Sayings
Issue #63 Posted January '10
"Peace is that brief, glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading." -- Anonymous
"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm." -- James Madison
"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks." -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, 1785
"A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason. Let us be like the man of the frontier and always reveal with utmost honesty our real reasons for all that we do." -- J.P. Morgan
"Of all the things a police state can do to its citizens, distorting history is possibly the most pernicious." -- Robert Hinlien in If this goes on--
"It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth -- and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts. ... Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not?" -- Patrick Henry
"To ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless, and that the law will permit them to have only such rights and liberties as the lawless will allow... For society does not control crime, ever, by forcing the law-abiding to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior of criminals. Society controls crime by forcing the criminals to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior of the law-abiding." -- Jeff Snyder
"He that is warm for truth, and fearless in its defense, performs one of the duties of a good man; he strengthens his own conviction, and guards others from delusion; but steadiness of belief, and boldness of profession, are yet only part of the form of godliness." -- Samuel Johnson
"The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it." -- Proverbs 27:12
"[A] wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, 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." -- Thomas Jefferson
"He is most safe who is on guard even when all seems secure." -- Unknown
"I am not afraid to go unarmed...I simply detest being unarmed. It is a contemptible and undignified condition in which to find oneself." - anon. Gunsite graduate
"A little integrity is better than any career." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Genius has its limits. Stupidity knows no bounds." -- Unknown
"Sir, there is a distinct difference between having an open mind and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out." -- James Randi
"Much of what government does is based on the premise that people can't do things for themselves. So government must do it for them. More often than not, the result is a ham-handed, bumbling, one-size-fits-all approach that leaves the intended beneficiaries worse off. Of course, this resulting failure is never blamed on the political approach -- on the contrary, failure is taken to mean the government solution was not extravagant enough." -- columnist John Stossel
"What is most frightening about the political left is that they seem to have no sense of the tragedy of the human condition. All problems seem to them to be due to other people not being as wise or as noble as they are." -- economist Thomas Sowell
"Under every plausible analysis, it seems, ObamaCare will deliver lower-quality care at higher prices, increasing the federal debt while reducing Americans' freedom. Why are they so determined to do this to us?" -- Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto
"When there is no justice in the land, a nation's administrators are little more than a gang of criminals." -- Augustine
"The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus
"Compassion towards the wicked is cruelty to all beings." -- Ancient Jewish proverb
"When someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun." -- The Dalai Lama, 15 May 01, speaking at the "Educating Heart Summit" in Portland, OR, when asked by a girl how to react when a shooter takes aim at a classmate.
"Amendment X: 'The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.' ... New York Times: 'The Senate health care legislation will include a government-run insurance plan, but states would be allowed to "opt out" of it, the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, announced Monday afternoon.' ... If the American press corps were as concerned about the Tenth Amendment as it has been protecting the First and trying to get rid of the Second, this would be a far different country." -- political analyst Rich Galen
"Communism is nothing more than Nazism with better PR. Its track record of atrocities dwarf those of Hitler, and its core philosophy is every bit as repugnant, if not more so. That anyone in America would even attempt to put 'lipstick on this pig' is an unmitigated disgrace. That they can do it with such relative ease -- under the banner of 'social justice,' no less -- is truly frightening." -- columnist Arnold Ahlert
"One day, your life will flash in front of your eyes. Make it worth watching." -- author unknown
"If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care, and so on. The only thing lacking ... is freedom." -- 5-Star General and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)
"If you meet it promptly and without flinching -- you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!" -- British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." -- Winston Churchill
"Nonsense is nonsense whether it rhymes or not, just as bad half-pennies are good for nothing whether they jingle or lie quiet." -- Charles Spurgeon
"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it." -- H.L. Mencken
" I am no so concerned with who my grandfather was, as much as who his grandson will be " -- Abraham Lincoln.
"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
"Two things indicate weakness -- to be silent when it is time to speak and to speak when it is time to be silent." -- Old Persian Proverb
"No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session." -- Judge Gideon Tucker
"The right to own weapons is the right to be free" -- Unknown
"What is euphemistically called government-corporate 'partnership' is just government coercion, political favoritism, collectivist industrial policy, and old-fashioned federal boondoggles nicely wrapped up in a bright-colored ribbon. It doesn't work." -- Ronald Reagan
"Mental fight means thinking against the current, not with it... It is our business to puncture gas bags and discover the seeds of truth." -- Virginia Woolf
"English experience indicates that when two political parties agree about something, it is generally wrong." -- G. K. Chesterton
"What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do." -- Aristotle
"A liberal is a man who will give away everything he doesn't own." -- Frank Dane
"The more help a person has in his garden, the less it belongs to him." -- William H. Davies
"Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow." -- Elias Boudinot
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." -- Albert Einstein
"Be not too hasty to trust or admire the teachers of morality; they discourse like angels but they live like men." -- Dr. Samuel Johnson
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
"The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good..." -- James Madison
"Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it." -- Maimonides (1135-1204)
"Madness is to hold an erroneous perception and argue perfectly from it." -- French writer Voltaire (1694-1778)
"He who joyfully marches to music 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 fully suffice." -- physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
"Peace" is that brief, glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading." -- Anonymous
"...We are breaking through all those sacred maxims of our forefathers, and giving alarm to every wise man on the continent of America, that all his rights depend on the will of men whose corruptions are notorious, who regard him as an enemy, and who have no interest in his prosperity." -- George Johnstone, addressing the British House of Commons, October 26, 1775
"Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness." -- Samuel Adams
"We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst." -- C.S. Lewis
"For all that I should have thought, and did not think..., for all that I should have said and did not say...., for all that I should have done and did not do..., Heavenly Father, forgive me" -- From the movie The 13th Warrior
"Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one less scoundrel in the world." -- Thomas Carlyle
"The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians." -- Benjamin Disraeli
"Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That slaves, howe'er contented, never know." -- William Cowper
"I profoundly believe it takes a lot of practice to become a moral slob." -- William F. Buckley
"One may smile and smile and be a villain." -- William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
"You know what the difference between you and me really is? You look out there and see a horde of evil, brain eating zombies. I look out there and see a target rich environment." -- from the frontispiece of Monster Hunter International, Baen Publishing, 2009.
"Everything that deceives can be said to enchant." -- Plato
"A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing. One that sounds good, and a real one." -- J. P. Morgan
"It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution." -- Oscar Wilde
"It would be a great reform in politics if wisdom could be made to spread as easily and as rapidly as folly." -- Winston Churchill
"I say that the Second Amendment is, in order of importance, the first amendment. It is America's First Freedom, the one right that protects all the others." -- Charlton Heston
"If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist. If you see distinctions between the genders, it does not make you a sexist. If you think critically about a denomination, it does not make you anti-religion. If you accept but don't celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a homophobe." -- Charlton Heston
"As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue. No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated." -- Charlton Heston
"I'd rather play a senator than be one." -- Charlton Heston
"Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden." - Eric Hoffer, The True Believer, Chapter II, Section 26, Paragraph 3
"Discontent is the first necessity of progress." -- Thomas Edison
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. -- Walt Disney
"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. -- That will be the beginning." -- Louis L'Amour
"Making the beginning is one third of the work." -- Irish Proverb
"The greatest masterpieces were once only pigments on a palette." -- Henry S. Hoskins
"Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning." -- John Henry Cardinal
"First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination." -- Napoleon Hill
"The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning. -- Ivy Baker Priest
"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." -- Carl Bard
"Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand." -- Augustine of Hippo
"I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom." -- Calvin Coolidge
"Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist." -- Edmund Burke
"We are apt to be deluded into false security by political catch-words, devised to flatter rather than instruct." -- James A. Garfield
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H. L. Mencken
"We focus on the negative and our politicians stoke our unhappiness all the more. They bribe us with our own money, promising to expand the government to address the grievances that they promote. But we ought to be careful what we wish for." -- Tom Purcell
"The time is long overdue to stop gullibly accepting the left's vision of itself as idealistic, rather than self-aggrandizing." -- Thomas Sowell
"When you are employed, hence dependent on other people's judgment, looking busy can help you claim responsibility for the results in a random environment." -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb in The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable", pg 143.
"You must study to be frank with the world: frankness is the child of honesty and courage. Say just what you mean to do on every occasion, and take it for granted that you mean to do right." -- Robert E. Lee
"Character is the single most important ingredient of leadership." -- Gen. H. Norman Schwartzkopf
"Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community?" -- Ronald Reagan
"The state tends to expand in proportion to its means of existence and to live beyond its means, and these are, in the last analysis, nothing but the substance of the people. Woe to the people that cannot limit the sphere of action of the state! Freedom, private enterprise, wealth, happiness, independence, personal dignity, all vanish." -- French economist Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)
"In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other." -- Voltaire
"I don't like government, it's just that simple." -- Lyn Nofziger
What is good? "To crush your enemies. To see them driven before you. To hear the lamentations of their women"- Conan the Barbarian
"'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death." -- Thomas Paine
"Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters." -- Samuel Adams
"Many are destined to reason wrongly; others, not to reason at all; and others to persecute those who do reason." -- Voltaire
"A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying that he is wiser today than he was yesterday." -- Alexander Pope
"We cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty if we expect our republic permanently to endure. Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life; it matters not how brilliant his capacity." -- Theodore Roosevelt
"It is equally dangerous giving a madman a knife and a villain power." -- Socrates
"The more Congress does, the less Americans prosper. Freedom, not legislation and regulation, is what powers the U.S. economy. The old political wisdom is a sound investment guideline, too: That government is best that governs least." -- Jeff Jacoby
"The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival of barefaced barbarity, other than concessions and smiles." -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
2010-1