Alan Greenspan, US Federal Reserve Chairman
“All taxes are a drag on economic growth. It’s only a question of degree.”
from Wall Street Journal March 26, 1997
Albert Jay Nock
“There are two methods, or means, and only two, whereby man’s needs and desires can be satisfied. One is the production and exchange of wealth; this is the economic means. The other is the uncompensated appropriation of wealth produced by others; this is the political means.”
Alexander Hamilton
“If it be asked, ‘What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic?’ The answer would be, ‘An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws the first growing out of the last.’ ... A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.”
Alexander Hamilton
“The instrument by which it [government] must act are either the AUTHORITY of the laws or FORCE. If the first be destroyed, the last must be substituted; and where this becomes the ordinary instrument of government there is an end to liberty!”
Alexander Hamilton
”[N]atural liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator to the whole human race, and…civil liberty is founded in that; and cannot be wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of justice.”
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 11
“The rights of neutrality will only be respected when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.”
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 15
“Government implies the power of making laws. It is essential to the idea of a law, that it be attended with a sanction; or, in other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience.”
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 21
“The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.”
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 73
“The injury which may possibly be done by defeating a few good laws, will be amply compensated by the advantage of preventing a number of bad ones.”
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 85
“We may safely rely on the disposition of the State legislatures to erect barriers against the encroachments of the national authority.”
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 85
“I never expect to see a perfect work from imperfect man.”
Anonymous
“When you go home”
Tell them for us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today.
From outside the Marine cemetary on Iwo Jima (Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley, 2000)
Ayn Rand
“Whoever claims the right to redistribute the wealth produced by others is claiming the right to treat human beings as chattel.”
Ayn Rand
“Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by production.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.”
Benjamin Franklin
“I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?”
Benjamin Franklin
“Work as if you were to live 100 Years, Pray as if you were to die To-morrow.”
Benjamin Franklin
“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Benjamin Franklin
“If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it?”
Benjamin Franklin, 1759
“They that can give up a essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”
C. S. Lewis
“Non-Christians seem to think that the Incarnation implies some particular merit or excellence in humanity. But of course it implies just the reverse: a particular demerit and depravity. No creature that deserved Redemption would need to be redeemed. They that are whole need not the physician. Christ died for men precisely because men are not worth dying for; to make them worth it.”
Charles Adams, Author
“With the 16th Amendment, the battle cry of the American Revolution of taxation by consent became a fraud. ... The working principle of a democratic society is that a law, to be just, must give equal treatment to all. That’s what the founders had in mind when they required taxes to be ‘uniform.’ When the tax makers are let loose to discriminate in taxation and abandon rules of uniformity and apportionment, the door is open to extortion.”
in Investor’s Business Daily, April 14, 1998
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ But conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.”
Ernest Hemingway
“Never mistake motion for action.”
G. Gordon Liddy
“A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.”
George Washington
“There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily.”
George Washington
“It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.”
George Washington
“It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.”
George Washington
“It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.”
George Washington
“Knowledge is, in every country, the surest basis of public happiness.”
George Washington
“Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.”
George Washington
“But if we are to be told by a foreign Power…what we shall do, and what we shall not do, we have Independence yet to seek, and have contended hitherto for very little.”
George Washington
“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.”
George Washington
”[T]he foundation of a great Empire is laid, and I please myself with a persuasion, that Providence will not leave its work imperfect.”
George Washington
“The scheme, my dear Marqs. which you propose as a precedent, to encourage the emancipation of the black people of this Country from that state of Bondage in wch. they are held, is a striking evidence of the benevolence of your Heart. I shall be happy to join you in so laudable a work.”
George Washington
“We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our won Country’s Honor, all call upon us for vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions.”
George Will, 7-15-04
“bipartisanship often is the elevation of the shared interests of the political class over the public interest.”
Gouverneur Morris
“Religion is the only solid Base of morals and that Morals are the only possible Support of free governments.”
Harry Browne (1996 & 2000 Libertarian Party Presidential candidate)
“The government is good at one thing…it knows how to break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say ‘see if it weren’t for the government you wouldn’t be able to walk.’”
Henry Ford
“Time and money spent in helping men do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.”
James Dale Davidson
“The politicians don’t just want your money. They want your soul. They want you to be worn down by taxes until you are dependent and helpless.”
James Madison
“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.”
James Madison
“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.”
James Madison
“Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.”
James Madison
”[The Convention] thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.”
James Madison
“Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one.”
James Madison, Federalist No. 41
“How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could prohibit, in like manner, the preparations and establishments of every hostile nation?”
James Madison, Federalist No. 45
“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”
James Wilson
“Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness.”
Jay Bryant 5-26-05
“Here’s the worst thing about the deal for Republicans: the filibuster lives on. In pre-deal discussions with several of the party faithful, I heard the argument that “we ought to be careful about what we do, because someday we’ll probably be in the minority again.”— Yeah, probably. But so what? The filibuster is a) a bad idea, and b) pretty much the exclusive property of the Democrats. Quick, name one successful Republican filibuster of anything.”
Jeff Jacoby
“The deepest and unhealthiest divide in American politics is not the one that separates Republicans from Democrats or conservatives from liberals. It is the gulf between Insiders and Outsiders—between the incumbents who treat public office as private property and the increasingly neutered electorate in whose name they claim to act. You may have learned in ninth-grade civics class that lawmakers are the people’s servants, temporarily entrusted with power that the people can take back at any time. But ninth grade is light-years away from the reality of Congress and the statehouses today, where many legislators regard their positions as lifetime entitlements that voters must not be allowed to tamper with.”
2-21-05 in Townhall’s Opinion Alert
John Adams
“I Pray Heaven to Bestow The Best of Blessing on THIS [White] HOUSE, and on ALL that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof!”
John Adams
“Statesmen my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand. ... The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty.”
John Adams
”[R]eligion and virtue are the only foundations, not of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all government and in all the combinations of human society.”
John Adams
“Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.”
John F. Kennedy
“In short, it is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low. And the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now.”
at Economic Club of New York, December 14, 1962 on supply side taxes cuts
John Hancock
“There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head!”
Joseph Farah 1999
“Do we live in a land governed by the people? Or have we become a nation that will tolerate — even celebrate — any evil justified by a handful of arrogant ruling elitists?”
Joseph Sobran
“Power tempts even the best of men to take liberties with the truth.”
Lawrence W. Reed, economist
“Have you ever noticed how statists are constantly ‘reforming’ their own handiwork? Education reform. Health-care reform. Welfare reform. Tax reform. The very fact that they’re always busy ‘reforming’ is an implicit admission that they didn’t get it right the first 50 times.”
published in The Freeman
Lyn Nofziger
“There are many things in America worth conserving. But I am one of those conservatives who believes the most important of those things is liberty. Without liberty, without individual freedom, what is left to conserve isn’t worth all that much.”
Lyn Nofziger
“There is an old saying in this town—I just made it up—that when the going gets tough the Democrats can always count on a few Republicans to switch sides.”
Nathan Hale
“I am not influenced by the expectation of promotion or pecuniary reward. I wish to be useful, and every kind of service necessary for the public good, become honorable by being necessary.”
Nathan Hale
“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
Noah Webster
“Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Oliver Wendell Holmes was one of our country’s greatest jurists, and one day a fellow judge accused Holmes of shifting his position on some issue. Holmes replied: ‘When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?’”
quoted by Herb Meyer in the American Thinker October 20, 2004
Patrick Henry
”[I]f you speak of solid information and sound judgement, Colonel Washington is, unquestionably the greatest man on that floor.”
Rense Johnson
“Are we governed by the best and brightest this country has to offer?
Why not?” —Rense Johnson
Rense Johnson
“Are we governed by the best and brightest this country has to offer? Why not?”
Rense Johnson
“No nation can ever be greater than the combined character, integrity and virtue of its leaders.”
Richard K Sorenson, U. S. Marine Corps Medal of Honor WW II
“We must dedicate ourselves to the principle that ‘freedom under God’ is man’s destiny. We must not only live our lives under this principle, but also defend it unto death with the courage of free men. Our country won its freedom in one generation, but in one generation could also lose it.”
Quote taken from A Gathering of Eagles, by Col. Jimmie D. Coy. Reprinted with permission. Book may be purchased through amazon.com.
Robert Novak
“Shortly after Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina was elected Senate Republican campaign chairman with support from 28 senators, she was approached by 29 senators saying they had voted for her in the secret ballot.”
from Townhall.com 11-20-04
Ronald Reagan
“The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.”
Ronald Reagan
“There is a spark in each of us which, if struck at the right age, can light up the rest of our lives.”
Ronald Reagan
“Freedom is not something to be secured at any one moment of time. We must struggle to preserve it every day. And Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.”
Ronald Reagan
“While America’s military strength is important, let me add here that I have always maintained that the struggle now going on for the world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith.”
Ronald Reagan
“But bearing what we cannot change and going on with what God has given us, confident there is a destiny, somehow seems to bring a reward we wouldn’t exchange for any other. It takes a lot of fire and heat to make a piece of steel.”
Ronald Reagan 1978
[Government] can’t tax things like businesses or corporations, it can only tax people. When it says it’s going to ‘make business pay,’ it is really saying it is going to make business help it collect taxes.
Samuel Adams
“Religion in a Family is at once its brightest Ornament & its best Security.”
from a letter to Thomas Wells, 22 November 1780
Samuel Adams
”[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”
Samuel Adams
“In the supposed state of nature, all men are equally bound by the laws of nature, or to speak more properly, the laws of the Creator.”
Samuel Adams
“What a glorious morning this is!”
Battle of Lexington
Samuel Adams
“Religion in a Family is at once its brightest Ornament & its best Security.”
in a letter to Thomas Wells, 22 November 1780
Samuel Adams
“Religion in a Family is at once its brightest Ornament & its best Security.”
in a letter to Thomas Wells, 22 November 1780
Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964 (1909-1998)
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.”
Thomas Jefferson
“A wise and frugal government … shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”
Thomas Jefferson
“An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.”
Thomas Jefferson
“The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all citizens.”
Thomas Jefferson
“Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands.”
Thomas Jefferson
“The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys.”
Thomas Jefferson
“Excessive taxation…will carry reason and reflection to every man’s door, and particularly in the hour of election.”
Thomas Jefferson
“The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people.”
Thomas Jefferson
“The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys.”
Thomas Jefferson
“The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.”
Thomas Jefferson
“One single object…[will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation.”
Thomas Jefferson
“One single object…[will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation.”
Thomas Jefferson
“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.”
Thomas Jefferson
“The freedom and happiness of man…[are] the sole objects of all legitimate government.”
Thomas Jefferson
“The Constitution…is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which they may twist and shape into any form they please.”
Thomas Paine
“The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety.”
Thomas Paine, 1737-1809
“My language has always been that of liberty and humanity, and I know by experience that nothing so exalts a nation as the union of these two principles, under all circumstances.”
Unknown
“Its not charity if its at the point of a gun.”
Unknown
“If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?”
Unknown
“The real purpose of the Law of the Sea Treaty — LOST — is to force the United States to use our wealth and technology to mine the riches of the sea and turn them over to a gang of Third World dictators who are consumed with envy of America. Opportunity is knocking for a Republican senator or governor who will lead the charge against LOST. ”
William E. Simon
“If you would not confront your neighbor and demand his money at the point of a gun to solve every new problem that may appear in your life, you should not allow the government to do it for you.”
