General Quotes
Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth. -- Chuck Norris
The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude. -- William James
"Probably personal responsibility," she replied, explaining that this means "taking responsibility for your behavior and your expenditures and your actions, and not forever supposing that society must forgive you because it's not your fault." -- Historian Barbara Tuchman when asked what she thought was needed in the 21st century
Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity and the burden of choice; it also means that he must bear the consequences of his actions and will receive praise or blame for them. -- Friedrich August Hayek
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do the something I can do. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. -- Helen Keller
Some people mistake weakness for tact. If they are silent when they ought to speak and so feign an agreement they do not feel, they call it being tactful. Cowardice would be a much better name. Tact is an active quality that is not exercised by merely making a dash for cover. Be sure, when you think you are being extremely tactful, that you are not in reality running away from something you ought to face. -- Sir Frank Medlicott
Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all things are at risk. It is as when a conflagration has broken out in a great city, and no man knows what is safe, or where it will end. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Circles
Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them. -- Samuel Butler (1835-1902)
We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. -- Benjamin Franklin, July 4th, 1776
First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst. -- Dale Carnegie
The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money. -- Thomas Jefferson
Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the quality that guarantees all others. -- Winston Churchill
Life is a constant; it is our reaction to it that is the variable. -- Will Spencer
Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. -- Mark Twain
The notion that the church, the press, and the universities should serve the state is essentially a Communist notion ... In a free society these institutions must be wholly free -- which is to say that their function is to serve as checks upon the state. -- Alan Barth
Push out a bayonet. If it strikes fat, push deeper. If it strikes iron, pull back for another day. -- V. I. Lenin, May 1922
In the mirrors of many judgements, my hands are the color of blood. I am a part of the evil which exists to oppose other evils. ... on that Great Day of which the prophets speak but in which they do not truly believe, on that day when the world is completely cleansed of evil, then I, too, will go down into darkness, swallowing curses. Perhaps even sooner than that, I now judge. But whatever... Until that time, I shall not wash my hands nor let them hang useless. -- Roger Zelazny, The Guns of Avalon
The greatest argument against Nihilism may be it's adherents. -- Will Spencer
Those who don't read the newspapers are better off than those who do insofar as those who know nothing are better off than those whose heads are filled with half-truths and lies. -- Thomas Jefferson
If I knew for certain that a man was coming to my house to do me good, I would run for my life. -- Henry David Thoreau
Hate is a luxury of the idle. -- Will Spencer
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. -- Robert A. Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure. -- Mark Twain, Notebook, 1887
Language was invented for communications; to allow us to avoid the terrible feeling of loneliness created by the reality that we are the first and only species to comprehend our own existence. -- Will Spencer
The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thinking well is wise; planning well, wiser; doing well, wisest and best of all. -- Persian proverb
Always do what you say you are going to do. It is the glue and fiber that binds successful relationships. -- Jeffry A. Timmons
A "no" uttered from the deepest conviction is better and greater than a "yes" merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble. -- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. -- Abraham Lincoln
The more he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thomas Jefferson's Decalogue
- Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
- Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
- Never spend your money before you have it.
- Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
- Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
- We never repent of having eaten too little.
- Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
- How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
- Take things always by their smooth handle.
- When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.
The graveyards are full of indispensable men. -- Charles de Gaulle
It everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn't thinking. -- General George S. Patton
In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of. -- Confucius
Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. -- Albert Einstein
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. -- Henry David Thoreau
A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular. -- Adlai Stevenson
The rights you have are the rights given you by this Committee [the House Un-American Activities Committee]. We will determine what rights you have and what rights you have not got. -- J. Parnell Thomas
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else. -- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice. And . . . moderation in the pursuit of Justice is no virtue. -- Barry Goldwater
Moderation in temper is always a virtue, but moderation in principle is always a vice. -- Thomas Paine
There's so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets? -- Dick Cavett
I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus, building a wall of separation between Church and State. -- Thomas Jefferson, 1802, quoted in Andrew A. Lipscomb's Writings 16:281
Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant. -- James Madison
The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. -- John Adams, 1797, quoted in Hunter Miller's Treaties 2:365
Organization! Hell! I'm the organization! ... Hell! There ain't no rules around here! We are trying to accomplish some'pn'. -- Thomas Alva Edison, when asked what rules he ran his laboratory organization by; Wachhorst, Wyn, Thomas Alva Edison, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1981, pp. 180-83; cited in The Freeman, June 1992.
It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt. -- John Philpot Curran, Speech upon the Right of Election (1790)
The Social Security Act does not require an individual (citizen) to have a Social Security number to live and work within the United States, nor does it require an SSN simply for the purpose of having one.... -- Vincent Sanudo, Social Security Administration
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty - power is ever stealing from the many to the few. -- Wendell Phillips in his speech to the Mass. Antislavery Soceity in 1852.
First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me -- Pastor Martin Niemoeller, from the Kirchenverwaltung der Evangelischen Kirche in Hessen and Darmstadt
Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. -- Robert A. Heinlein
(What is good in life?) To crush your enemies, to drive them before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women. - Conan in Conan the Barbarian
Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. -- Winston Churchill
The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions, whom we shall welcome to participate in all of our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment. -- George Washington.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. -- Abraham Lincoln
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them. -- Malcolm Forbes
In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. -- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
There's nothing in the middle of the road but a yellow stripe and dead armadillos. -- Jim Hightower, Texas Agricultural Commissioner
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The history of the world is but the biography of heroes. -- Thomas Carlyle
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man -- Mark Twain
Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes. -- Benjamin Disraeli
It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid; to think and act for myself; enjoy the benefits of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, - This I have done, and this is what it means to be an American. -- John Wayne
There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. -- J. Robert Oppenheimer
Science never tells a man how he should act; it merely shows how a man must act if he wants to attain definite ends. -- Ludwig von Mises, Human Action
In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. -- Galileo Galilei
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. -- Andre Gide
Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded, and the amount of eccentricity in a society has been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. -- John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), On Liberty, Chapter 3
One should respect public opinion insofar as it is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny. -- Bertrand Russell
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats. -- Howard Aiken
The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. -- John Gilmore
Everybody has asked the question ... "What shall we do with the Negro?" I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! -- Frederick Douglass, What the Black Man Wants
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. -- William James
When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food. -- Erasmus
Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions. Frank Lloyd Wright, architect (1867-1959)
He who dares not to offend cannot be honest. -- Thomas Paine
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. -- Voltaire, 1764
Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless. -- Thomas Alva Edison
What thinking rational human being has never been in conflict with his Gods? -- Will Spencer
Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil. -- Robert A. Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
The greatest open-minded idea I'm aware of is to know that one does not know what is best for others, whether it's in economic, social, or moral policy, or in the affairs of other nations. Believing one knows what is best for others represents the greatest example of a closed mind. -- Ron Paul, "A Wise Consistency"
He who acts under an emotional impulse also acts. What distinguishes an emotional action from other actions is the valuation of input and output. Emotions disarrange valuations. Inflamed with passion, man sees the goal as more desirable and the price he has to pay for it as less burdensome than he would in cool deliberation. -- Ludwig von Mises, Human Action
Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man's genetic lineage—the notion that a man's intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors. Racism claims that the content of a man's mind (not his cognitive apparatus, but its content) is inherited; that a man's convictions, values and character are determined before he is born, by physical factors beyond his control. This is the caveman's version of the doctrine of innate ideas-or of inherited knowledge—which has been thoroughly refuted by philosophy and science. Racism is a doctrine of, by and for brutes. It is a barnyard or stock-farm version of collectivism, appropriate to a mentality that differentiates between various breeds of animals, but not between animals and men. Like every form of determinism, racism invalidates the specific attribute which distinguishes man from all other living species: his rational faculty. Racism negates two aspects of man's life: reason and choice, or mind and morality, replacing them with chemical predestination. -- Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness
Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions. -- Gilbert K. Chesterton
The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. -- Hubert Humphrey
I know a lot of you believe that most people in the news business are liberal. Let me tell you, I know a lot of them, and they were almost evenly divided this time. Half of them liked Senator Kerry; the other half hated President Bush. -- Andy Rooney
At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child - miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats. -- P.J. O'Rourke
I studied the lives of great men and famous women, and I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm. --Henry Truman
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