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The danger is not that a particular class
is unfit to govern;
every class is unfit to govern.
Lord Acton
April 24, 1881
There is no worse heresy
than that the office
sanctifies the holder of it.
Lord Acton
Letter to Mandell Creighton, April 3, 1887
The most certain test by which we judge
whether a country is really free
is the amount of security
enjoyed by minorities.
Lord Acton,
The History of Freedom in Antiquity, 1877
Power
when yielded by abnormal energy
is the most serious of facts.
Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams, 1907
A teacher affects eternity;
he can never tell where
his influence stops.
Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams, 1907
They know enough
who know how to learn.
Henry Brooks Adams
The Education of Henry Adams, 1906
It will be of little avail to the people,
that the laws are made
by men of their own choice,
if the laws be so voluminous
that they cannot be read,
or so incoherent
that they cannot be understood.
James Truslow Adams
The Adams Family, 1930
Fear is the foundation
of most governments.
John Adams
Thoughts on Government, 1776
Thomas Jefferson still survives.
John Adams
On his deathbed, July 4, 1826
Let us dare
to read, think, speak and write.
John Adams
Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law, 1765
And say not thou "My country right or wrong."
My toast would be,
Nor shead thy blood for an unhallowed cause.
John Quincy Adams
"Congress, Slavery, and an Unjust War," 1847
may our country be always successful,
but whether successful or otherwise,
always right.
John Quincy Adams
Letter to John Adams, August 1, 1816
Among the natural rights of the colonists are these:
first, a right to life;
second, to liberty;
thirdly, to property;
together with the right to support and defend them
in the best manner they can.
Samuel Adams,
"The Rights of the Colonists," August, 1776
When Liberty is gone,
Life grows insipid and has lost its relish.
Joseph Addison
Cato, Act II, scene 3, 1713.
This is a sickness rooted and inherent
in the nature of a tyranny:
that he that holds it does not trust his friends.
Aeschylus
Prometheus Bound, circa 478 B.C.
Beware that you do not lose the substance
by grasping at the shadow.
Aesop
Fables, "The Dog and the Shadow," 6th century, BC
People learn from their own mistakes,
but smart people learn from other people's mistakes.
Fernando "FerFAL" Aguirre
The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse, 2009
Many can argue,
not many converse.
A. Bronson Alcott
Concord Days, 1872
A man is known by the company
his mind keeps.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
"Leaves from a Notebook," in Ponkapog Papers, 1903
A belief is not true
because it is useful.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Amiel's Journal, November 15, 1876
When a government takes over a people's economic life
it becomes absolute,
and when it has become absolute it destroys
the arts, the minds, the liberties and the meaning
of the people it governs.
Maxwell Anderson
The Guaranteed Life, 1938
Our life
is what our thoughts make it.
Marcus Aurelius Antonius (121 to 180 A.D.)
Mediations
Give me a firm place to stand,
and I will move the earth.
Archimedes
On the Lever, 3rd Century, BC
We praise a man who is angry on the right grounds,
against the right persons,
in the right manner,
at the right moment,
and for the right length of time.
Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics, 340 B.C.
Our characters are the result
of our conduct.
Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics, circa 335 B.C.
There is no safety in ignorance.
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Massad Ayoob
Gun Proof Your Children, 1986
Nature,
to be commanded,
must be obeyed.
Francis Bacon
Novum Organum, 1620
Nature is often hidden,
sometimes overcome
seldom extinguished.
Francis Bacon
Essays, "Of Nature in Men," 1610
A wise man will make more opportunities
than he finds.
Francis Bacon
Essays, 1610.
Some books are to be tasted,
others to be swallowed,
and some few to be chewed and digested . . . .
Francis Bacon
Essays: Of Studies.
Nature, to be commanded,
must be obeyed.
Francis Bacon
Novum Organum, 1620.
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land,
when they can see nothing but sea.
Francis Bacon
The Advancement of Learning, 1605.
Perhaps the most valuable result of all education
is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do,
when it ought to be done,
whether you like it or not.
Walter Bagehot
Physics and Politics, 1879
It is unfortunate,
considering that enthusiasm moves the world,
that so few enthusiasts
can be trusted
to speak the truth.
Arthur James Balfour
Letter to Mrs. Drew, May 19, 1891
It is only in sorrow
bad weather masters us;
in joy we face the storm and defy it.
Amelia Barr
Jan Vedder's Wife, 1885
I have always found
that the man whose second thoughts are good
is worth watching.
J.M. Barrie
What Every Woman Knows, 1906
"You don't know that," said Molly.
Peter, unable to think of a good answer,
settled for looking annoyed.
Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Peter and the Starcatchers, 2004
There is in all of us a strong disposition
to believe that anything lawful
is also legitimate.
This belief is so widespread that many persons
have erroneously held
that things are "just" because law makes them so.
Claude-Frederic Bastiat
The Law, 1850
The defect of equality
is that we only desire it
with our superiors.
Henry-Francois Becque
Querelles Litteraires, 1890
Ignorance is the womb
of monsters.
Henry Ward Beecher
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1870.
Where is human nature so weak
as in the bookstore!
Henry Ward Beecher
"Subtleties of Book Buyers," Star Papers, 1855
We thought, because we had power,
we had wisdom.
Stephen Vincent Benet
Litany for Dictatorships, 1935
No politician has yet gained votes
by advocating the amendment
of the multiplication table,
but many a seat in parliament
has been won on an implied promise--
equally fantastic--
to repeal the law of supply and demand.
Sir Ernest Benn
The State the Enemy, 1953
Every strengthening of the State machine
means a weakening of the individual,
but every improvement in the individual
means a strengthening of the nation.
Sir Ernest Benn
The State the Enemy, 1953
The first sign of corruption
in a society that is still alive
is that the end justifies the means.
Georges Bernanos
Why Freedom, 1955
You get what you pay for.
Gabriel Biel, Expositio Canonis Missae, circa 1495.
As scarce as truth is,
the supply has always been in excess of the demand.
Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Affurisms from Josh Billings: His Sayings, 1865
It is better that ten guilty escape
than that one innocent suffer.
Sir William Blackstone
Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1765
The impetus for this book is Libertarianism.
The basic premise of this philosophy is that
it is illegitimate to engage in aggression against non-aggressors.
What is meant by agression is not assertiveness, argumentativeness,
competitiveness, adventurousness, quarrelsomeness, or antagonism.
What is meant by aggression is the use of violence,
such as that which takes place in murder, rape, robbery or kidnapping.
Libertarianism does not imply pacifism;
it does not forbid the use of violence in defense
or even in retaliation against violence.
Libertarian philosophy condemns only the initiation of violence--
the use of violence against a non-violent person or his property.
Walter Block
Defending the Undefendable, 1976
He that would know what shall be,
must consider
what hath been.
H.G. Bohn
Handbook of Proverbs, 1855
Here's to your good health,
and your family's good health,
and may you all
live long and prosper.
Dion Boucicault
Rip Van Winkle, II, 1866
Trade and commerce civilize.
Trade and commerce unite people.
Trade and commerce break down superstitions by exposing people who hold them to other ideas.
Trade and commerce teach and enlighten.
Trade and commerce enrich, both materially and ethically.
Trade and commerce promote peace.
Trade and commerce create society.
One of the most regrettable, repeated patterns of human thought
is the notion that greatness and glory are found in the successful use of brute strength --
in the strong or the best-weaponed subjugating others and restricting their freedom of thought and action.
And when this brute strength, being successfully established as a ruler
is cloaked in ermine, housed in marble buildings and called by grand titles,
it is worshipped as something super-human and (at least semi-) divine.
Too many people laud and celebrate military conquerors
as well as state officials who extended and increased the power of the state.
It's a childish and destructive sentiment.
Don Boudreaux
"Cafe Hayek," August 7, 2017
You think me "impractically idealistic" to hold politicians
I would love to see the day
War is the health of the State.
Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard
It goes without saying that we are fallible.
The appalling thing about war
Reaching out to others
In wine-drinking cultures,
It may then be seen
A meal without wine
A good heart will help you
Nothing is lost
A wise man is not governed by others,
We hate to see you go, old guy
I never saw a purple cow,
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away,
Kings are naturally lovers
Power gradually extirpates from the mind
No passion
The greater the power,
If decisions were a choice between alternatives,
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
[Chorus]
For auld lang syne, my dear,
We twa hae rin about the braes,
We twa hae paidl't i' the burn,
And here 's a hand, my trusty fiere,
And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp,
Robert Burns
Indeed he knows not how to know
He that complies against his will
The great pleasure of a dog is
The nearest approach
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Either the people in a relationship
According to Marx,
The true university of these days
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
To like and dislike the same things,
It is one thing
That which costs little
There is nothing so subject
I begin to smell a rat.
Forewarned, forearmed:
Every man is the son
Honesty's the best policy.
In great affairs men show themselves
The office of government is not to confer happiness,
Attack another's rights
Women deprived of the company of men pine,
The theory of free speech,
There is no such thing on earth
Taylor said, "We're not moving. This place is a stronghold."
It is a curious fact
A government is as strong as its income.
Those who realize their folly
Everyone is in favour of free speech.
Laws are silent
Men do not realize
Not to know what happened before one was born
The more laws,
Philosophy is the best medicine
It is far easier to make war
"He is an earnest man of piecemeal convictions.
Edgar Cullis could not contest this assertion.
A boy adopts a hero for two reasons:
"My crew is honest,
"You look different."
He frowned down at the boy:
The Bill of Rights is a born rebel.
History has taught me
Entrepreneurs, in my opinion,
I welcomed the blizzard,
In politics as in religion,
A free society cherishes non-conformity.
Government that oppresses
What is most needed for learning
He will hew to the line of right,
It is the besetting vice of democracies
The current near-hysterical preoccupation with safety
"You just don't get it, do you?" Kenner said.
I was, for some years, a member of Congress.
I have come to your country, though not, I hope, through any selfish motive whatever.
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When a dog bites a man
Men would be great criminals
The affinities of all the beings of the same class
What is this life if,
I hear much of people's calling out
The reading of all good books
Burning is no answer.
Watch out for the fellow
From fanaticism to barbarism
The shortest way to ruin a country
History is philosophy
A love of liberty is planted by nature
No government can be long secure
How much easier it is
to be critical
The limits of tyrants
Men are whipped oftenest
No man can put a chain
A little learning, may be a dangerous thing,
The plot thickens.
"Nothing clears up a case
It is quite a three-pipe problem.
You know my method.
And not a girl goes walking
The most may err
Beware the fury of a patient man.
Of all the tyrannies on human kind
Now, ye want to know
I regard smuggling as a right and proper activity.
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I am long on ideas, but short on time.
Try not to become a man of success
Farming looks mighty easy
Books are the quietest and most constant
A different taste in jokes
A chief event of life
If you put a chain
You shall have joy
People seem not to see
The less government we have, the better--
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake
You will always find those
Every man has his own vocation.
The virtue of books
This time,
The years teach much
Our first mistake is the belief that circumstance
Nothing great was ever achieved
What is a weed?
Many eyes go through the meadow,
We learn geology
Knowledge is the antidote
Next to the originator of a good sentence
Man exists for his own sake
It is the difficulties that show what men are.
Let no one put off studying philosophy when he is young,
In the kingdom of the blind
The Press, my Lords,
The man who knows when not to act
Whom the gods would destroy,
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I do not trust fervor.
Governments have ever been careful
No government has the right
I have a friend who's an artist
Anyway, I have to argue about flying saucers
I don't know what's the matter with people;
Most all the time,
The little toy dog is covered with dust,
Dancing begets warmth,
The Bird of Time has but a little way
And I cannot see,
The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course
In order that knowledge
Those who have given themselves the most concern
Some people would advise us
In any event, mere speed is not a test of justice.
Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, in
Human felicity is produced
Experience keeps a dear school,
The Golden Age
The eye of the master
Laziness travels so slowly,
We must indeed all hang together,
In this world nothing is certain
They that can give up essential liberty
The direct use of physical force
I'm not confused,
We call our schools free
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
Passion, joined with power,
A man surprised
'Tis better to suffer wrong
'Tis skill, not strength,
No garden [is] without its weeds.
The Mob has many Heads
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A wise man's question
E pur si muove.
How can you govern a country that has
Truth no more relies for success
More than any group we can think of,
He could find the dark cloud
It is time that we squarely face the fact
School is a twelve-year jail sentence
By preventing a free market in education,
You aren't compelled to loan your car
Truth is the daughter
The winds and waves
Everything has been said before,
Life is made up of interruptions.
During war we imprison
It is familiarity with life
to the same moral standards to which we hold private citizens.
Government, in your view,
"must deal with monumental affairs" --
monumental affairs whose successful management, you believe,
requires that government officials
"follow Machiavelli's practical advice."
It is an odd argument that insists that,
politicians should therefore be held to lower moral standards.
I reject this argument.
Don Boudreaux
"No Excuse-Making," Cafe Hayek, August 13, 2015
when parents react to a child's announcement
that he or she is going into politics
with the same horror and shame that would overcome them
if their child were to announce
that he or she is going into armed robbery.
Don Boudreaux
www.cafehayek.com, March 20, 2014
Randolph Bourne
Essay: "War Is the Health of the State," in
The State, 1918 (unfinished at his death).
of free speech and assembly.
Men feared witches and burnt women.
It is the function of speech to free men
from the bondage of irrational fears.
Justice Louis D. Brandeis
Concurring opinion in Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, 376 (1927)
to protect liberty when the government's purposes
are beneficent.
Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion
of their liberty by evil-minded rulers.
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious
encroachment
by men of zeal, well-meaning, but without understanding.
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, dissenting in
Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1928).
With the best will in the world,
we can still make mistakes.
But reason--in the global sense in which I define it here--
offers us the possibility of self-correction.
That is one of its unique characteristics.
Other alleged paths to knowledge,
such as faith or feeling,
do not share this possibility;
that is, they lack an inbuilt self-correcting dynamism.
Sometimes they may disclose a truth,
sometimes not,
but they have no internal means
to distinguish,
no internal standard by which to detect error
or the way to its correction.
Nathaniel Branden
The Art of Living Consciously, 1997
is that it kills
all love of truth.
Georg Brandes
Letters to Georges Clemenceau, March, 1915
often becomes the first step
back to human reality.
When someone then responds with love and caring
the recovery process is on its way.
But this rarely happens in the psychiatric system.
When a patient reaches out,
the psychiatrist puts a pill in the hand.
Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy, and Love
Must Replace the Drugs, Electrochock, and Biochemical Theories
of the "New Psychiatry," 1991
children used to be given a few drops
of wine in their water to accustom them to the taste.
People grow up with wine at the dinner table;
it's part of the family meal.
Since children aren't prohibited from touching the stuff,
it doesn't become "forbidden fruit" like beer and wine do in our culture.
As a result, kids don't bend over backward
to get their hands on it when the adults aren't around,
and then proceed to get drunk.
Leslie Brenner
Fear of Wine: An Introductory Guide to the Grape, 1995
that in obedience to principles and practice well understood,
true wine lovers sip their wine.
Every mouthful thus gives them
the sum total of pleasure
which they would not have enjoyed
had they swallowed it all at once.
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Physiologie du Gout, 1825
is like a day without sunshine.
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Physiologie du Gout, 1825.
to a bonny face . . . ."
Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights, 1847
that we do not first see as lost.
Terry Brooks
Magic Kingdom For Sale: Sold, 1986
nor does he try to govern them;
he prefers that reason alone prevail.
La Bruyere
Characters, 1688
Although we know it's time.
Though sadness fills our hearts right now
We'll not forget good times.
And smiles will soon replace our tears
For joy is what you brought.
No better job could have been done
of filling up our lives.
So go in peace our golden friend
You've earned your final rest.
You could not have done a better job
It's time to sleep at last.
Donald Ray Burger
Elegy for Toby, July 22, 1999, 1:07 pm
I never hope to see one;
But, I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.
Gelett Burgess
The Purple Cow, 1895.
for expedients,
and by parts.
Edmund Burke
Letter to Sherriffs of Bristol, April 3, 1777
of low company.
Edmund Burke
Speech on the Economical Reform, 1780
every humane and gentle virtue.
Edmund Burke
A Vindication of Natural Society, 1756
so effectually robs the mind
of all its powers of acting and reasoning
as fear.
Edmund Burke
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1756
the more dangerous the abuse.
Edmund Burke
Speech, House of Commons, February 7, 1771.
decisions would come easy.
Decision is the selection and formulation
of alternatives.
Kenneth Burke
Towards a Better Life, 1932.
And never brought to min'?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' lang syne?
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne.
And pu'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd monie a weary fit
Sin' auld lang syne.
Frae mornin' sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne.
And gie's a hand o' thine;
And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught
For auld lang syne.
And surely I'll be mine;
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne!
Auld Lang Syne,1788
who knows not also how to un-know.
Sir Richard Francis Burton
The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yazdi.
is of his opinion still.
Samuel Butler
Hudibras, 1664
that you may make a fool of yourself with him
and not only will he not scold you,
but he will make a fool of himself too.
Samuel Butler
Note-Books, circa 1890.
to immortality on earth
is a government bureau.
James F. Byrnes
Speaking Frankly, 1947
have the authority to establish
the conditions of their relationship (liberty)
or someone outside the relationship
has the authority to establish those conditions (mastery).
In principle, all relationships between contracting, consenting people
are personal, irrespective of the nature of those arrangements.
It is inconsistent to abhor
intrusion into relationships taking place in the bedroom,
while embracing intrusions into relationships
taking place in the boardroom, or vice versa.
Louis E. Carabini
Inclined to Liberty: The Futile Attempt to Suppress the Human Spirit,
2008
all the value of a good derives
from the labor that goes into its production.
This labor theory of value is in opposition
to the subjective theory of value,
which posits the value of a good or service
is determined by individuals,
regardless of the time and energy (labor)
that went into its production.
The labor theory of value is fallacious;
if it were not so,
one of my paintings (God forbid!)
would be as valuable
as one by Vincent van Gogh.
Louis E. Carabini
Inclined to Liberty: The Futile Attempt to Suppress the Human Spirit, 2008
is a collection of books.
Thomas Carlyle
"The Hero as Man of Letters," in On Heroes and Hero Worship, 1841
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing wax--
of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."
Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass, 1872
that is indeed true friendship.
Gaius Sallustius Crispus
Bellum Catilinae, 43 BC
to praise discipline,
and another to submit to it.
Miguel de Cervantes
The Dialogue of the Dogs, 1613
is less valued.
Miguel de Cervantes
Don Quixote de la Mancha, 1605-1615
to the inconstancy of fortune
as war.
Miguel de Cervantes
Don Quixote de la Mancha, 1605-l6l5.
Miguel de Cervantes
Don Quixote de la Mancha, 1605-l6l5.
to be prepared
is half the victory.
Miguel de Cervantes
Don Quixote, 16l5
of his own works.
Miguel de Cervantes
Don Quixote de la Mancha, 1615
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Mancha, 1605-l6l5.
as they wish to be seen,
in small things they show themselves
as they are.
Chamfort
Maximes et pensees, 1805
but to give men opportunity
to work out happiness for themselves.
William Ellery Channing
Christian Examiner, Sept/Oct, 1827
that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds.
William Ellery Chaning
"Self-Culture," 1838
and you destroy your own.
John Jay Chapman
Letter, 1897
men deprived of the company of women
become stupid.
Anton Chekhov
Notebooks, 1892-1904
that truth is so much larger and stranger
and more many-sided than we know of,
that it is very much better at all costs
to hear every one's account of it,
is a theory which has been justified on the whole
by experiment, but which remains
a very daring and even a very surprising theory.
It is really one of the great discoveries
of modern time.
G. K. Chesterton
Robert Browning, 1914
as an uninteresting subject;
the only thing that can exist
is an uninterested person.
G.K. Chesterton
Heretics, 1905
"Three dinensionally it's fine," Reacher said.
"But battles are fought in four dimensions, not three.
Length, breadth and height,
plus time.
And time is on Lane's side, not ours.
We're going to run out of food,
and sooner or later all four of us
are going to be asleep at the same time."
Lee Child
The Hard Way, 2006.
that as the government's revenues increase
so do its needs.
Frank Chodorov
The Income Tax: Root of All Evil, 1954
Contrariwise, the independence of the people
is in direct proportion to the amount
of their wealth they can enjoy.
We cannot restore traditional American freedom
unless we limit the government's power
to tax.
Frank Chodorov
The Income Tax: Root of All Evil, 1954
are not true fools.
Chuang Tse
Works, Fourth century, BC
Hardly a day passes without its being extolled,
but some people's idea of it
is that they are free to say what they like,
but if anyone says anything back,
that is an outrage.
Winston Churchill
Speech in House of Commons, October 13, 1943.
in time of war.
Cicero
Pro Milone, 52 B.C.
how great an income thrift is.
Cicero
Paradoxa stoicorum, 46 B.C.
is always to be a child.
Cicero
De oretore, circa 80 B.C.
the less justice.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
De Officiis, 44 B.C.
for the mind.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Tusculanes Disputationes 47-44 B.C.
than to make peace.
Georges Clemenceau
Speech, July 14, 1919
I do not believe he will grant himself
the time to examine them so closely
that he would see that no concordance
is possible among them."
Easley shook his head, "Oh, no, sir.
They must be in concordance, my good friend,
in some habit of way,
for otherwise he would go mad.
Perhaps you meant
that it is a harmonious unity of convictions
that he lacks."
Hugh laughed and threw up his hands.
Edward Cline
Sparrowhawk: Book Three: Caxton, 2004.
His knowledge of practical politics
lay in land patents and statutes.
His mind was not friendly to hypotheses . . . .
Edward Cline
Sparrowhawk: Book Four: Empire, 2004
because a hero captivates his soul
and serves as a projection of his innermost self;
and because a hero seems to have solved many problems
that may worry a boy,
or at least demonstrates the capacity to solve them.
The hero is an idealization of successful living,
even though he may die in a story.
The death may be gallant, brave, tragic, or perhaps even foolhardy.
But living or dead, a hero is the stylistic embodiement
of living on one's own terms--
noble terms, grand terms, exciting terms--
terms, in short, that complement any youth's
uncorrupted, untamed, unabridged projection
of what is possible to him in life.
Edward Cline
Sparrowhawk: Book Two: Hugh Kendrick, 2002
but I won't vouch for the other passengers or for the limpets."
"Limpets, sir?"
"Never heard the term at Lion Key?" Ramshaw chuckled.
"That's our name for bureaucrats, and customs officials,
and other two-legged albatrosses."
Edward Cline
Sparrowhawk: Book Two: Hugh Kenrick, 2002
"In my former life, I was an actor."
"What's an actor?"
"An actor is a person who entertains others
by being someone else.
Sometimes he is paid with money;
other times, with rotten fruit."
Edward Cline
Sparrowhawk, 2001
"You don't believe in vaporous spirits, do you, Mr. Frake?"
"No sir," said the boy. "Not in any."
"Why not?"
"If they existed, nothing would make sense."
Edward Cline
Sparrowhawk, 2001
It reeks with sedition.
In every clause it shakes its fist in the face of constituted authority.
Frank I. Cobb
LaFollette's Magazine, January, 1920
that rulers are much the same
in all ages, and under all forms of government;
that they are as bad as they dare to be.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Letter, 1798
are the heroes of the world.
Skyler J. Collins
Toward a Free Society: A Short Guide on Building a Culture of Liberty, 2015
with its ferocious winds
and deep, drifting snow.
This may be enough to keep the wolves,
also know as the Peacekeepers,
from my door.
Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire, 2009
it so happens that we have less charity
for those who believe the half of our creed,
than for those that deny the whole of it.
Charles Caleb Colton,
Lacon, 1825.
It knows that from a non-conformist, from the eccentric,
have come many of the great ideas of freedom.
Free society must fertilize the soil
in which non-conformity and dissent and individualism can grow.
Henry Steele Commager
Speech, National Conference on Adult Education, 1954.
is
more terrible than tigers.
Confucius
The Book of Rites, circa 500 B.C.
is a humble mind.
Confucius
The Book of History, circa 500 B.C.
let the chips fall where they may.
Roscoe Conkling
Speech nominating US Grant for a third term as President,
June 5, 1880.
to substitute public opinion
for law.
This is the usual form
in which the masses of men
exhibit their tyranny.
James Fenimore Cooper
The American Democrat, 1838
is at best a waste of resources
and a crimp on the human spirit,
and at worst an invitation
to totalitarianism.
Michael Crichton
State of Fear, 2004
"You think civilization is some horrible, polluting human invention
that separates us from the state of nature.
But civilization doesn't separate us from nature, Ted.
Civilization protects us from nature."
Michael Crichton
State of Fear, 2004
In my last canvass, I told the people of my District,
that,
if they saw fit to re-elect me,
I would serve them as faithfully as I had done;
but, if not,
they might go to hell, and I would go to Texas.
I was beaten, gentlemen, and here I am.
David Crockett
Speech on arrival in (Nacogdoches) Texas, January 5, 1836.
I have come to aid you all that I can in your noble cause.
I shall identify myself with your interests, and all the honor that I desire is that of defending
as a high private,
in common with my fellow citizens,
the liberties of our common countries.
Davy Crockett
Speech on arrival at the Alamo, February 8, 1836.
that is not news,
but when a man bites a dog,
that is news.
Charles A. Dana
New York Sun, 1882
did they need as many laws as they make.
Charles John Darling
Scintillae Juris, 1877.
have sometimes been represented by a great tree.
I believe this simile largely speaks the truth.
As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds,
and these, if vigorous,
branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch,
so by generation I believe it has been
with the great Tree of Life,
which fills with its dead and broken branches
the crust of the earth,
and covers the surface
with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications.
Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species, 1859
full of care,
we have no time
to stand and stare.
W.H. Davies
Leisure, 1920.
to punish the guilty,
but very few are concerned
to clear the innocent.
Daniel Defoe
An Appeal to Honor and Justice, 1715.
is like conversation
with the finest men of the past centuries.
Descartes
Discourse on Method, 1639
Camille Desmoulins
Reply to Robespierre on the burning of Desmoulins' newspaper, Vieux Cordelier, January 7, 1794
who talks about putting things in order!
Putting things in order always means
getting other people under your control.
Denis Diderot
Supplement to Bougainville's "Voyage," 1796
is only one step.
Denis Diderot
Essai sur le merite de la vertu, 1745.
is to give power
to demagogues.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Antiquities of Rome, circa 20 B.C.
teaching by examples.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Ars rhetorica, XI:2, 1st Century, BC
in the breasts of all men.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Antiquities of Rome, circa 20 B.C.
without formidable opposition.
Benjamin Disraeli
Coningsby, 1844
than to be correct.
Benjamin Disraeli
Speech, January 24, 1860
are prescribed by the endurance
of those whom they suppress.
Frederick Douglass
Letter to Gerrit Smith, March 30, 1849
who are whipped easiest.
Frederick Douglass
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 1881
about the ankle of his fellow man
without at last finding the other end
fastened about his own neck.
Frederick Douglass
Speech, October 22, 1883
but the want of learning
is a calamity to any people.
Frederick Douglass
Speech at Colored High School Commencement, Baltimore, Maryland, June 22, 1894.
Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
in "A Study in Scarlet," 1887
so much as stating it
to another person."
Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
in "Silver Blaze," 1892
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Red-Headed League," in
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1892
It is founded upon the observance of trifles.
Arthur Conan Doyle
Remark by Sherlock Holmes in The Boscombe Valley Mystery, 1892
Along the Cotswold lanes
But knows men's eyes in April
Are quicker than their brains.
John Drinkwater
Cotswold Love.
as grossly as the few.
John Dryden
Absalom and Achitophel, 1681.
John Dryden
Marriage a la Mode, 1679.
The worst is that which persecutes the mind.
John Dryden
The Hind and the Panther 1687
how to get from here tae there.
Well, I'll tell ye.
It's verra simple: don't obey.
If someone give you orders, ignore them.
Don't obey anything
but your own judgment.
Nicholas Dykes
Old Nick's Guide to Happiness: A Philosophical Novel, 2008
The smuggler is brave enough
to defy the parasites in Whitehall
and hopefully smart enough
to outwit their minions.
Smuggling is a noble business, always has been.
Nicholas Dykes
Old Nick's Guide to Happiness: A Philosophical Novel, 2008
I expect to live to be only about a hundred.
Thomas Alva Edison
quoted in Golden Book magazine, April, 1931
(Note: Edison lived to age 84.)
but rather
try to become a man of value.
Albert Einstein
Life Magazine, May 2, 1955
when your plow is a pencil,
and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Speech in Peoria, Illinois, September 25, 1956.
of friends . . .
and the most patient of teachers.
Charles W. Eliot
The Happy Life, 1896
is a great strain on the affections.
George Elliot
Daniel Deronda, 1876
is the day in which we have encountered
a mind
that startled us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays: Second Series, 1844
around the neck of a slave,
the other end fastens itself
around your own.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays: First Series, 1841
or you shall have power,
said God;
you shall not have both.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals, October, 1842
that their opinion of the world
is also a confession of character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Conduct of Life, 1860
the fewer laws, and the less confided power.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays, 1844
of dreaming that I am persecuted
whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals, 1838
who think they know what your duty is
better than you know it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Self Reliance," Essays: First Series, 1841
The talent is the call.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays: First Series, 1841
is to be readable.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Society and Solitude, 1870
like all times,
is a very good one,
if we but know
what to do with it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The American Scholar, 1837
which the days never know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Experience" in Essays (Second Series) 1844
gives the joy
which we give to the circumstance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Illusions," The Conduct of Life, 1860
without enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays: First Series, 1841
A plant whose virtues have not been discovered.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fortune of the Republic, 1878
but few see the flowers in it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals, 1834.
the morning after the earthquake.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Conduct of Life, 1860.
to fear
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Society and Solitude, "Courage," 1870
is the first quoter of it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Letters and Social Aims, 1875
and not to add a laborer to the State.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals, 1839
Epictetus
Discourses, circa 50 to 120 A.D.
nor when old grow weary of its study.
For no one is too young or too far past his prime
to achieve the health of his soul.
The man who alleges that he is not yet ready for philosophy
or that the time for it has passed him by,
is like the man who says
that he is either too young or too old
for happiness.
Epicurus
Letter to Menoeceus, Fragment 122. Circa 300 BCE.
Quoted in The Essential Epicurus, translated by Eugene O'Connor
the one-eyed man
is king.
Desiderius Erasmus
Adagia, 1500
is one of our great out-sentries;
if we remove it, if we hoodwink it,
if we throw it in fetters,
the enemy may surprise us.
Thomas Erskine
Defense of Thomas Paine, December 20, 1792
is wise.
To my mind,
bravery is forethought.
Euripides
The Suppliant Women, circa 420 BC
they first make mad.
Euripides
Fragments, circa 429 to 406 B.C.
Every time it has burst out somewhere,
it has brought fire, famine, misery. . . .
And contempt for man.
Fervor is the weapon of choice for the impotent.
Frantz Fanon
Black Skins White Masks, 1988
to hold a high hand
over the education of the people.
They know, better than anyone else,
that their power is based almost entirely
on the school.
Hence, they monopolize it more and more.
Francisco Ferrer
The Origin and Ideals of the Modern School, Translated by Joseph McCabe, 1913.
to decide on the truth of scientific principles,
nor to prescribe in any way
the character of the questions investigated.
Neither may a government determine
the aesthetic value of artistic creations,
nor limit the forms of literacy or artistic expressions.
Nor should it pronounce on the validity
of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines.
Instead it has a duty to its citizens
to maintain the freedom,
to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure
and the development of the human race.
Richard Feynman
"The Uncertainity of Values," (1963) published in The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist, 1998.
and he sometimes takes a view which I don't agree with.
He'll hold up a flower and say,
"Look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree.
But then he'll say,
"I, as an artist, can see how beautiful a flower is.
But you, as a scientist, take it all apart and it becomes dull."
I think he's kind of nutty. . . .
There are all kinds of interesting questions
that come from a knowledge of science,
which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower.
It only adds.
I don't understand how it subtracts.
Richard Feynman
What Do You Care What Other People Think? 1988
on the beach with people, you know.
And I was interested in this:
they keep arguing that it is possible.
And that's true. It is possible.
They do not appreciate that the problem
is not to demonstrate whether it's possible or not
but whether it's going on or not.
Richard Feynman
The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist, 1998
they don't learn by understanding,
they learn by some other way--
by rote or something.
Their knowledge is so fragile.
Richard Feynman
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! 1985
the whole year round,
there ain't no flies on me,
But jest 'fore Christmas
I'm as good as I kin be!
Eugene Field
"Jest 'fore Christmas," in Love-Songs of Childhood, 1894
But sturdy and staunch he stands;
The little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket moulds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair;
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there.
"Now don't you go till I come," he said,
"And don't you make any noise!"
So, toddling off to his trundle bed,
He dreamt of the pretty toys;
And, as he was dreaming, an angel song
Awakened our Little Boy Blue-
Oh! the years are many, the years are long,
But the little toy friends are true!
Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,
Each in the same old place,
Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
The smile of a little face;
And they wonder, as waiting the long years through
In the dust of that little chair,
What has become of our Little Boy Blue,
Since he kissed them and put them there.
Eugene Field,
Little Boy Blue, 18--
which is the parent of wantonness.
Henry Fielding
Love in Several Masques, Act 3, scene 7, 1728
To fly--and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.
Edward Fitzgerald
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 18--.
why arms should be denied to any man
who is not a slave,
since they are the only
true badges of liberty.
Andrew Fletcher
A Discourse of Government with Relation to Militias, 1737
of larceny, murder, rapine, and barbarism.
We are always moving forward with high mission,
a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims
while incidentally capturing their markets,
to civilize savage and senile and paranoid peoples
while blundering accidentally
into their oil wells and metal mines.
John T. Flynn
As We Go Marching, 1944
be properly digested
it must have been swallowed
with a good appetite.
Anatole France
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard, 1881
about the happiness of peoples
have made their neighbors very miserable.
Anatole France
Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard, 1881.
that there may be realities so frightening,
or so discouraging and demoralizing,
that we would be better off not knowing anything about them.
In my judgment, however,
it is nearly always more advantageous
to face the facts with which we must deal
than to remain ignorant of them.
After all, hiding our eyes from reality
will not cause any reduction of its dangers and threats . . . ."
Harry G. Frankfurt
On Truth, 2006
Deliberate speed is.
Deliberate speed takes time.
But it is time well spent.
First Iowa Coop. v. Power Comm'n, 328 U.S. 152, 188 (1946).
not so much by great pieces of good fortune
that seldom happen,
as by little advantages
that occur every day.
Benjamin Franklin
Autobiography, 1731
yet Fools will learn in no other.
Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanac, 1743
never was the present Age.
Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanac, 1750
will do more work
than both his hands.
Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanac, 1758
that Poverty soon overtakes him.
Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanac, 1756
or most assuredly,
we shall all hang separately.
Benjamin Franklin
Remark on signing the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.
but death and taxes.
Benjamin Franklin
Letter to M Leroy, 1789
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
is so poor a solution
to the problem of limited resources
that is is commonly employed
only by small children
and great nations.
David Friedman
The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism, 1973
I'm just well mixed.
Robert Frost
Wall Street Journal, August 5, 1969
because we are not free
to stay away from them
until we are sixteen.
Robert Frost
Introduction to Collected Poems, 1939
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
"The Road Not Taken, " in Mountain Interval, 1916
produceth thunder and ruin.
Thomas Fuller
Gnomologia, 1732
is half beaten.
Thomas Fuller
Gnomologia, 1732
than do it.
Thomas Fuller
Gnomologia, 1732
that governs a ship.
Thomas Fuller, M.D.
Gnomologia, 1732
Thomas Fuller
Gnomologia, 1732.
but no Brains.
Thomas Fuller
Gnomologia, 1732
contains half the answer.
Solomon Ibn Gabirol
The Choice of Pearls, circa 1050
Italian for, "And yet it does move."
Attributed to Galileo Galilei
Parting remarks supposed to have been spoken under Galleleo's breath
after his public recantation of his heliocentric ideas,
upon his conviction by the Inquisition
for believing that the Earth was not the center of the Universe, 1633.
two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?
Charles de Gaulle
Quoted in Les Mots du Général, by Ernest Mignon, 1962
on ballot boxes
than it does on cartridge boxes.
Political action is not moral action.
William Lloyd Garrison
The Liberator, March 13, 1846
Harleys and their owners
constitute the world's largest
and most active
mutual admiration society.
Paul Garson
Born to Be Wild: A History of the American Biker and Bikes, 1947 - 2002, 2003
under virtually any silver lining.
John Gaspard
The Ambitious Card, 2013
that institutional schoolteaching
is destructive to children.
John Taylor Gatto
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 1992
where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned.
John Taylor Gatto
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 1992
a handful of social engineers,
backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling--
teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, and others--
has ensured that most of our children
will not have an education,
even though they may be thoroughly schooled.
John Taylor Gatto
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 1992
to anyone who wants it,
but you are compelled to surrender you school-age child to strangers
who process children for a livelihood . . . .
Your great-great grandmother didn't have to surrender her children.
What happened?
John Taylor Gatto
The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteacher's Intimate Investigation into the Problem of Modern Schooling, 2000
of time.
Aulus Gellius, 130 to 175 A. D.
Noctis Atticae
are always on the side
of the ablest navigators.
Edward Gibbon
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776
but since nobody listens
we have to keep going back
and beginning all over again.
Andre Gide
Le Traite du Narcisse, 1891
W.S. Gilbert
Patience, I, 1881
the rights of man.
Jean Giraudoux
Tiger at the Gates, 1935
that makes time speed quickly.
When every day is a step in the unknown,
as for children,
the days are long with the gathering of experience.
George Gissing
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, 1903
Welcome to Tennessee!
We have lots of guns.
We love to shoot our guns.
We'd be more than happy
to teach you to do the same.
Try it, you might like it.
P.A. Glaspy
When the Peace is Gone, 2017.
Power is not happiness.
William Godwin
An Enquiry concerning Political Justice, 1793
The project of a national education
ought uniformly to be discouraged,
on account of its obvious alliance
with national government.
This is an alliance of a more formidable nature
than the old and much contested alliance
of church and state.
William Godwin
An Enquiry concerning Political Justice, 1793
Whenever government assumes to deliver us
from the trouble of thinking for ourselves,
the only consequences it produces
are those of torpor and imbecility.
William Godwin
An Enquiry concerning Political Justice, 1793
The century is advanced,
but every individual begins afresh.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Maxims and Reflections, collection.
There is no greater fallacy than the belief
that aims and purposes are one thing,
while methods and tactics are another.
Emma Goldman
My Disillusionment in Russia, 1923
One activity marks the state more than any other
as the enemy of liberty,
and it is here that supporters of liberty
must concentrate their efforts.
The activity, of course, is waging war.
David Gordon
Introduction to Second Edition of Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature, by Murray N. Rothbard
2000
Censorship is an ancient evil,
and liberation from it
is the fuel of progress.
A.C. Grayling
"Information," from, The Heart of Things: Applying Philosophy to the 21st Century, 2005
Happiness is never as welcome
as changlessness.
Graham Greene
The Heart of the Matter, 1948
As if were not enough to argue
that free trade has lifted millions out of poverty,
strengthened human rights and democracy,
and spread peace,
let me make one more bold claim:
Free trade and globalization encourage individuals
to behave in better ways.
The same "invisible hand" that turns our personal drive for betterment
to the public's benefit
also shapes our characters.
The commercial and personal interactions with people from other countries
that have come with globalization
teach us tolerance, sympathy, humility, prudence, trustworthiness,
and a spirit of service to our fellow human beings.
Dan Griswold
Mad about Trade, 2009
The right to be let alone
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
is the underlying principle
of the Constitution's
Bill of Rights.
Erwin N. Griswold
Address, Northwestern University Law School, June 11, 1960
Whenever students are involved in planning what they will be doing,
it is likely that good teaching is going on.
This planning involves real choices
and not simple preferences such as what color crayon to use,
or the order in which a set of topics will be discussed.
Students may be asked to select a topic for study,
to decide what resources they will need,
or to plan how they will present their findings to others.
People learn to make informed choices
by actually making informed choices.
Following directions
--even perfectly--
does not prepare people to make life choices
and deal with the consequences of those choices.
Dr. Martin Haberman
Star Teachers: The Ideology and Best Practice of Effective Teachers of Diverse Children and Youth in Poverty, 2005
Good teaching
is a process of "drawing out"
rather than "stuffing in."
Dr. Martin Haberman
Star Teachers: The Ideology and Best Practice of Effective Teachers of Diverse Children and Youth in Poverty, 2005
I had us moved into a corner
where I could put my back against a wall.
Wild Bill Hickok had once, just once,
made the mistake of sitting with his back to the door.
I'd hate to make him feel,
wherever he is,
that he'd died in vain.
Donald Hamilton
The Demolishers 1987
Certain people never learn
that if they push enough folks around long enough,
sooner or later they'll start shoving somebody who won't take it.
He'll blow right up in their faces
and demolish them and the surrounding landscape;
and they--those who are left--
will scream about how misunderstood and abused they are,
and why didn't somebody tell them
the guy was dangerous so they could be nice to him?
It never seems to occur to them
that there's a very simple answer:
just be nice to everybody.
Donald Hamilton
The Demolishers 1987
At eighteen months he weighed over a hundred pounds,
with enormous feet and a head like a bear.
His greeting was overwhelming,
like being mauled by a grizzly;
but I didn't mind.
I mean, it showed that he remembered me and, dammit,
love is where you find it.
There aren't that many humans around
eager to hug and kiss me.
Donald Hamilton
The Demolishers 1987
Mirian: "I guess I can put two and two together."
Nick: "Sometimes the answer's four," I said,
"and sometimes it's twenty-two."
Dashiell Hammett
The Thin Man, 1934
Do not do an immoral thing
for moral reasons.
Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure, 1875
The right of a person to the product of his own labor
is the foundation of economic liberty.
The requirements of liberty in the economic realm
can be met in no other way.
The question at issue is how to distinguish
between what is mine and what is thine. . . .
There are three ways to handle this problem:
1. Each person may have whatever he can grab.
2. Some person other than the one who produces the goods and services
may decide who shall have the right of possession or use.
3. Each person may be allowed to have whatever he produces.
These three methods cover all the possibilities;
there are no others.
F.A. "Squatty" Harper
Liberty: A Path to Its Recovery, 1949
When private property is in constant danger
of being taken from the one who has saved it,
he will "eat today's production today"
rather than save. If the marauding is prevalent enough,
he will not even find it feasible to save the seed
for next year's planting of food crops;
and once the incentive to save is that far gone,
civilization will have reverted back
to the hunter society of primitive man.
It would seem, then, that the claim of one renowed person who said,
"Only well-fed people can be free,"
could more accurately be stated in reverse:
Only free people can be well-fed."
F.A. Harper
Liberty: A Path to Its Recovery, 1949.
May the smoke be with you.
Bob Hart
Heat & Smoke: Mastering the Dark Art of Real Barbecue, 2011
[T]he power which a . . . millionaire, who may be
Under a system of free markets,
Conservatism, though a necessary element in any stable society,
To think justly
The greatest offence against virtue
The more one's vocabulary
Wherever they burn books
The price of freedom is the willingness
The clerk . . . endorsed and stamped their papers.
"Frank," remarked Jim when Smythe was gone,
He closed his eyes
"You're not a stranger;
Individuals are kind and decent . . .
"You were a tramp, weren't you . . . ?"
Government is a dirty business.
Oh, "tanstaafl." Means "There ain't no such thing
I don't argue with lasers;
It is not written in the stars
Detailed instructions
Detailed instructions
Authoritarian governmental approaches
The universe is change;
I order you to hold a free election,
A man begins to die,
Old wine and an old friend
One sword keeps another
Every mile
A sweet disorder in the dress
Distrust any speaker who talks confidently about "we,"
It is a deformity in some "radicals"
In markets the situation is just the opposite [from politics].
The first thing naturally
If there is any principle of the Constitution
The main part of intellectual education
Change is not made without inconvenience,
Ira furor brevis est.
You may drive out nature with a pitchfork,
"Howdy there, good looking," he said.
"What the hell was that?" Lloyd asked. "An Alien?"
A thief believes
Who draws his sword against his prince
A book on cheap paper
Greater than the tread of mighty armies
So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons,
Every great advance
If a little knowledge is dangerous,
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
The purification of politics
Happiness is the legal tender of the soul.
The more a man knows,
I am here tonight for the purpose
The true civilization is where every man
I am the inferior
What light is to the eyes-
The sorrow for the dead
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
Every man who has been in office a few years
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation,
We was Robbed!
It takes a great deal of history
The art of being wise
I contemplate with sovereign reverence
I had rather be shut up
I have never been able to conceive
I join those in opinion
Never has so much false arithmetic
I cannot live without books.
[F]orce, the vital principle
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions,
If a nation expects
The boisterous sea of liberty
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted
It is error alone
Cold is the source of more suffering to all animal nature
I own I am not a friend
The hole and the patch
I have the consolation of having added nothing
That these United Colonies are,
Force cannot give right.
An honest man can feel no pleasure
But though an old man
Reason and free enquiry
I would rather be exposed
We are not to expect
Error of opinion may be tolerated
Were we directed from Washington
The first casualty when war comes
Curiosity is one of the most
A cucumber should be well sliced,
Among the calamities of war
Curiosity is,
Nothing will ever be attempted,
No man was ever great
Curiosity is one of the permanent
The greatest part of a writer's time is spend in reading,
in order to write;
I have not yet begun to fight.
My opinion is, that power should always be distrusted,
To teach is to learn twice.
Rather let the crime of the guilty
But who is to guard
What man was ever content with one crime?
Juvenal in Satires, circa 120
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
The key to fostering connection
At every step the child should be allowed
[W]ine is only sweet
The proper antidote to bigotry, then,
Why does it matter for Objectivists
Never too late to learn.
Politicians are the same all over.
All good people agree,
Our England is a garden and such gardens are not made
How is the world ruled
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
"That's the trouble with crime."
[B]uzzards have a pact
If one has a book, Mr. Boone,
Goodness does not more certainly
Two men look out through the same bars:
Liberty and transparency are not the culprits.
Adopting a socialist system
One thing that doesn't abide by majority rule
A citizen, first in war,
To preserve liberty,
"That these United Colonies are,
Better counsel comes overnight.
Although volume upon volume is written
No man is good enough to govern another man
Authority has every reason
Nature does not proceed
No crime is founded
It is one thing to show a man that he is in error,
The love of learning,
Art is long
Day by day he gazed upon her,
When once the itch of literature
Folks never understand
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen
Folks never understand
The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught,
Yoda: I am wondering, why are you here?
Night hath a thousand eyes.
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Nothing is so useless
In every age
Men are never so likely
The reluctant obedience of distant provinces
The gallery in which the reporters sit
There is an old saying among the Oaxacanos:
I thundered hot water into the big tub,
But the other vitality is still there,
That's why they can never make it.
Dream good dreams.
I read a great deal.
[I]t isn't foolish or wicked
The next time you are tempted
Of all the enemies to public liberty
I believe there are more instances
They do me wrong who say I come no more
Did you ever
There’s no getting blood
Morality cannot exist one minute without freedom. . . .
Syrio Florel: You are fearing for your father, hmmm?
He had heard people
Follow your inclinations
If a nation values anything more than freedom,
Why is our government
Fuzzy language causes
A half hour with Thomas Jefferson
While I'm a great believer in karate, judo, and other variations
Half-heartedness
my neighbor and perhaps my employer,
has over me is very much less
than that which the smallest functionaire possesses
who wields the coercive power of the state
and on whose discretion it depends whether and how
I am to be allowed to live or to work . . ."
F.A. Hayek
each consumer makes his own choices.
Under planning, at least some choices must be subject to the ‘general will’.
In making these choices,
the planners will inevitably impose a code of values on the rest of the populace.
Whatever choices are finally made,
some members of the society will be made better off and some worse off.
Since planners are political appointees who wish to retain power,
they will seek ways to justify the choices that they have made.
Those who support their choices will be rewarded,
and those who oppose them will be sanctioned:
“Planning becomes necessarily a planning in favour of some and against others.”
In this way authoritarian government
tends inevitably to expand beyond the economic and into the political domain.
Liberty ends up being sacrificed,
even under forms of socialism that may have started out as democratic.
Only if democracy is allied with the freedom of choice that inheres in a free market system
will it have some hope of survival.
F.A. Hayek
Socialism and War, 1997.
is not a social program;
in its paternalistic, nationalistic, and power-adoring tendencies
it is often closer to socialism than true liberalism;
and with its traditionalistic, anti-intellectual, and often mystical propensities
it will never, except in short periods of disillusionment,
appeal to the young and all those others
who believe that some changes are desirable
if this world is to become a better place.
Friedrich A. Hayek
The Road to Serfdom, 1944
we must understand what others mean;
to know the value of our thoughts,
we must try their effect on other minds.
William Hazlitt
The Plain Speaker, 1826
is to speak ill of it.
William Hazlitt
Sketches and Essays, 1839.
and writing (and reading)
ability increases . . .
the more one will use the dictionary!
Walter H. Head
A Born-Again View of Religion Versus A Philosophy of Thinking in Principles, 2001
they will also, in the end,
burn human beings.
Heinrich Heine
Almansor, 1823
to do sudden battle,
everywhere, anytime,
and with utter recklessness.
Robert A. Heinlein
Double Star, 1956
He stuck them in the stat machine, then handed them back.
"That'll be five pounds."
Pollux converted the figure in his head and swore under his breath;
he was beginning to think that Mars
was the Land of the Fee.
Robert A. Heinlein
The Rolling Stones, 1952.
"there is something about that guy I don't like."
. . .
"He reminds me of something Doc used to say.
'Every law that was ever written
opened up a new way to graft.'"
Robert A Heinlein
Red Planet, 1949.
and was asleep
before he could get his worries organized.
Robert A. Heinlein
Farnham's Freehold, 1964
you're an old friend
we haven't know very long."
Robert A. Heinlein
Friday, 1982
as individuals and to other individuals.
Eve is in no danger from her neighbors and friends,
and I am in no danger from mine.
But she is in danger from my neighbors and friends--
and I from hers.
Robert A Heinlein
Methuselah's Children, 1958.
"Not a tramp," Thomas corrected gently, "a hobo."
"Sorry--what's the distinction?"
"A tramp is a bum, a parasite, a man that won't work.
A hobo is an itenerant laborer
who prefers casual freedom
to security.
He works for his living,
but won't be tied down to one environment."
Robert A. Heinlein
Sixth Column, 1949
Robert A. Heinlein
Friday, 1982
as a free lunch."
Robert A Heinlein
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, 1966
you can neither bribe them
nor sweet-talk them.
Robert A. Heinlein
Friday, 1982
that I will always understand what is going on--
a truism that I often find damnably annoying.
Robert A. Heinlein
Friday, 1982
are the death
of initiative.
Robert A. Heinlein
Sixth Column, 1949
are the death
of initiative.
Robert A. Heinlein
Sixth Column, 1949
hamper problem-solving abilities.
They typically involve one-size-fits-all solutions
like travel bans and mask mandates.
Once governments adopt coercive policies,
power-hungry bureaucrats
often spout an official party line
and suppress dissent, no matter the evidence,
and impose further sanctions to punish
those who don’t fall in line.
Once coercion is set in motion,
it’s hard to backtrack.
David R. Henderson and Charles L. Hooper
“Coercion Made the Pandemic Worse,” in The Wall Street Journal, December 28, 2021.
our life is what our thoughts make it.
Chang Heng
Meditations,circa 78 -139 A.D.
but forbid you to elect anyone but Richard my clerk.
Henry II
Writ to electors of the See of Winchester
regarding the election of a new bishop. 1173
that quits his desires.
George Herbert
Outlandish Proverbs, 1640.
are good provisions.
George Herbert
Jacula Prudentum, 1651
in the sheath.
George Herbert
Jacula Prudentum, 1651.
is two in winter.
George Herbert
Jacula Prudentum, Published posthumously in 1652.
Kindles in clothes a wantonness.
Robert Herrick
"Delight in Disorder," in
Hesperides; or the Works both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick, 1648
or speaks in the name of "us."
Distrust yourself if you hear these tones
creeping into your own style.
The search for security and majority
is not always the same as solidarity;
it can be another name for
consensus and tyranny and tribalism
Christopher Hitchens
letters to a young contrarian, 2001
to imagine that, once they have found
the lowest or meanest motive
for an action or for a person,
they have correctly identified
the authentic or "real" one.
Many a purge or show trial
has gotten merrily under way in this manner.
Christopher Hitchens
Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, 2006
People cooperate only when they gain from trade
on some specific good or service.
When a person buys gasoline at a filling station, for example,
whether the gas station attendant favors higher or lower taxes
is irrelevant to the transaction.
Similarly, nobody enters a transaction at a department store
contingent on whether the cashier has
the same views on abortion as the purchaser.
The only relevant issues are whether the purchaser wants to make the particular purchase
and whether the seller is willing to sell.
Nobody asks, or even cares,
about the political views of those with whom they do business.
Their interests simply are to complete the transaction
as easily as possible.
Market exchange, by its very nature, fosters cooperation,
even among people who disagree about almost everything.
Randy Holcombe
Liberty in Peril: Democracy and Power in American History, 2019.
when one enters a scholar's study or library,
is to look at his books.
One gets a notion very speedily
of his tastes and the range of his pursuits
by a glance round his bookshelves.
Oliver Wendel Holmes
The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, 1872
that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other
it is the principle of free thought--
not free thought for those who agree with us
but freedom for the thought we hate.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S. 644, 654, 73 L.Ed. 889, 893, 49 S. Ct. 448 (1929).
is not the acquisition of facts
but learning how to make facts live.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Speech, Harvard Law School Association, November 5, 1886
even from worse to better.
Richard Hooker
Preface to English Dictionary, 1580.
Anger is a short madness.
Horace, 65 to 8 B.C.E.
yet she'll be constantly running back.
Horace
Epistles, 20 B.C.E.
She cocked an eyebrow at him.
"You greet all the women that way?"
"Pretty much," he said.
"I cast a wide net."
"What the hell you want?"
Lloyd frowned.
"Ain't much of a conversationalist are you?"
"Nope. Pretty much anyone that knows me would agree."
"We'll need to work on that," he said.
"I like a woman who chuckles at witticisms."
Franklin Horton
No Time for Mourning, 2017.
"A drone," Jim replied.
"I definitely think it's the cops.
They must be using that drone to do recon."
"For what?"
"To look for resources and see what people are up to.
It's a hell of a lot safer for them to send that drone out
than to let officers go knocking on people's doors
under the current circumstances.
Someone would probably get shot.
It also uses less fuel."
"That Big Brother stuff makes me paranoid.
I was happier thinking it was an alien," Lloyd said.
Franklin Horton
Legion of Despair, 2016
everybody steals.
Edgar Watson Howe
Country Town Sayings, 1911
must throw away his scabbard.
James Howell
Proverbs, 1659
does not convince.
Elbert Hubbard
The Philistine, 1885 to 1915
is an idea whose time has come.
Victor Hugo
Histoire d'un Crime, 1852
Caesars and Napoleons will duly rise
and make them miserable.
Aldous Huxley
Ends and Means, 1937
in natural knowledge
has involved the absolute rejection
of authority.
T.H. Huxley
Lay Sermons, 1870
where is the man who has so much
as to be out of danger?
T.H. Huxley
"On Elemental Instruction in Physiology," 1877
is an iridescent dream.
Government is force.
John James Ingalls
Article in the New York World, 1890
Joy is wealth.
Robert G. Ingersoll
"The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child, " 1877
the more willing he is to learn--
the less a man knows,
the more positive he is
that he knows everything.
Robert Ingersoll
"On Learning and Genius," in
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Dresden Edition, Volume Twelve. 1900.
of defending your right
to differ with me.
I want to convince you that you are under no compulsion
to accept my creed; that you are,
so far as I am concerned,
absolutely free to follow
the torch of your reason according to your conscience;
and I believe that you are civilized
to that degree that you will extend to me
the right that you claim for yourselves.
Robert G. Ingersoll
"Free Speech and Honest Talk," 1888
gives to every other
every right that he claims
for himself.
Robert G. Ingersoll
Interview in The Washington Post, November 14, 1880
of any man
whose rights
I trample under foot.
Robert G. Ingersoll
Prose-Poems and Selections, 1884
what air is to the lungs-
what love is to the heart,
liberty is to the soul of man.
Robert Ingersoll
Progress.
is the only sorrow
from which we refuse
to be divorced.
Washington Irving
"Rural Funerals," from, The Sketch-Book, 1819-1820
believes he has a life estate in it, a vested right.
This is not the principle of our government.
It is a rotation in office that will perpetuate our liberty.
Andrew Jackson
Journal, May-June 1829.
it is that no official,
high or petty,
can prescribe what shall be orthodox
in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion
or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.
If there are any circumstances which permit an exception,
they do not now occur to us.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson
West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642 (1943).
Joe Jacobs
Shouted into the microphone by Max Schmeling's manager
in protest of the decision in the heavyweight title fight
between Max Schmeling and Jack Sharkey, June 21, 1932.
to produce a little literature.
Henry James
Hawthorne, 1879
is the art of knowing what to overlook.
William James
Principles of Phsychology, 1890
that act of the whole American people
which declared that their legislature
would make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibit the free exercise thereof,
thus building a wall of separation
between church and state.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to the Baptists of Danbury, connecticut, 1802
in a very modest cottage
with my books, my family and a few old friends . . .
than to occupy the most splendid post
which any human power can give.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to A. Donald, 1788
how any rational being
could propose happiness to himself
from the exercise of power over others.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to M.D. Tracy, 1811
who think a Bill of Rights necessary.
Thomas Jefferson
letter to Edward Rutledge, 1788
[been] employed on any subject
as that which has been employed
to persuade nations it is in their interest
to go to war.
Thomas Jefferson
Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to John Adams, June 10, 1815
and immediate parent
of despotism.
Thomas Jefferson
First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801
that I wish it to be always kept alive.
It will often be exercised when wrong
but better so than not to be exercised at all.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to Abigail Adams, February 22, 1787
to be ignorant and free,
in a state of civilization,
it expects what never was
and never will be.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to Col. Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816
is never without a wave.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to Richard Rush, October 20, 1820
with the government of himself.
Can he, then, be trusted
with the government of others?
Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him?
Let history answer this question.
Thomas Jefferson
First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801.
which needs the support of government.
Truth can stand by itself.
Thomas Jefferson
Notes on the State of Virginia, 1787
than hunger, thirst, sickness,
and all the other pains of life and of death itself put together.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to William Dunbar, January, 1801.
to a very energetic government.
It is always oppressive.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to James Madison, December 20, 1787.
should be commensurate.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to James Madison, June 20, 1787
to my private fortune during my public service,
and of retiring with hands
as clean as they are empty.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to Count Diodati, 1807
and of Right ought to be
Free and Independent States;
that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown,
and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain,
is and ought to be totally dissolved.
Thomas Jefferson
Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
Thomas Jefferson
Draft of Instructions to the Virginia Delegates
in the Continental Congress, August, 1774.
in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to John McLish, January 13, 1813.
I am but a young gardener.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to Charles W. Peale, 1811
are the only effectual agents against error.
Thomas Jefferson
Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781-1783
to the inconveniences attending too much liberty
than those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to Archibald Stuart, December 23, 1791.
to be translated from despotism to liberty
in a featherbed.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to Lafayette April 2, 1790.
where reason is left free to combat it.
Thomas Jefferson
First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801
when to sow and when to reap,
we should soon want bread.
Thomas Jefferson
Autobiography, 1853
is truth.
Hiram Warren Johnson
Speech, US Senate, 1917
permanent and certain characteristics
of a vigorous intellect.
Samuel Johnson
"Rambler," no. 103, March, 1751
and dressed with pepper and vinegar,
and then thrown out,
as good for nothing.
Samuel Johnson
Boswell: Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, October 5, 1773
may be justly numbered
the diminution of the love of truth
by the falsehoods which interest dictates
and credulity encourages.
Samuel Johnson
The Idler, November 11, 1758
in great and generous minds,
the first passion
and the last.
Samuel Johnson
The Rambler, 1751
if all possible objections
must be first overcome.
Samuel Johnson
Rasselas, 1759
by imitation.
Samuel Johnson
Rasselas, 1759.
and certain characteristics
of a vigorous mind.
Samuel Johnson
The Rambler, 1751
a man will turn over half a library to make one book.
Samuel Johnson
Boswell's Life, 1775.
John Paul Jones
aboard the Bonhomme Richard.
September 23, 1779.
in whatever hands it is placed.
Sir William Jones
Letter to Lord Althorpe. October 5, 1782.
Joseph Joubert
Pensees, 1842.
go unpunished
than condemn the innocent.
Justinian I
Law Code, 535 A. D.
the guards?
Juvenal
Satires, circa 115
in the face of a "no"
is to remember that
"no" is always "yes" to something else
and, as such, it is the beginning,
not the end of a conversation.
Inbal Kashtan
Parenting from Your Heart, 2005
to meet the real experiences of life:
the thorns should never be plucked from his roses.
Ellen Key
The Century of the Child, 1906.
to happy men.
John Keats
"What Can I Do to Drive Away," 1819
is rationality, including the commitment
to a fully conceptual mode of functioning.
How else could one come to understand the injustice of discriminating
among people on the basis of morally irrelevant characteristics?
How else could one understand trade
as the proper principle for human relationships,
and benevolence as a precondition for trade?
David Kelley
Unrugged Individualism: The Selfish Basis of Benevolence, 2003
to recognize benevolence as a major virtue?
It matters because of the importance to us
of the values we gain from others:
economic exchange, the communication of knowledge,
and the reaffirmation of our own identity.
These are all forms of trade among individuals,
and to live by trade requires
benevolence as well as justice.
David Kelley
Unrugged Individualism: The Selfish Basis of Benevolence, 2003.
James Kelly
Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs, 1721.
They promise to build a bridge
even where there is no river.
Nikita Khrushchev
Comments to press, October, 1960
And all good people say,
All nice people, like Us, are We
And every one else is They.
Rudyard Kipling
"We and They," 1926
By singing "Oh, how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade.
Rudyard Kipling
The Glory of the Garden, 1911.
and how do wars start?
Diplomats tell lies to journalists
and then believe what they read.
Karl Kraus
Aphorisms and More Aphorisms, 1909
He smiled.
"The company's bad."
Louis L'Amour
The Ferguson Rifle, 1973
with death.
Louis L'Amour
The Broken Gun 1966
one is never alone.
They will talk to you when you want to listen,
and when you tire of what they are saying,
you just close the book.
It will be waiting for you
when you come back to it.
Louis L'Amour
The Cherokee Trail 1982
make men happy
than happiness
makes them good.
Walter Savage Landor
Imaginary Conversations, 1824
One sees the mud,
and one the stars.
Frederick Langbridge
A Cluster of Quiet Thoughts, 1896
It is the walls against trade, the walls that impede the flow of goods and ideas,
that preserve poverty and prevent growth.
If you want to get rid of the big injustices,
if you want to bring better opportunities –
for all the inhabitants of the globe –
you’ve got to pull those walls down.
Tomas Larsson
The Race to the Top, 2001.
is like turning your whole economy
into a giant Department of Motor Vehicles.
Robert Lawsom and Benjamin Powell
Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World, 2019
is a person's conscience.
Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960
first in peace,
and first in the hearts of his countrymen.
Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee
Resolutions Adopted by the Congress on the Death of Washington, December 19, 1799
it is essential that the whole body of the people
always possess arms,
and be taught alike,
especially when young,
how to use them. . . ."
Richard Henry Lee
Letters from the Federalist Farmer, 1787
and of right ought to be,
free and independent states."
Richard Henry Lee, Delegate from Virginia.
Motion before the Continental Congress, Philadelphia, Pa., June 7, 1776.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Emilia Galotti, 1772
to prove slavery a very good thing,
we never hear of the man
who wishes to take the good of it,
by being a slave himself.
Abraham Lincoln
Notes, July 1, 1854
without that other's consent.
Abraham Lincoln
Speech, in Peoria, October 16, 1854.
to fear the skeptic;
for authority can rarely survive
in the face of doubt.
Robert Lindner
Must You Conform? 1956
by leaps.
Linnaeus (Carl Von Linne)
Philosophia Botanica, 17--.
upon reason.
Livy
History of Rome, circa 10 B.C.
and another to put him in possession of truth.
John Locke
An Essay concerning Human Understanding, 1690.
the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Masque of Pandora, 1875
and time is fleeting.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A Psalm of Life, 1839
Day by day he sighed with passion,
Day by day his heart within him
Grew more hot with love and longing.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Hiawatha, II, 1855.
comes over a man,
nothing can cure it
but the scratching of a pen.
Samuel Lover
Handy Andy, 1842
the folks they hate.
James Russell Lowell
The Biglow Papers, 1867
from one to another mind.
James Russell Lowell
North American Review, July, 1849
the folks they hate.
James Russell Lowell
The Bigelow Papers: Series II, 1886.
as that every child should be given the wish to learn.
John Lubbock (Lord Avebury)
The Pleasures of Life, 1887
Luke: I'm looking for someone.
Yoda: Looking? Found someone, you have, I would say, hmmm?
Luke: Right...
Yoda: Help you I can. Yes, mmmm.
Luke: I don't think so. I'm looking for a great warrior.
Yoda: Ohhh. Great warrior.
[laughs and shakes his head]
Yoda: Wars not make one great.
George Lucas
The Empire Strikes Back, 1980
John Lyly
Maides Metamorphose, 1600
as a general maxim.
Lord Macaulay
Machiavelli, 1827
the vilest specimens of human nature
are to be found
among demagogues.
Lord Macaulay
History of England, 1849.
to settle a question rightly
as when they discuss it freely.
Lord Macaulay
"Southey's Coloquies on Society," 1830.
generally costs more than it is worth.
Lord Macaulay
Historical Essays Contributed to the 'Edenburgh Review,' 1828
has become a fourth estate of the realm.
Lord Macaulay
"Hallam's Constitutional History," in Historical Essays Contributed to the "Edinburgh Review,"
1828.
The most bitter remorse
is for the sins one did not commit.
John D. MacDonald
Dress Her in Indigo, 1969
setting up McGee's Handy Home Treatment for Melancholy.
A deep hot bath,
and a strong cold drink,
and a book on the tub rack.
John D. MacDonald
A Deadly Shade of Gold, 1965
that rancorous, sardonic, wonderful insistence
on the right to dissent, to question, to object,
to raise holy hell and,
in direst extremity,
to laugh the self-appointed squad leaders
off the face of the earth with great whoops
of dirty, disdainful glee.
Suppress friction and a machine runs fine.
Suppress friction, and a society runs down.
John D. MacDonald
A Deadly Shade of Gold, 1965
They kill off the good ones.
They gut their dreamers.
Their drab stone discipline is a celebration of mediocrity.
If we can restrain ourselves
from killing off our own rebels,
our doubters and dreamers,
all in the name of making ourselves strong,
then we can prevail.
But if we use their methods,
then any victory will be but victory
of one iron symbol over another,
and mankind will have lost the battle
whichever way it goes.
John D. MacDonald
A Deadly Shade of Gold, 1965
John D. MacDonald
Nightmare in Pink, 1964
It's the only way we have
to lead more lives than one.
John D. MacDonald
Nightmare in Pink, 1964
to enjoy.
Wickedness
is hurting people
on purpose.
John D. MacDonald
Nightmare in Pink, 1964
to snap at someone
or cut in front of another driver,
consider whether you'd like to be in their story that evening.
Consider whether this is the kind of contribution
you'd like to make to their life.
Mary Mackenzie
Peaceful Living: Daily Meditations for Living with Love, Healing and Compassion, 2005
war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded
because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.
War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes.
And armies, and debts, and taxes
are the known instruments
for bringing the many under the domination of the few.
James Madison
Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Volume IV, page 491, "Political Obseervations," April 20, 1795
of the abridgment
of the freedom of the people
by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power
than by violent and sudden usurpations.
James Madison
Speech at the Virginia Convention June 16, 1788.
When once I knock and fail to find you in;
For every day I stand outside your door
And bid you wake, and rise to fight and win.
Walter Malone, Opportunity.
notice that when
a politician
does get an idea
he usually
gets it all wrong.
Don Marquis
Archy's Life of Mehitabel, 1933
out of a turnip.
Frederick Marryat
Japhet in Search of a Father, 1836
Only a free man can possibly be moral.
Unless a good deed is voluntary,
it has no moral significance.
Everett Dean Martin
Liberty, 1930
That is right.
Do you pray to the gods?
Arya Stark: The old and the new.
Syrio Florel: There is only one god
and his name is Death,
and there is only one thing we say to Death:
"Not today."
George R.R. Martin
Game of Thrones, 1996
speak contemptuously of money:
he wondered if they had ever tried
to live without it.
W. Somerset Maugham
Of Human Bondage, 1915
with due regard to the policeman round the corner.
W. Somerset Maugham
Of Human Bondage, 1915.
it will lose its freedom;
and the irony of it is
that if it is comfort or money that it values more,
it will lose that too.
W. Somerset Maugham
Strictly Personal, 1941
so often dimwitted, slow and wasteful?
Because the Founders planned it that way,
thank heavens.
Richard J. Maybury
Whatever Happened to Justice?, 1993
fuzzy thinking.
Richard J. Maybury
Whatever Happened to Penny Candy, 2000
is more enlightening
than a week with anyone else I know,
except maybe James Madison or Patrick Henry.
Richard J. Maybury
Whatever Happened to Justice?, 1993
on the theme of unarmed combat,
nothing is quite as effective
in discouraging the unfriendlies of the world
as a blue steel sidearm.
A.E. Maxwell
Just Another Day in Paradise, 1985