burdens have further still restricted his liberty by diminishing the portion of his profits he can spend as he chooses, and by augmenting the portion which is taken from him to be spent according to the “good pleasure” of the public authorities.” – Herbert Spencer, The Individual versus The State
“…in the enjoyment of plenty, the Romans should lose the memory of freedom.” – Gibbon, Vol. ii, p. 99
“It is better to be a human being who is dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool or the pig are of a different opinion, it is only because they only know their side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.” – John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, p. 449
Definition of a Philistine: 1. a native or inhabitant of ancient Philistia; 2. A: a person who is guided by materialism and is usually disdainful of intellectual or artistic values; B. one uninformed in a special area of knowledge. [As Isaiah foresaw we have certainly become a nation of Philistines!]
“Though none go with me, still, Lord, I will follow thee.” – The Bible
“Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth!” – Archimedes
“A man’s reach should always exceed his grasp.” – The Lost City of Z
“You don’t have the luxury to give up when others depend on you.”-
“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration…” – John Galt, Atlas Shrugged III, by Ayn Rand
“Who needs wealth when you can make a woman laugh?” Lord Tyresn, Game of Thrones
“Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories.” – Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant, 1957.
“One day of freedom is worth a lifetime in chains.” Gray Worm to the slaves of Mereen, Game of Thrones
“There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring a diverse, independent and free media” – Bill Moyer (I bet these words came back to bite him in his ass since he works for CBS)
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” – Pascal
“I disagree with [FDR’s] the New Deal belief that the America all of us love is old and worn-out and finished. That we have to borrow foreign notions that don’t even seem to work any too well where they come from . …Our country is a young country that just has to make up its’ mind to be itself.” – Actor Gary Cooper who supported Wendel Wilkie against FDR’s 1940 run for president.
“It is very, very, very difficult to dispel ignorance when you retain arrogance.” – Sam Wilson, Vietnam by Ken Burns
“You can not have a Welfare State with open borders!” – Milton Friedman
“Wisdom is the first cousin to freedom!” – movie Three Cheers for Miss Bishop, 1941 (which explains why America is where it is today!)
It is better to stay at home alone and contemplate God and His blessings than to go out among mankind and return a lesser man. – and epiphany by me / Dad.
Prayer cleans your soul. And we all have souls. – another epiphany by Dad
“…the poem of creation is uninterrupted, but few are the ears that hear it.” – Henry David Thoreau, Why I Went to the Woods
“To a philosopher all news is gossip. And those who edit and read it are women over their tea.” – Thoreau, Ibid
“I can’t say as ever I was lost. But I was bewildered once for three days!” – Daniel Boone
“The pressure of public opinion is like the pressure of the atmosphere; you can’t see it but it is there all the same. It is sixteen pounds to the square inch.” – J.R. Lowell in an interview with Julian Hawthorne
“Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to be average.” – Dean W.R. Inge, Outspoken Essays
“Academia: The ancient seat of pedantry where they manufacture prigs as fast as Chicago butchers handle hogs.” – R.B. Cunningham: Graham, With the Northwest Wind
“The habit of inattention ought to be considered the greatest vice of the mind” – Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America p. 584
“The substance of my being has been informed by the books I learned to care for.” – Bloom
“The character of their judgements of good and evil tells us what they are.” – Allan Bloom, p. 197
“It is Hope, not despair, which makes for successful revolutions.” – Peter Kropotkin, Memoires of a Revolutionist, p. 418
“It is not until we are lost that we truly find ourselves.” – Thoreau
“Prejudice consists in having an opinion before examining all the evidence. Without doing so most people are totally convinced – but still wrong.” – Haldane
“The Human Mind, at its present stage of development, cannot function without its’ fictions, but neither can it function without the aid of facts, – save, perhaps, when it is housed in the skull of a university professor of philosophy.” – H.L. Mencken
“The collective force of citizens will always be more powerful to produce social well-being than the authority of the government” – de Tocqueville, p. 86
“Nothing is more familiar to man than to recognize wisdom in whoever oppresses him.” – de Tocqueville, p. 409
“In America it is religion that leads to enlightenment; it is the observance of divine laws that guides man to freedom.” – de Tocqueville, p. 42
“You can’t reach harmony by making everyone equal.” Mariana Gonstead, (August 20, 1918 8am, Glen Beck show)
When one sacrifices integrity for security cowardice becomes a way of life.
“Spartans do not inquire how many the enemy are, but where they are.” – Agis II, 427 B.C.
“To die for liberty is a pleasure, and not a pain.” – Marco Bozzaris, August 20, 1823
“An editor is a person employed by a newspaper whose job is to separate the wheat from the chaff – and make sure the chaff is printed.” – Elbert Hubbard
“All our ‘reforms’ have stripped the teeth off the gears, which can no longer mesh. They spin idly, side by side, unable to set the social machine in motion.” – Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind…, 1987, p.131
“Education is the movement from darkness into light.” – Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, p. 265
“There is nothing more frightful than a bustling ignorance.” – Goethe
“Reason transformed into prejudice is the worst form of prejudice, because Reason is the only instrument for liberation from prejudice. The Most Important function of the university in an age of Reason is to protect Reason from itself, by being the model of true openness.” – Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, p. 253.
“Even though the goals of [Public Relations] may not be evil, some [many] of the techniques are questionable because they appeal primarily to the emotions rather than the intellect.” – Mass Media Mass Culture by James R. Wilson and Stan LeRay Wilson
“To sin by silence when men MUST speak out makes them cowards.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Governments should not use cannons to kill gnats.” – Bloom, p. 232
“Sociologists who speak so facilely about the sacred are like a man who keeps a toothless, old circus lion around the house to experience the thrills of the jungle.” – Bloom, p.216
“What a people bows before tells us who they are.” – Hegel (from Bloom’s Closing of…)
“Reason cannot establish values, and the belief that it can is the stupidest and most pernicious illusion.” – Bloom, p. 194
“I HATE Congress! – a mass of fools and knaves!” – Alexander Hamilton, 1783
“No people in history have ever survived who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies.” – Secretary of State Dean Acheson.
“I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.” – Noel Coward
“As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression… There is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight that we must be most aware of change in the air – however slight- lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.” William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1939-1975
“We have been living off the accumulated capital of Western Civilization for so long that we have forgotten the heroic effort it took to accumulate that capital in the first place.” – Roger Kimball
“The memory of oppressed people cannot be taken away. For such people revolt is always an inch below the surface.” – Howard Zinn
“Of all the dispositions and habits of men which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are the most indispensable supports.” – George Washington, Farewell Address September 19, 1796
“Every culture is just one generation from anarchy. It is the socialization of the young by the elders that allows the next generation to come of age civilized. A society in which this torch no longer gets passed is a society in trouble.” – Mary Pipher
“The definition of a gentleman is when he hears a woman singing in the shower he puts his EAR to the keyhole.” – Classic FM radio commercial
“…the logic of persecutors (Politically Correct Liberals) is to say we may persecute others because we are right, and they (conservatives, religious, patriots) must not persecute us because they are wrong.” – John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, p. 308
“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” – John F. Kennedy
“Let us pity those poor rich men who live barrenly in great bookless houses! Let us congratulate the poor that, in our day, books are so cheap that a man may every year add a hundred volumes to his library for the price of what his tobacco and beer would cost him” – Henry Ward Beecher
“The proper person to be entrusted with power is the person most unwilling to accept it” – Plato
“A government which attempts to do everything is aptly compared…to a schoolmaster who does all the pupils tasks for them; he may be very popular with the pupils, but he will teach them little. A government on the other hand which neither does anything itself that can possibly be done by anyone else, nor shows anyone else how to do anything, is like a school in which there is no schoolmaster, but only pupil teachers who have never themselves been taught”. – John Stuart Mill, 1861, Representative Government,”it
“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men for they may act their dreams with open eyes. This I did.” – T.E. Lawrence
“When the body is frozen to the marrow by cold and rain, when it is exhausted by fatigue and privation, when death and mutilation are spread afar by fire and sword, obedience must still be required; moral strength and discipline alone win through, and it is with an eye to circumstances of this gravity that the education of the soldier has to be planned. The more disciplined they are, the more their morale is steeled, the less will be the sacrifices which troops have to make in order to triumph” – Captain Reguert, Les Forces Morales, Paris, 1937.
“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not”. – Hundred Eyes, Councilor to Genghis Khan
“I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience!” – John Bunyan
“Any citizen who is not involved in politics is not only apathetic…he is useless.” – Plato
“America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.” – James Madison, Federalist Paper #41
“The consequences of disunion cannot be too highly colored, or too often exhibited (exposed). Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves Liberty, ought to have it ever before his eyes, that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment to the union of America, and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it.” – James Madison, Federalist Paper #41
“When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.” Viktor Frankle
“The Senate must be corrupted before it can attempt an establishment of tyranny.” – Federalist Paper #63
“Before such a revolution [against the Constitution] can be effected, the Senate…must in the first place be corrupt itself; must next corrupt the State legislatures; must then corrupt the House of Representatives and must finally corrupt the people at large.” – Federalist Paper #63
“The people can never willfully betray their own interests; but they may possibly be betrayed by the representatives of the people; and the danger will be evidently the greater where the whole legislative trust is lodged in the hands of one body of men,…” – Federalist Paper #63
“In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of sacrifice.” – Viktor Frankle, Man’s Search for Meaning; p. 113
“Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” –Plato (as quoted by pianist Ann Marie Garrett
“If human beings are deprived of the pleasures of the spirit, they are likely to indulge inordinately in the pleasures of the flesh.” – Aristotle
“In war, failure to lie is negligence, doubting a lie is a misdemeanor, and telling the truth is a felony.” – Falsehoods in War Time by Arthur Posonby, M.P.
“Teasing is thinly disguised anger camouflaged in humor. The root word of sarcasm is “to tear the flesh’. We should not be bees stinging each other.” – Alcoholics Anonymous
“Men must not love their country because it is great. They must make it great because they love it.” – G.K. Chesterton
“Be not afraid of greatness. Some achieve greatness some have greatness thrust upon them.” – Shakespeare in Twelfth Night
“I cannot accept your cannon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men with a favourable presumption that they do no wrong.
“The banking institutions of this nation are more dangerous than an army” – Thomas Jefferson
The dead are not so very far away. They’re just on the other side of the veil. It is us – on this side- who are so very alone.
“If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth; only soft soup and wishful thinking to begin, and, in the end, despair.” – C.S. Lewis
“No democracy can exist without the trust of its’ citizenry.”
Sometimes the things that make you a good cop messes you up as a person.
“That which we persist in doing becomes easy to do; not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do so has increased.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The first casualty of war is truth.” – Hiram Johnson, U.S. Senator, 1918
“We will never have peace with the Palestinians until they learn to love their children more than they hate us.” – Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel.
“If God doesn’t punish America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” – Billy Graham
“The perpetuity of this nation depends upon the religious education of the young.” – George Washington
“For if men are denied the right to express their own opinions, reason is of no use; the freedom of speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent, we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter.” – George Washington, 1783.
“The world needs Don Quixotes. Individuals who prod and nudge us with their words and deeds.” – John Wukovitz in American Commando, p. 273
“Don Quixotes work better alone.”
“Every man is given the key to the gates of heaven. The same key also opens the gates of Hell.” – Budhist Proverb
“The opposite of faith is not heresy…but indifference.” – Elie Wiesel
“A moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.”
“There’s a struggle that repeats itself throughout history: oppressors against the oppressed. The Thing to know is which side you are on.” – Simon’ Bolivar
“The love of a man for a woman [and a woman for the man] waxes and wanes like the moon. But the love of brother for brother is steadfast as the stars, and endures like the word of the prophet.” -Arabian Proverb (from the movie Beau Geste with Gary Cooper)
Spartan Law: You must treasure freedom above life. Shun pleasure for the sake of virtue. Endure pain and hardship in silence. Obey orders implicitly. Seek the enemies of Greece wherever they may be and fight them fearlessly until victory…or death.”
“You can be sincere and still be stupid.” – Dostoevsky
“He who does not understand that a dead lion is more alive than a living dog will remain a dog.” – Maimonides (and spoken by many Israeli soldiers)
“Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.” – Dostoevsky
“You know spies. A bunch of bitchy little girls.” – Sam (ex-SEAL ) on TV’s Burn Notice
“Knowing that there ARE miracles out there makes fighting through the nightmares worth it.” – Otis’ Podcast #1 on TVs Chicago Fire, Disc 5
“True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous and conflicting information.” – Winston Churchill
“It is always devastating – always a crucifixion. What women (and your children if divorced and older) will never understand is the weight of always being the pursuer. And the pain of every death when it’s a “no”. – from a NetFlix movie
“Do not go gentle into that good night [death]. But rage, rage! Against the dying of the light [life]” – Dylan Thomas
To my children and grandchildren: Your mission in life is to be better than what this world alone has to offer. – Dad / Grandpa
“A great deal of money will be spent on ignorance when the need for delusion is great.” narrator in movie series Klondike
“They do not dare draw the bow, and soon the bowstring is weak.” (Fear causes weakness)
“I know one thing that never dies. The reputation of a dead man.” – Havarmal, the Icelandic Saga
Dear children and grandchildren: Your mission in life is to be better than what this world alone has to offer. You can’t take anything physical with you after your spirit returns to your Heavenly Father – and believe me, you most definitely DO have a Heavenly Father. Act now, make choices now that will make your Heavenly Father proud of you when you return from your mission here on earth and report what you have done with what you have been given: your body, your mind, your talents. Tattooing, drinking alcohol, and smoking are only a few of the “world’s” ways of desecrating the body God, your literal Heavenly Father, has given you to carry out your mission on this earth. Don’t desecrate it. Don’t put graffiti on it or poison in it. It affects your body, mind and spirit when you don’t treat it as the holy and sacred gift it is from God. Don’t follow the world. Follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You will be happier than you ever thought possible…and for much, much longer. I love you. Dad
“Do not go where the path may lead. Instead go where there is no path – and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Negotiating with Obama is like playing chess with a pigeon. He knocks over all the pieces, shits all over the board then struts around like he won the game.” – Vladimir Putin
“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” – Hannah Arendt
“Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
“If God does not exist then everything is permissible.” – Doestoyefsky
“Only real risk passes the reality of faith.” – C.S. Lewis
“Only love …and regret…last forever.”
“No one escapes the chaos of childhood. Growth is painful. Accept it and move on. [and be glad it wasn’t as bad as many others’] – from the movie Adult Children of Divorce
“A disturbed personality is created by constant criticism and complete withholding of affection.” (“Lie to Me” TV series “The Royal We”) [This describes both my upbringing and my marriage.]
“It is the abdication of reason that is the source of moral relativism.” Peter Kreft, professor of philosophy.
“The worship of jackals by jackasses” – H.L. Mencken’s (an author much adored by academicians) description of American democracy…and the elections of Clinton, Bush (the Yale cheerleader), and Obama have made it never more so true.
“Those who refuse to engage in politics will be led by their inferiors” – Plato
“God gives wisdom to humble work.” a Muslim proverb in the outstanding Netflix movie “Captain Abu Raed.”
“It is the strong in body who are both the strong and free in mind” Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson
“There is no justice when even one voice goes unheard” – Proverbs 18: 13
“Pain heals, chicks dig scars and glory lasts forever.”, “If you are part of something great – however, brief – it stays with a man” Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman in the movie “The Replacements” During a team meeting KR as the quarterback was asked what his greatest fear on the field was. “Quicksand” he replied. First one thing goes wrong, and you shake it off. Then another thing goes wrong- then another, and another until you can’t move.”
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. It’s inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” – Winston Churchill
“Well, when you retire you become somewhat of a Leftist” – former head of Shin Bet
“Victory is Simply the Creation of a Simpler Reality” – Clausewitz
“There are worse things than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” – Russian poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996)
“No one ever committed suicide by reading a good book, but many have while trying to write one.” – Robert Byrne, author and expert billiard player.
“Prefirio morir en mis pieds que vivir en mis rodillas” (I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees) – Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (a true patriot of the people) killed by Mexican government troops under a flag of truce.
“He who does not understand that a dead lion is more alive than a living dog will remain a dog.” – Maimonides (and spoken by many Israeli soldiers)
“All wars begin before the first shot is fired and continue long after the last bullet has done its’ job.
” … the structure of our public morality crashed to earth. Above its grave a tombstone read, “Be tolerant–even of evil.” Logically the next step would be to say to our commonwealth’s criminals, “I disagree that it’s all right to rob and murder, but naturally I respect your opinion.” Tolerance is only complacence when it makes no distinction between right and wrong.” Sarah Patton Boyle
“The worst thing about getting old is evil men cease to fear you” Seneca
You may have tangible wealth untold; caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be. I had a mother who read to me.” ― Strickland Gillian
“A healthy-minded boy should feel hearty contempt for the coward and even more hearty indignation for the boy who bullies girls or small boys, or tortures animals.”…”What we have a right to expect of the American boy is that he shall turn out to be a good American man.” “The American Boy,” St. Nicholas Magazine, May 1900
“I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!” ― Minnie Louise Haskins
“Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in point of fact, religious.” Albert Einstein
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe .” — Thomas Jefferson
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.” — Thomas Jefferson
“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.” — Thomas Jefferson
“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.” — Thomas Jefferson
“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.” — Thomas Jefferson
“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” — Thomas Jefferson
“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.” — Thomas Jefferson
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” — Thomas Jefferson
“To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” — Thomas Jefferson
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.” Thomas Jefferson , 1802
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property – until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” Thos. Jefferson
“When a warrior fights not for himself, but for his brothers, when his most passionately sought goal is neither glory nor his own life’s preservation, but to spend his substance for them, his comrades, not to abandon them, not to prove unworthy of them, then his heart truly has achieved contempt for death, and with that he transcends himself and his actions touch the sublime. That is why the true warrior cannot speak of battle save to his brothers who have been there with him. The truth is too holy, too sacred, for words.” – Steven Pressfield
“Islam is more dangerous in a man than rabies in a dog.” Winston Churchill
