Very well said, David L. Rosenthal. Waffler, your post doesn't make any sense. What are you talking about?

I like the irony of this quote. Waffler, the first part of explanation you asked for can be found in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson et al did not address why exactly a government might become "evil and unnecessary", only what the people can do about it when it does. The why is probably human nature. Also, Bryan never stated "no government needed". Please be careful with the quotation marks and stop being so obtuse.

This quote is incomplete. Both of the judge's statements are accurate, though obvious. Without any context it's pointless to guess what he thought of "forcible resistance of the authority...." If anyone is interested... Briefly, this case involved the Espionage Act of 1917 and censorship. The New York postmaster had refused to deliver a radical publication, The Masses. The court ruled that while The Masses supported those who resisted the government, it did not counsel or advise violating the law, so the postmaster's restriction had violated the First Amendment. The full quote from Hand's opinion for the majority continues as follows: "...execution, and it would be folly to disregard the causal relation between the two. Yet to assimilate agitation, legitimate as such, with direct incitement to violent resistance, is to disregard the tolerance of all methods of political agitation which in normal times is a safeguard of free government." If Judge Hand had a passionate political agenda, it was for protecting freedom of speech. No rating because liberty-tree presented the quote so poorly.

Bastard.

"They live like men" is perhaps the central point of Johnson's quote, not so much that they speak like angels. It does however, beg the question, is there something wrong with living like a man? Certainly some men lead more moral lives than others, but I don't care for Johnson's implication that simply living like a man is inherently inferior to speaking like an angel.

Mike, I think you meant "the correct etymology of the words" when you were chiding Waffler. Entomology is the study of insects.

Such a wise and insightful man, and such a far cry from that creature in the oval office today, December 20, 2007.

Our 16th President was both wise and prescient. He described our country as it is today when he said, "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in High Places will follow, and the Money Power of the Country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the People, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed.''

So very true. I also like how Mark Twain put it: “If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”

For the survival of democracy we need libraries now more than ever. In the words of President Lyndon Johnson, “Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance.”

Well said. The founding fathers recognized that the people may become complacent about their liberties, and fail to recognize threats to them, both foreign and domestic. This quotation is reminiscent of something Sir Winston Churchill said, “Success is never final.”