Anatole France - When a thing has been
said, and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.
I offer these pages for your amusement, education and reflection. - David Houle
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States........
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance..........
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:...........
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: .........
With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens -- a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing.
I place economy among the first and important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
I sincerely believe... that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
A little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.
No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
False is the idea of utility... that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except the destruction of liberty.
We rarely repent of having eaten too little.
For those of you who are interested in reading more of the philosophies of the remarkable Thomas Jefferson, please follow this link: - http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
(December 14, 1962) Our true choice is not between tax reduction on the one hand and avoidance of large deficits on the other; it is increasingly clear that no matter what party is in power . . . an economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough revenues to balance our budget -- just as it will never produce enough jobs or profits.
Margaret Thatcher - You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.
Napoleon Bonaparte - The word impossible is not in my dictionary.
Harry S Truman - If there is one basic element in our Constitution, it is civilian control of the military.
Joseph Sobran - Politicians never accuse you of 'greed' for wanting other people's money --- only for wanting to keep your own money.
Billy Jean King - Champions keep playing until they get it right.
Carolyn Coats - Children have more need of models than of critics.
Jill Ruckelshaus - The best way to win an argument is to begin by being right.
Vince Lombardi - Winners never quit and quitters never win.
Vince Lombardi - It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
Vince Lombardi - If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, then you will be fired with enthusiasm.
John Wooden - It's what you learn after you know it all than counts.
Woody Allen - Eighty percent of success is showing up.
Ted Turner - If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect.
Henry Ward Beecher - Speak when you're angry and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret.
Elbert Hubbard - Experience is the name everyone gives his mistakes.
Clarence Darrow - The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.
Winston Churchill - A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
Winston Churchill - Nothing in life is so exhilarating than to be shot at without result.
Winston Churchill - A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Winston Churchill - Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.
Winston Churchill - We all are worms, but I do believe I am a glowworm.
Winston Churchill - Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
Voltaire - It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Grover Cleveland - It is the responsibility of the citizens to support their government. It is not the responsibility of the government to support its citizens.
Grover Cleveland - Once the coffers of the federal government are opened to the public, there will be no shutting them again.
Mark Twain - There is no distinctly American criminal class, except Congress.
Mark Twain - Its not the size of the dog in the fight, its the size of the fight in the dog.
Earl Wilson - If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.
George Washington - To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
Sarah Jackson - Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, if he gets angry, he'll be a mile away--and barefoot.
Benjamin Franklin - They that can give up an essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Louis XIV, when his carriage pulled up just as he stepped out the door - I almost had to wait.
Oscar Wilde - The pure and simple truth is rarely pure, and never simple.
Oscar Wilde - The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.
John F. Kennedy - Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
John F. Kennedy - You know nothing for except the fact that you know nothing for sure.
Barry Goldwater - Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Tolerance in the face of tyranny is no virtue.
Frank Lloyd Wright - Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities.
Frank Lloyd Wright - A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.
Henry Ford - Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right.
Mae West - When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before.
Al Capone - You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word.
Thomas Watson, IBM Chairman, 1943 - I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
Bill Gates, 1981 - 640K ought to be enough for anybody.
Bob Hope - Banks are a place that will lend you money, if you prove that you don't need it.
Jawaharlal Nehru - Most things, except agriculture, can wait.
Cooper Camp - Being liberal means being willing to give away something you have. Being a Liberal means being willing, even anxious, to give away something someone else has.
Jay Rockefeller - We will push through health care reform regardless of the views of the American people.
Mark Knopfler - Sometimes you're the bug, sometimes you're the windshield.
Robert Schuman - When I was a young man I vowed never to marry until I found the ideal woman. Well, I found her --but, alas, she was waiting for the perfect man.
Richard Nixon - I was under medication when I made the decision not to burn the tapes.
Robert Orben - Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work.
Beverly Johnson (model) - My husband was just OK looking. I was in labor and I said to him, What if she's ugly? You're ugly.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - The old law about "an eye for an eye" leaves everybody blind.
Everett Dirkson - A billion here, a billion there...sooner or later it adds up to real money.
George Washington - True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to appellation.
Dwight D. Eisenhower - Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.
Theodore Roosevelt - Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.
Brooke Shields - Smoking kills, and if you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life.
Andrew Mathis - It's bad luck to be superstitious.
Samuel Goldwyn - A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
Frank Rizzo - The streets are safe in Philadelphia, it's only the people that make them unsafe.
Oliver North - The average term length of a member of congress is approaching 15 years, and the average term length of a convicted criminal is less than three. We've got that backward.
Gallagher - I heard that the government wants to put a tax on the mathematically ignorant. Funny, I thought that's what the lottery was!
Henry David Thoreau - Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
W. C. Fields - The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep.
A friend is someone who will help you move; A GOOD friend is someone who will help you move a body.
There are three kinds of people in this world: Those who make things happen; Those who watch things happen; And those who wonder what happened.
When you're arguing with a fool, make sure he isn't doing the same thing.
A man who neglects his duty as a citizen is not entitled to his rights as a citizen.
When ideas fail, words come in very handy.
Politicians are like diapers. They both should be changed often. And for the same reason.
Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate.
Never mistake motion for action.
Well done is better than well said.
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.
There is never time to do it right, but there is always time to do it over.
Nothing can be made foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
A man with a briefcase can steal more money than any man with a gun.
No matter where you go, there you are.
Better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
Some days you're the dog, some days you're the hydrant!
76.4% of all statistics are meaningless.
Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once.
Fail to plan, plan to fail.
There has been an alarming increase in the number of things you know nothing about.
Death is certain, life isn't.
Cats are put on earth to remind us that not everything has a purpose.
When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did---in his sleep. Not yelling and screaming--like the passengers in his car.
The difference between genius and stupidity is genius has a limit.
If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards.
Those who hammer their guns into plows, will plow for those who didn't.
Kill them all and let god sort them out.
Curiosity is the first step to growth.
Excuses are a futile attempt to justify failure.
A charging herd of elephants always has the right of way.
The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is to quit digging.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation will be given.
Know God, know peace. No God, no peace.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life 's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Macbeth. Act V, Scene V
Since time immemorial and pre-industrial, 'greed' has been the accusation hurled at the rich by the concrete-bound illiterates who were unable to conceive of the source of wealth or of the motivation of those who produce it.
Inflation is not caused by the actions of private citizens, but by the government: by an artificial expansion of the money supply required to support deficit spending. No private embezzlers or bank robbers in history have ever plundered people's savings on a scale comparable to the plunder perpetrated by the fiscal policies of statist governments. (From "Who will protect us from our protectors?")
Competition is a by-product of productive work, not its goal. A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
Even if smog were a risk to human life, we must remember that life in nature, without technology, is wholesale death.
Do not make the mistake...of thinking that a worker is a slave and that he holds his job by his employer's permission. He does not hold it by permission - but by contract, that is, by a voluntary mutual agreement. A worker can quit his job; a slave cannot.
The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man's self-defense, and, as such, may only resort to force only against those who start the use of force.
As we gain knowledge, we do not become more certain, we become certain of more.
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Gravity can not be held responsible for people falling in love.
Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
If only I had known. I would have been a locksmith.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
Winston Churchill - Kites rise highest against the wind; not with it.
Wayne Gretzky - You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.
Derek Bok - If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Dick Armey - You cannot get ahead while you are getting even.
Harry Gray - No one ever achieved greatness by playing it safe.
David Lloyd George - Don't be afraid to take a big step. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.
Geof Greenleaf - Class is how you treat people who can do nothing for you.
Paul Harvey - In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these.
Mario Andretti - If everything's under control, you're going too slow.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr. - You either make dust or eat dust.
Arthur Godfrey - Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
Kyle Chandler - Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.
Elbert Hubbard - To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
E. Joseph Cossman - Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.
Richard Exely - Failing doesn't make you a failure. Giving up does!
Henry Ford - It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.
Henry Ford - Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.
Henry Ford - You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do.
Theodore Roosevelt - The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
Vince Lombardi - The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur.
Mark Twain - Let us be thankful for the fools. Were it not for them, the rest of us could not succeed.
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.
Die when I may, I want it said of me that I plucked a weed and planted a flower wherever I thought a flower would grow.
I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reigns of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside me.
My concern is not whether God is on our side; my great concern is to be on God's side.
The best way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend.
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.