Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quoteShare via Email Print this Page Daily Quotes Archives2017-11-01 Nov 1, 2017The United States was supposed to have a limited government because the founders knew government power attracts demagogues and despots as surely as horse manure attracts horseflies.~ Rick GaberThere are…certain freedoms that are like circuses. Their very existence, so long as they are individual and enjoyed chiefly individually as by spectators, diverts men’s mind from the loss of other, more fundamental, social and economic and political rights.~ Robert NisbetThe main vice of capitalism is the uneven distribution of prosperity. The main vice of socialism is the even distribution of misery.~ Sir Winston Churchill Oct 31, 2017I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.~ Mahatma Mohandas K. GandhiFrom a comparative perspective, the United States is unusual if not unique in the lack of restraints on freedom of expression. It is also unusual in the range and effectiveness of methods employed to restrain freedom of thought... Where the voice of the people is heard, elite groups must insure their voice says the right things.~ Noam ChomskyThere is no real wealth but the labor of man.~ Percy Bysshe Shelley Oct 30, 2017One evening, when I was yet in my nurse’s arms, I wanted to touch the tea urn, which was boiling merrily... My nurse would have taken me away from the urn, but my mother said 'Let him touch it.' So I touched it -- and that was my first lesson in the meaning of liberty.~ John RuskinOf all the inanimate objects, of all men’s creations, books are the nearest to us, for they contain our very thoughts, our ambitions, our indignations, our illusions, our fidelity to truth, and our persistent leaning toward error.~ Joseph ConradThis is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.~ Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Oct 27, 2017I have never met a more dedicated bunch of people than I did working in the union, at every level. The work is difficult and demanding, and very few people would do it if they didn’t believe in its righteousness. However, the conviction that you know what’s best insulates you against reflecting morally on your own actions and it teaches you to begin assessing morality in terms of either the ends justifying the means, or even worse, of mere good intention justifying those means.~ Ben JohnsonIt is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.~ Edmund BurkeAll of us necessarily hold many casual opinions that are ludicrously wrong simply because life is far too short for us to think through even a small fraction of the topics that we come across.~ Julian Simon Oct 26, 2017Each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to standing laws. He is obliged, consequently, to contribute his share to the expense of this protection; and to give his personal service, or an equivalent, when necessary. But no part of the property of any individual can, with justice, be taken from him, or applied to public uses, without his own consent, or that of the representative body of the people. In fine, the people of this commonwealth are not controllable by any other laws than those to which their constitutional representative body have given their consent.~ John AdamsGuard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.... O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people!~ Patrick HenryThe study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.~ Paul Bede Johnson Previous week's quotes Next week's quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print