Quotations

 

“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.

Vaclav Klaus, Former President of the Czech Republic

 

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

C.S. Lewis

 

"The heart has reasons that reason cannot know”

Blaise Pascal

 

"Sovereignty Forever - UN Never!”

Spotted on a building in Lewiston, Idaho, on April 27, 2006. Click here for a photo...

 

"That government is best which governs least."

Often attributed to Thomas Jefferson. Though these exact words do not appear in his writings, this is Jefferson's sentiment, exactly. These words also appeared in Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience.

 

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

From Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay Self Reliance.

Comment by SJT: "Consistency" and "foolish consistency" are different things! Consistency in thought is a good thing, inconsistency in thought is not a good thing. Emerson's point is that blindly adhering to a view just because it has "always been so" is not good...

 

"The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveller's cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same."

From Henry David Thoreau's Walden.

 

Comment by SJT: The mindless pursuit of fashion (not a political comment). The head monkey at MTV wears his ball cap backwards and a mass of monkeys fall right in line, thinking it "cool." Some vain idiot in the media stream gets a tattoo; soon hordes of mindless followers have tattoos... all thinking they are expressing "originality." Some character in the media pool hangs a key lanyard out of his pocket and the next thing you know every young "Harry Highschool" has to have a key lanyard hanging out of his pocket. It goes on and on, the followers never realizing...

 

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

Benjamin Franklin, from On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, 1766.

 

"Ain't nothing better than riding' a fine horse through a new country. That's exactly what me and Woodrow was meant for."

From Lonesome Dove, 1989. Capt. Augustus McCrae, Texas Ranger, spoke these words while riding with young Newt near the Powder River in Montana as the Hat Creek Cattle Co. pushed on to the Milk River.

 

     

 

"I have never been lost... but I will admit to being confused for several weeks."

Daniel Boone

 

“The problem with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of other people’s money.”

Margret Thatcher made this statement in various forms at various times.

 

“… the trouble with our century is that we all encountered magnificent, inspiring literature in our youth. This fooled us into believing we should be able to produce art of the same level – like a Sunday tennis player watching world champions in a stadium. It looks so easy that he runs home for his racket to do it himself.”

From The Girl from Petrovka (George Feifer, 1971, p. 66).

 

“The older the fiddle, the sweeter the music.”

Capt. Augustus McCrae, Texas Ranger, in Lonesome Dove, 1989.

 

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Ronald Reagan, from his first inaugural address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ixNPplo-SU

 

"The act of reaching into one's own pockets to help a fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else's pocket is despicable and worthy of condemnation."

Professor Walter E. Williams.

 

"If we wish to be compassionate with our fellow man, we must learn to engage in dispassionate analysis. In other words, thinking with our hearts, rather than our brains, is a surefire method to hurt those whom we wish to help."

Professor Walter E. Williams.

 

"He who does not work, will not eat."

Captain John Smith, of Jamestown
Originally from the New Testament (II Thessalonians 3:10)
 

Comment by SJT: This does not mean that those who cannot work should not eat. Compassion is good, of course. But if someone is able to work and chooses not to, they should experience the consequences.

 

"I've never let my schooling interfere with my education."

Mark Twain

 

"It's five o'clock somewhere."

"It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," by Jim "Moose" Brown and Don Rollins, sung by Alan Jackson

 

"The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated.”

From The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edward Gibbons, 1776)

 

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."

Red Green

 

"How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book."

Henry David Thoreau

 

"Liberalism is a mental disorder."

Dr. Michael Savage

 

"God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy."

"People Are Crazy," by Bobby Braddock and Troy Jones, sung by Billy Currington

 

"Bless your pea-pickin' heart!"

Tennessee Ernie Ford

 

"You can't have no idea how little I care"

Monty Walsh (2003 movie)

 

A Wild Boar stood under a tree and rubbed his tusks against the trunk. A Fox passing by asked him why he thus sharpened his teeth when there was no danger threatening from either huntsman or hound. He replied, "I do it advisedly; for it would never do to have to sharpen my weapons just at the time I ought to be using them."

Aesop's Fables, The Wild Boar and the Fox

 

"Now that's a damn snake!"

Jake Berger

 

"Yum-yum, eat 'em up”

Uncle George, the Wild Man from Borneo, from The Little Rascals.