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Quotes gathered from around the net.
Comments, questions, cookie recipes? E-mail me! (frodo at thepaytons dot org) Considerettes in the news: UPI << Return to "Consider This!" Considerable Quotes for your PDA My other blog Considerettes 
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Wednesday, December 06, 2006
"I think, myself, that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. I believe it might be much simplified to the relief of those who maintain it." -- Thomas Jefferson to William Ludlow, 1824. Wednesday, March 15, 2006
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. -- John Stuart Mill Monday, February 27, 2006
“Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and the courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself." -- Joseph Pulitzer, 1904 Friday, May 06, 2005
"In denying the right they usurp of exclusively explaining the constitution, I go further than you do, if I understand rightly your quotation from the Federalist, of an opinion that "the judiciary is the last resort in relation to the other departments of the government, but not in relation to the rights of the parties to the compact under which the judiciary is derived." If this opinion be sound, then indeed is our constitution a complete felo de se. For intending to establish three departments, co-ordinate and independent, that they might check and balance one another, it has given, according to this opinion, to one of them alone, the right to prescribe rules for the government of the others, and to that one too, which is unelected by, and independent of the nation. For experience has already shown that the impeachment it has provided is not even a scarecrow; that such opinions as the one you combat, sent cautiously out, as you observe also, by detachment, not belonging to the case often, but sought for out of it, as if to rally the public opinion beforehand to their views, and to indicate the line they are to walk in, have been so quietly passed over as never to have excited animadversion, even in a speech of any one of the body entrusted with impeachment. The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist, and shape into any form they please. It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also; in theory only, at first, while the spirit of the people is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes. Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass. They are inherently independent of all but moral law." -- Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Spencer Roane, Sept. 6, 1819. Friday, April 22, 2005
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence. It is force, and like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." -- George Washington "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" -- Benjamin Franklin Friday, February 04, 2005
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
"You cannot become thorough Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. America does not consist of groups. A man who thinks of himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American." -- Woodrow Wilson Monday, November 01, 2004
As the old saying goes: You can rent peace through appeasement, but you can't buy it. And, if that's not an old saying, it should be." -- Rich Galen Friday, October 29, 2004
"Any attempt to replace a personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism." -- Herman Hesse Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Any journalist who starts mistaking himself for an oracle needs to be reminded who he is from time to time. -- Andrew Sullivan "The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves." -- William Channing Wednesday, August 11, 2004
"Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong." -- John G. Diefenbaker, former Canadian PM, March 11, 1958 Friday, June 11, 2004
On this day of memorial for President Ronald Reagan, here are some great quotes assembled by R. C. Varga from "Food for Weekend Thought" “Republicans believe every day is 4th of July, but Democrats believe every day is April 15.” “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit.” “I know it's hard when you're up to your armpits in alligators to remember you came here to drain the swamp.” “Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.” “Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.” “The United States remains the last best hope for a mankind plagued by tyranny and deprivation. America is no stronger than its people - and that means you and me. Well, I believe in you, and I believe that if we work together then one day we will say, ‘We fought the good fight. We finished the race We kept the faith.’ And to our children and our children's children we can say, ‘We did all that could be done in the brief time that was given to us here on earth’.” “Our coins bear the words 'In God We Trust'. We take the oath of office asking His help in keeping that oath. And we proclaim that we are a nation under God when we pledge allegiance to the flag. But we can't mention His name in a public school or even sing religious hymns that are nondenominational. Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeers, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer if a student asked why it was called Christmas.” “Putting people first has always been America’s secret weapon. It’s the way we’ve kept the spirit of our revolutions alive—a spirit that drives us to dream and dare, and take great risks for a greater good. “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.” “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” “You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.” “Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, 'What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power.' But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.” “Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” “The size of the federal budget is not an appropriate barometer of social conscience or charitable concern.” “We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for 8 years did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.” (Farewell Address to the Nation, January 20th, 1989) “In closing, let me thank you, the American people, for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your president. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that day may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future. I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead. -- Ronald Reagan Tuesday, June 08, 2004
"History tells us that appeasement does not lead to peace. It invites an aggressor to test the will of a nation unprepared to meet that test. And...those who seemingly want peace the most, our young people, pay the heaviest price for our failure to maintain our strength." -- Ronald Reagan Tuesday, May 04, 2004
"America knows now what multilateralism boils down to: There's no point pooling resources with people who have no resources to pool. There's no point getting together and forming a whole that's less than the sum of your individual part." -- Mark Steyn, from his book "The Face of the Tiger", as quoted on Right Wing News "The west won't work if every country's Canada and every leader's Trudeau. The only thing that enables Belgium to be Belgium and Norway to be Norway and Britain to be Britain is the fact that America's America -- for all the reasons my Spectator colleagues deplore." -- Mark Steyn, from his book "The Face of the Tiger", as quoted on Right Wing News Wednesday, March 10, 2004
"The time is long overdue to stop regarding judges as little tin gods who can do no wrong. An independent judiciary does not mean a judiciary independent of the law. If it does, then we can forget about being a free and democratic nation. We are just the serfs of whoever happens to be on the bench." -- Thomas Sowell Sunday, February 29, 2004
"Too often management recommends plans that look like Bob Hope’s nose or a hockey stick.The numbers go down the first year or so and then up in the later years. If you accept hockeystick plans, you will find they will be proposed year after year." -- Donald Rumsfeld "Congress, the press, and the bureaucracy too often focus on how much money or effort is spent, rather than whether the money or effort actually achieves the announced goal." -- Donald Rumsfeld Saturday, February 14, 2004
"The safest road to hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." -- C. S. Lewis Tuesday, January 20, 2004
"There are a good many problems before the American people today, and before me as President, but I expect to find the solution to those problems just in the proportion that I am faithful in the study of the Word of God." -- President Woodrow Wilson Wednesday, January 14, 2004
"Honesty does not require posturing. In fact, the two things are incompatible. Nor does objectivity require neutrality....Objectivity refers to an honest seeking of the truth, whatever that truth may turn out to be and regardless of what its implications might be. Neutrality refers to a preconceived "balance," which subordinates the truth to this preconception....The truth is where you find it -- and you don't find it with a preconceived "balance" expressed in mealy mouth words." -- Thomas Sowell Monday, December 01, 2003
"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means.—I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1766 "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." -- John Stuart Mill Friday, November 07, 2003
"Minimum prices in general tend to discriminate against the lesser skilled person or the less preferred item. Let's say ten workers show up and you only can hire five. Well, you can't discriminate based on price because you have to pay them all eight dollars an hour. So you may hire according to what you like. So if you prefer Catholics to Jews or whites to blacks, you'll have a tendency to indulge your preferences. You can apply that phenomena to anything. If we made a law, let's call it a "minimum steak law", that is, fillet mignon and chuck steak both sell for $10. Well, the cost of discriminating against chuck steak would be zero, because you have to pay $10 anyway. The way that less preferred things compete with more preferred things is by having a lower price. Even though people prefer filet mignon to chuck steak, chuck steak doesn't have any problems selling at all." -- Walter Williams, from his interview on Right Wing News "I have to tell you that we are facing a situation, where if we don't control immigration, legal and illegal, we will eventually reach the point where it won't be what kind of a nation we are, balkanized or united, we will actually have to face the fact that we are no longer a nation at all. That is the honest to God eventual outcome of this kind of massive immigration combined with the cult of multiculturalism that permeates our society. ...The fact is, that won't occur in a legal way, it will occur in a de facto way." -- Tom Tancredo, from his interview on Right Wing News "(The anti-war left has) spent a lifetime arguing that the West is morally inferior. So they will even find a way to justify or rationalize or overlook the evil and tyranny that lies behind radical political Islamism. They're trapped by their own past. Not all of them - but a resilient minority." -- Andrew Sullivan, from his interview on Right Wing News "We need to reform the entire (Middle-East). To those cynical Europeans who say, "Oh, it's absurd to think Arabs can ever be functioning members of a democrat state", I'd say, in that case why are you allowing virtually unrestricted Muslim immigration into your own countries?" -- Mark Steyn, from his interview on Right Wing News |
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