Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quoteShare via Email Print this Page Daily Quotes Archives2010-10-12 Oct 12, 2010I cannot accept, your canon that we are to judge pope and king unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power ... Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.~ Lord ActonThe highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it.~ Thomas Babington MacaulayPower never takes a back step -- only in the face of more power.~ Malcolm X Oct 11, 2010It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.~ David BrinIt is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.~ AeschylusCompelling a man by law to pay his money to elect candidates or advocate law or doctrines he is against differs only in degree, if at all, from compelling him by law to speak for a candidate, a party, or a cause he is against. The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.~ Justice Hugo L. Black Oct 8, 2010A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.~ G. Gordon LiddyMost people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.~ Sigmund FreudYou can't get rid of poverty by giving people money.~ P. J. O'Rourke Oct 7, 2010Unless they can pass the same test that immigrants must pass to become citizens, people shouldn't be allowed to vote. The idea that there is some public benefit in ignoramuses and morons pulling levers next to names on a ballot is one of the evil myths of post-modern America. The purpose of voting, in our country, is to select men and women with the competence and integrity to operate the mechanics of government fixed by our Constitution. For this process to have any public benefit requires that the choices be made on an intelligent, knowledgeable and reasoned basis.~ Charley ReeseA constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government; and government without a constitution is power without a right. All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning. It must be either delegated, or assumed. There are not other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either.~ Thomas PaineGood and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.~ C. S. Lewis Oct 6, 2010But I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks -- no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.~ James MadisonA frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles of the constitution, and a constant adherence to those of piety, justice, moderation, temperance, industry and frugality, are absolutely necessary to preserve the advantages of liberty, and to maintain a free government.~ Massachusetts Bill of RightsWith money we will get men, said Caesar, and with men we will get money. Nor should our assembly [the Virginia Legislature] be deluded by the integrity of their own purposes, and conclude that these unlimited powers will never be abused, because themselves are not disposed to abuse them. They should look forward to a time, and that not a distant one, when a corruption in this, as in the country from which we derive our origin [Great Britain], will have seized the heads of government, and be spread by them through the body of the people; when they will purchase the voices of the people, and make them pay the price. Human nature is the same on every side of the Atlantic, and will be alike influenced by the same causes. The time to guard against corruption and tyranny, is before they shall have gotten hold on us. It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold, than to trust to drawing his teeth and talons after he shall have entered.~ Thomas Jefferson Previous week's quotes Next week's quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print