Introduction: "Tell me what you read and I will tell you what you think" is a quote by me. It applies to the quotes below which have helped to shape my thinking when considered as part of the corpus of material these quotes are extracted from. Any quotes can and will be taken out of context by those with an axe that needs grinding. However, a succinct line can have great power in the mind of thinking people often serving as a spur to additional reading which brings additional understanding. Exactly the point as to why I offer these for your consideration.
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."---Stephen Hawkin
"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"---The Most
Dreaded Enemy of Liberty James Madison 1795
Note: Now let me think a moment: war on poverty 1960's; war on
drugs 1969's to present; war on terror 2001 till hell freezes over. Has
our liberty, property, and freedom in any way been affected by these wars?
If one has not taken the time to read James Madison's works (any of them) then
they are to ignorant to talk about what the federal government should or should
not be doing on any issue.
"If you have made mistakes...there is always another chance for you...you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down."--- Mary Pickford
"The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair". ---H. L. Mencken
"True liberal principles of individual liberty have been steadily ground down, even in the democracies, between the statist millstones of Left and Right." ---Quoted from: Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D.
"In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."---Eric Hoffer
"The weapons of the positive revolution are not bullets and bombs but simple human perceptions. Bullets and bombs may offer physical power but eventually will only work if they change perceptions and values. Why not go the direct route and work with perceptions and values?"---Dr Edward de Bono, Handbook for the Positive Revolution
"In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a
revolutionary act." - George Orwell, 1984
"The evil of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John Hay
"To destroy a people you must first sever their roots." - Alexander
Solzhenitsyn.
"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he
disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson
"When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits
the horizon." - Thomas Paine
"Political correctness is a form of bigotry behind which cowards hide." - James
Von Brunn
"One cannot free oneself by bowing to the yoke, but by breaking it." - Carl
Gustav Jung
