Quotes

Wilson

2011-04-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

"The totally convinced and the totally stupid have too much in common for the resemblance to be accidental." -- Robert Anton Wilson

I've often wondered how the author of the DOI could rationalize the owning of slaves.

2008-08-03T02:55:00.000-07:00

I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

— Frederick Douglass, Speech given at Rochester, New York [July 5, 1852]

Not just thieves, a band of thieves who broker the spoiled ware of other thieves.

2008-07-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

The state — or, to make matters more concrete, the government — consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get, and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time it is made good by looting ‘A’ to satisfy ‘B’. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advanced auction on stolen goods.

— H.L. Mencken, On Politics [1996]

This should be the first definition of patriot. Now a days what should be defined as a nationalist gets passed off as a patriot.

2008-07-23T12:25:00.000-07:00

It is the responsibility of the patriot to protect his country from its government.

Thomas Paine

Why do so many people not understand this?

2008-07-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

It is good for one to be free, and we would cherish liberty even if she traveled alone, but she does not. Because Prosperity and Peace are both the companions of Liberty.

— Charles Goyette, “It Is Good for One to Be Free

As BF said, "The only thing we can be sure of is death and taxes".

2008-07-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

We still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping at the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised to furnish new pretenses for revenue and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without a tribute.

— Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

Acton nailed it again.

2008-07-09T12:08:00.000-07:00

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

— Lord Acton, The History of Freedom and Other Essays [1907

Didn't do BraveHeart much good, I think they killed him.

2008-07-02T04:02:00.000-07:00

I tell you true, liberty is the best of all things; never live beneath the noose of a servile halter.

— William Wallace, Address to the Scots [c. 1300]

Without habeas corpus how long will it be before our government begins to disappear people in this country.

2008-06-22T03:39:00.000-07:00

One of the major purposes of habeas corpus is to protect people from arrogant government officials who have trouble admitting mistakes.

— David R. Henderson, “The Supreme Court Gets One Right

Choose your path, the government or the free market.

2008-06-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

Fundamentally, there are only two ways of coordinating the economic activities of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion — the technique of the army and of the modern totalitarian state. The other is voluntary cooperation of individuals — the technique of the market place.

— Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom [1962

Why I can't write.

2008-05-07T15:42:00.000-07:00

A general State education is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another: and as the mould in which it casts them is that which pleases the predominant power in the government, whether this be a monarch, a priesthood, an aristocracy, or the majority of the existing generation, in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by natural tendency to one over the body.

— John Stuart Mill, On Liberty [1859

A long way from being there.

2008-04-25T02:34:00.000-07:00

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.

— Abba Eban, Speech in London [December 16, 1970

Keep the people poor.

2008-04-12T13:21:00.000-07:00

The fundamental problem is the Fed itself, which purports to be the great savior of the money system but in fact is its destroyer. By flooding the economy with ever more paper money, it reduces the value of our money — an insidious tax that the governing elites levy in ways that keep the people in the dark.

— Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., “The Inflation Monster and Its Owner”

Something to think about next time.

2008-04-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

There never was a good war or a bad peace.

— Benjamin Franklin, Letter to Josiah Quincy [September 11, 1773

Maybe the greatest cause for the demise of great states.

2008-04-08T03:36:00.000-07:00

The power to tax involves the power to destroy.

— Supreme Court Justice John Marshall, McCulloch v. Maryland [1819

Someone forgot to tell Bush

2008-03-27T04:38:00.000-07:00

A lasting order cannot be established by bayonets.

— Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government [1944]

Government is pure force, even Washington said that.

2008-02-12T14:15:00.000-08:00

Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights; it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. When unlimited and unrestricted by individual rights, a government is man's deadliest enemy. It is not as protection against private actions, but against governmental actions that the Bill of Rights was written.

— Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness [1964

Constraining enterprise may be the greatest defect of governments.

2008-01-12T04:28:00.000-08:00

Government regulation restricts, confines, diverts, focuses, makes inflexible, and alters the course of men's actions in hundreds of ways.

— Clarence B. Carson

Can you say, "Introduction to Nationalism" folks?

2007-11-13T03:37:00.000-08:00

Wherever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.

— Benjamin Disraeli, Speech in the House of Commons [June 15, 1874

Still just as true today.

2007-11-07T18:51:00.000-08:00

War is at best barbarism…. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.

Herbert Spencer, Graduation Address at Michigan Military Academy [June 19, 1879]

No coercion required? What a radical idea.

2007-11-06T03:59:00.000-08:00

Adam Smith's key insight was that both parties to an exchange can benefit and that, so long as cooperation is strictly voluntary, no exchange can take place unless both parties do benefit.

Milton Friedman

Don't expect the government to be responsible.

2007-10-27T14:27:00.000-07:00

Oddly, and by some strange practice that dates back to, hmmm, the beginning of time, rulers are not to be held responsible for actions that take place on their watch. So the government is not liable. It should be but it isn't. So putting government in charge is always a perfect storm for disaster without responsibility.

Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr., “Land Socialism: Playing With Fire” [October

Nationalism anyone?

2007-10-14T13:45:00.000-07:00

From Nock's point of view, the Great Depression and the two world wars saddled America with a new faith in the state, and along with it came a shift in people's loyalties, from themselves, their families, and communities to the Grand National Project, whatever it may be. We see the same thing today on the right and left, when questioning any aspect of the war on terrorism gets you branded as a heretic to the national religion. Nock would have nothing to do with it.

— Jeffrey A. Tucker

Are we there yet?

2007-10-10T18:53:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

The art of government is to make two-thirds of a
nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third.

Voltaire

Government up to its usual games

2007-09-16T04:30:00.000-07:00

Any symbol [9/11] of such tremendous evocative potency invites exploitation, and each anniversary of that terrible day brings us an abundance of efforts to place its symbolic power in the service of various exploiters.

— Robert Higgs, “Another 9/11 — in a Long Series” [September 10,

Mencken is was right

2007-08-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

Under democracy one party always devotes its energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed and are right.

— H.L. Mencken

A reason for war.

2007-08-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

Wars and imperialism are Siamese twins joined at the hip. Each thrives off the other. They cannot be separated.

— Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire

Politicians who are far from being genius l know this.

2007-08-10T13:47:00.000-07:00

All military geniuses love centralization, which increases their strength, and all centralizing geniuses love war, which obliges nations to concentrate all powers in the hands of the state.

— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume 2 [1840]

Things haven't changed much.

2007-07-29T03:01:00.000-07:00

"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones
to public office.": Aesop - (c. 550 B.C.) legendary
Greek fabulist

We will get there, all civilizations that have proceeded us have.

2007-06-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

We have a strong civil society that could, in theory, overcome the entrenched interests of the armed forces and the military-industrial complex. At this late date, however, it is difficult to imagine how Congress, much like the Roman senate in the last days of the republic, could be brought back to life and cleansed of it endemic corruption. Failing such a reform, Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits impatiently for her meeting with us.

— Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire [2004

Jefferson knew how to run a country.

2007-06-16T05:30:00.000-07:00

Having seen the people of all other nations bowed down to the earth under the wars and prodigalities of their rulers, I have cherished their opposites, peace, economy, and riddance of public debt, believing that these were the high road to public as well as private prosperity and happiness.

— Thomas Jefferson

Government double speak

2007-06-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

Compassionate conservatism pretends the state does not raise its own money via coercion and harsh threats against taxpayers. Compassionate conservatism presumes that since the government just happens to have all this cash in the treasury coffers, why not do some good deeds with it? Handouts become symbols of generosity rather than acts of redistribution at gunpoint. Compassionate conservatism portrays government as a front of moral greatness, rather than a primary source of corruption, manipulation, and degradation

— James Bovard,

And people too.

2007-05-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

That the general welfare is served by the free mobility of man's goods and services domestically is generally conceded. Then, why is mobility not equally desirable on the international scale? It is, of course.

— Leonard E. Read, Accent on the Right [1968]

Did someone forget to tell George?

2007-05-14T14:54:00.000-07:00

History has witnessed the failure of many endeavors to impose peace by war, cooperation by coercion, unanimity by slaughtering dissidents....... A lasting order cannot be established by bayonets.

— Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government [1944

I don't think it works that way anymore.

2007-04-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

The Constitution is not an instrument for government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government--lest it come to dominate our lives and our interests.

— Patrick Henry

Two centuries of government programs.

2007-04-20T04:09:00.000-07:00

"A government program you want is like Pandora's box. You open it to provide something you think is needed, but in doing so you make it possible for a host of bad government programs to be unleashed upon the world."

- Harry Browne

In the name of giving others freedom we will lose our own.

2007-03-20T02:33:00.000-07:00

We may extend our dominion over the whole continent, our navies may ride triumphant on every sea, our name may be the terror of Kings, our decrees the destinies of nations, but be assured it will be at the price of our free institutions. I know not how it may be with others, but for my own part, I would not pay this price for all the power and all the glory that ever clustered around all the banners and all the eagles emblazoned in the pantheon of history.

— Rep. William Waters Boyce

2007-03-15T19:23:00.000-07:00

He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.

— George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara [1907

Hard to brainwash Albert

2007-03-07T18:51:00.000-08:00

He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.

— Albert Einstein

They all want more government to protect us from ourselves.

2007-03-04T17:35:00.000-08:00

Broadly speaking, Democrats want to protect you from the physical threats posed by habits such as smoking, overeating, and crossing the street while listening to an iPod. Republicans are more interested in protecting you from the moral threats posed by temptations such as drugs, gambling, and pornography. Between them, they've got you covered, body and soul.

— Jacob Sullum

A truism of human nature I'm sorry to say.

2007-03-04T02:27:00.000-08:00

I have never found in a long experience of politics that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.

— Harold Macmillan, The Observer [February 22, 1981]

As they say, you can't unring a bell.

2007-02-28T15:19:00.000-08:00

Ignorance is of a peculiar nature; once dispelled, it is impossible to re-establish it. It is not originally a thing of itself, but is only the absence of knowledge; and though man may be kept ignorant, he cannot be made ignorant…. It has never yet been discovered how to make a man unknow his knowledge.

— Thomas Paine

It seems that more politicians than ever are able to do this.

2007-02-21T03:58:00.000-08:00

If you want to succeed in politics, you must keep your conscience well under control.

— David Lloyd George, Lord Riddell Diary [April 23, 1919

Looks like we are there.

2007-02-19T15:58:00.000-08:00

A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.

— James Madison, Constitutional Convention [June 29, 1787

Our government impedes enterprise with tons of paperwork, rules and regulations, and swarms of petty bureaucrats to eat out our substance.

2007-02-13T03:57:00.000-08:00

Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. – Henry David Thoreau

Will we be the generation to see the beginning of the end of empire?

2007-02-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

Misplaced faith in the power of military might and centralized bureaucracies to "make things right" or "bring freedom," or to foster "democracy" and "economic fulfillment" is a disorder that afflicts many Americans. It is for this reason that we are indeed happy to rearrange deck chairs in our foreign policy, enjoying the entertainment provided by doomed musicians like Stoker. We avoid the gaze and the wisdom of those who understand the design limitations of force, of centralized, authoritarian, and expensive governments –at home, or in foreign countries we covet.

— Karen Kwiatkowski, "Deck Chairs on the Titanic?" [February 6, 2007

The main reason we will not be able to rein in the government.

2007-02-06T01:47:00.000-08:00

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty.

— Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Philip Mazzei [17

To bad the government doesn't agree.

2007-02-02T17:18:00.000-08:00

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

— James Madison, National Gazette [March 29, 17

Ungrateful people

2007-01-23T17:44:00.000-08:00

During an interview with '60 Minutes' on Sunday, President Bush defended the invasion of Iraq, saying, 'We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude.' Said the Iraqi people, 'We've been meaning to send a card, but our Hallmark store keeps blowing up.'

— Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live

To bad this George isn't like the first George

2007-01-13T12:38:00.000-08:00

For those who are disgusted and demoralized by this administration's failure to think and act rationally, consider that the history books have already been written. Bush is wildly unpopular here and abroad. There is not a living soul who is willing to call the Iraq war a success. At the end of the day, all that he will leave is debt, death, and disaster. This is indisputable. So his name is already mud and will ever be so. That, at least, is some solace.

— Lew Rockwell,

Not only still there, but more of it.

2007-01-11T19:11:00.000-08:00

Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there.

— P.J. O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores [1991

The best reason to constrain government.

2007-01-05T16:17:00.000-08:00

I would have government defend the life and property of all citizens equally; protect all willing exchange; suppress and penalize all fraud, all misrepresentation, all violence, all predatory practices; invoke a common justice under law; and keep the records incidental to these functions. Even this is a bigger assignment than governments, generally, have proven capable of. Let governments do these things and do them well. Leave all else to men in free and creative effort.

— Leonar

We have had them both, and neither is good.

2006-12-29T16:05:00.000-08:00

This republic has no place for a vast military service and conscription.

— Democratic National Platform

Anyone think our government is out of control?

2006-12-23T08:28:00.000-08:00

There is little reason for optimism that the Democrats will follow through on this supposed mandate, and deliver us from the evil of the growing police state of warrantless searches, indefinite detentions, sweeping surveillance, and other attacks on civil liberties.

— Anthony Gregory, "Will the Democrats Save Our Civil Liberties?" December 20, 20

More words of wisdom from the Great Agnostic

2006-12-22T03:10:00.000-08:00

“Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.” Robert Green Ingersoll

There seems to be no end to how much they will take.

2006-12-14T03:31:00.000-08:00

Whoever desires liberty should understand … that every man who puts money into the hands of a "government" (so called), puts into its hands a sword which will be used against himself, to extort more money from him.

— Lysander Spooner, No Treason [1870

They knew the problems and many of the answers.

2006-12-04T18:20:00.000-08:00

But the safety of the people of America against dangers from foreign force depends not only on their forbearing to give just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to invite hostility or insult; for it need not be observed that there are pretended as well as just causes for war.

— John Jay, Federalist No. 4 [November 7, 1787]

The Founding Fathers knew it pays some people to go to war.

2006-11-20T18:24:00.000-08:00

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. . . . [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and . . . degeneracy of manners and of morals. . . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. . . .

— James Madison, Political Observations [April 20, 1795]

Well, they have the big guns, they can do what they want.

2006-11-13T14:32:00.000-08:00

The State calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crime.

— Max Stirner, The Ego and His Own [1907

Sound reason for small government

2006-11-05T07:47:00.000-08:00

Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. – Henry David Thoreau

This was before Income Tax, now what is ours is theirs!

2006-11-03T16:05:00.000-08:00

[It is an] essential, unalterable right in nature, engrafted into the British constitution as a fundamental law, and ever held sacred and irrevocable by the subjects within the realm, that what a man has honestly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but cannot be taken from him without his consent.

— Samuel Adams, The Massachusetts Circular Letter [February 11, 1768

Will could tell it like it is!

2006-10-31T14:48:00.000-08:00

The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf.

— Will Rogers

Has GW experienced both of these?

2006-10-21T02:31:00.000-07:00

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. – P.J. O'Rourke

We once had those things called rights

2006-10-13T17:51:00.000-07:00

Without virtue there is no such thing as a great man; without rights there is no such thing as a great nation, and, one might almost say, no such thing as society, for what is a group of rational and intelligent beings held together solely by force?

— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America [1835-1840

Why freedom workes.

2006-10-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

The impossibility of any individual or small group conceiving of all the possibilities, let alone evaluating their merits, is the great argument against central governmental planning and against arrangements such as professional monopolies that limit the possibilities of experimentation.

— Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom [1962]

How do we preserve our rights?

2006-09-30T03:30:00.000-07:00

Free men can never rely upon courts alone for the preservation of their freedom. Courts can give warning of danger. But they are really powerless to protect us from ourselves. They can remind us of our heritage. But they cannot preserve that heritage for us.

— Alan Barth, The Rights of Free Men [1984]

Why do we get more truth from comics than from the news?

2006-09-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

A new National Intelligence Estimate report recently leaked to the New York Times says the war in Iraq has made the overall terrorism problem worse, and has spread Islamic radicalism further than before. Now that sounds bad, but remember, this is from a U.S. intelligence report. Take it with a grain of salt.

— Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

Speaking of the evolution of religion

2006-09-21T03:39:00.000-07:00

“Religion has not civilized man, man has civilized religion”
Robert Green Ingersoll

HA HA

2006-09-20T02:56:00.000-07:00

Washington is the place where nobody believes in rumor until it has been officially denied.

— Phillip's Treasury of Humorous Quotations

Forsighted founder

2006-09-17T04:22:00.000-07:00

“Some day, following the example of the United States of America, there will be a United States of Europe”
George Washington

Government is force

2006-09-16T04:16:00.000-07:00

The "private sector" of the economy is, in fact, the voluntary sector; and ... the "public sector" is, in fact, the coercive sector.
Henry Hazlitt

Government is force and they collect taxes at the point of a gun. If you don't believe that, just refuse to pay your taxes and then defend your property. DKS

Ain't this the truth. The biggest crooks in the world have the worlds biggest economy to prey on.

2006-09-13T03:51:00.000-07:00

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.
Mark Twain

Sept 10, 2006

2006-09-10T04:29:00.000-07:00

There is a danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

— John Adams, Notes for an Oration at Braintree [Spring 1772]

Sept 9, 2006

2006-09-09T02:39:00.000-07:00

When you let people do whatever they want, you get Woodstock. When you let governments do whatever they want, you get Auschwitz.
- Doug Newman

Sept 8, 2006

2006-09-08T16:31:00.000-07:00

The State is and ought to be nothing whatever but community force organized, not to be an instrument of oppression and mutual plunder among citizens, but, on the contrary, to guarantee to each his own, and to cause justice and security to reign.

— Frederic Bastiat

Sept 7, 2006

2006-09-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

“Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.”
Robert Green Ingersoll

Sept 4, 2006

2006-09-04T14:22:00.000-07:00

A great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It had its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished. The mutual dependence and reciprocal interest which man has upon man, and all parts of a civilized community upon each other, create that great chain of connection which holds it together. The landholder, the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and every occupation, prospers by the aid which each receives from the other, and from the whole. Common interest regulates their concerns, and forms their laws; and the laws which common usage ordains, have a greater influence than the laws of government. In fine, society performs for itself almost every thing which is ascribed to government.

— Thomas Paine, Rights of Man [1791-1792]

Aug 30, 2006

2006-08-30T03:57:00.000-07:00

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. – James Bovard (1994)

Aug 27, 2006

2006-08-28T03:55:00.000-07:00

"To argue with a man who has renounced his reason is like giving medicine to the dead"

Robert Green Ingersoll

Aug 25, 2006

2006-08-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

What good does it do me, after all, if an ever-watchful authority keeps an eye out to ensure that my pleasures will be tranquil and races ahead of me to ward off all danger, sparing me the need even to think about such things, if that authority, even as it removes the smallest thorns from my path, is also absolute master of my liberty and my life; if it monopolizes vitality and existence to such a degree that when it languishes, everything must also sleep; and when it dies, everything must also perish?

— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in Americ

Aug 24, 2006

2006-08-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.

— Will Rogers

Aug 22, 2006

2006-08-22T03:30:00.000-07:00

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.: Mark Twain

Aug 21, 2006

2006-08-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

The true danger is when Liberty is nibbled away, for expedients. – Edmund Burke (1899)

Aug 20, 2006

2006-08-20T03:19:00.000-07:00

"Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person." Mark Twain

July 25, 2006

2006-07-25T16:05:00.000-07:00

In some government offices there are so many coffee breaks that the employees can't sleep at their work.

— Phillips' Treasury of Humorous Quotations

July 24, 2006

2006-07-24T15:32:00.000-07:00

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.: Mark Twain

July 23, 2006

2006-07-23T06:10:00.000-07:00

America's greatness is due in no small measure to our system of government, in which power and authority are deliberately divided. The separation of powers is not a mere "technicality." It is the centerpiece of our Constitution. Our freedoms depend upon it in the future, just as they have in the past.

— Richard Epstein,

July 20, 2006

2006-07-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

A Communist is one who has nothing and is eager to share it with others.

— Phillips' Treasury of Humorous Quotations

July 19, 2006

2006-07-19T03:58:00.000-07:00

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin

July 16, 2006

2006-07-16T14:16:00.001-07:00

“It is a blessed thing that in every age someone has had the individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions”

Robert G. Ingersoll

July 15, 2006

2006-07-15T03:49:00.000-07:00

So you thought that the US went into Iraq to uproot a dangerous dictator and establish democracy? Well, the US military has taken on a job a bit more difficult than that. It is trying to build an economy, which no state in the history of the world has been able to do without the assistance of a vibrant market.

— Lew Rockwell

July 14, 2006

2006-07-14T16:05:00.000-07:00

The object of the state is always the same; to limit the individual, to tame him, to subordinate him, to subjugate him.

— Max Stirner, The Ego and His Own [1845]

July 13, 2006

2006-07-13T14:51:00.000-07:00

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.: Mark Twain

July 12, 2006

2006-07-12T15:39:00.000-07:00

“If Christ, in fact, said "I came not to bring peace but a sword," it is the only prophecy in the New Testament that has been literally fulfilled”
Rober G. Ingersoll

July 11, 2006

2006-07-11T03:50:00.000-07:00

Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
– George Washington

July 10, 2006

2006-07-10T03:26:00.000-07:00

Vices are simply the errors which a man makes in his search after his own happiness. Unlike crimes, they imply no malice toward others, and no interference with their persons or property. – Lysander Spooner

July 9, 2006

2006-07-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

It is hard to live a great while without growing old, and it is hardly worthwhile to die just to keep young.

Robert G. Intersoll

July 8, 2006

2006-07-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

Mark Twain

July 7, 2006

2006-07-07T17:01:00.000-07:00

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always count on the support of Paul. – George Bernard Shaw

July 6, 2006

2006-07-06T02:09:00.000-07:00

The suggestion of conservatives that the government engage in all-out war on the world but otherwise leave people free to manage their own affairs is completely absurd in every way. It is akin to the demand that one's left leg march in one direction and the right leg march in the other direction. If we know how the human body works, we know that this suggestion is ridiculous. So too, if we know how government works, we know that a state that is expansionist abroad will never let well enough alone at home.

— Lew Rockwell, "Are Conservatives Crazy?" [March 30, 2006