Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [41-60] of 348 Honor quotesHonor QuotesHonor Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.~ Sir Francis Bacon Actually, it is not strange that during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the human race was regarded as inert matter, ready to receive everything -- form, face, energy, movement, life -- from a great prince or a great legislator or a great genius. These centuries were nourished on the study of antiquity. And antiquity presents everywhere -- in Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome -- the spectacle of a few men molding mankind according to their whims, thanks to the prestige of force and of fraud. But this does not prove that this situation is desirable. It proves only that since men and society are capable of improvement, it is naturally to be expected that error, ignorance, despotism, slavery, and superstition should be greatest towards the origins of history. The writers quoted above were not in error when they found ancient institutions to be such, but they were in error when they offered them for the admiration and imitation of future generations. Uncritical and childish conformists, they took for granted the grandeur, dignity, morality, and happiness of the artificial societies of the ancient world. They did not understand that knowledge appears and grows with the passage of time; and that in proportion to this growth of knowledge, might takes the side of right, and society regains possession of itself.~ Frederic Bastiat In short, is not liberty the freedom of every person to make full use of his faculties, so long as he does not harm other persons while doing so? Is not liberty the destruction of all despotism -- including, of course, legal despotism? Finally, is not liberty the restricting of the law only to its rational sphere of organizing the right of the individual to lawful self-defense; of punishing injustice?~ Frederic Bastiat No legal plunder: This is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony, and logic. Until the day of my death, I shall proclaim this principle with all the force of my lungs (which alas! is all too inadequate).~ Frederic Bastiat 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 the law makes them so.~ Frederic Bastiat And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works.~ Frederic Bastiat One of the hardest things to teach a child is that the truth is more important than the consequences.~ O. A. Battista Open discussion of many major public questions has for some time now been taboo. We can’t open our mouths without being denounced as racists, misogynists, supremacists, imperialists or fascists. As for the media, they stand ready to trash anyone so designated.~ Saul Bellow The hardest tumble a man can make is to fall over his own bluff.~ Ambrose Bierce When we think of the past, we forget the fools and remember the sage. We reverse the process for our own time.~ George Boas Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return.~ Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.~ Napoleon Bonaparte A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.~ Buddha Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds.~ Buddha If you wish to be loved, show more of your faults than your virtues.~ Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton Tell me what are the prevailing sentiments that occupy the minds of your young peoples, and I will tell you what is to be the character of the next generation.~ Edmund Burke There never was a bad man that had ability for good service.~ Edmund Burke It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.~ Edmund Burke All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.~ Edmund Burke The age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists and calculators has succeeded.~ Edmund Burke Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print