Sayings
(Issue #7 posted 1998-10-21)

Only a dead fish floats with the current.

In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs." - Walter Lippman, An Inquiry Into The Principles of a Free Society

Bumper Sticker: God is coming, and boy is he mad!

"You can't fly like an eagle with the wings of a wren." - William Henry Hudson

"It's better to know some of the questions than all of the answers." - James Thurber

"Nothing endures but change." - Heraclitus, circa 500 BC

"To teach is to learn twice." - Joseph Joubert

"Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash." - George Smith Patton in a letter to Cadet George S. Patton.

"Journalists say a thing that they know is untrue in the hope that if they keep saying it long enough it will be true." - Arnold Bennett

"We must demand the best, because you never get more than you ask for." - Louis Gerstner, CEO RJR Nabisco

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt

"When people are least sure, they are often most dogmatic." - John Kenneth Galbraith

"There is nothing so useless as doing with great efficiency that which should not be done at all." - Peter Druche

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end with doubt; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties." - Francis Bacon

"Fanaticism consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim." - George Santanana

"Courage is the price that life extracts for granting freedom." - Ameli Earhart

"I like what I'm doing better than the way you're not doing it." - Albert Schweitzer

"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing but others judge us by what we have done." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"If ye choose to be sheep, ye shall be mutton." - Frank Warren

"Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but force." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

"We should never attempt to get more equality by doing less justice." - Ernest van den Haag

"The state is what it is because the citizens are what they are. We may not expect better states until we have better men." - Plato

"Democracy, to be successful, must be practiced by politically mature people, among whom there is a consensus on the meaning of life within their society." - Bill Buckley

Freedom isn't free—but it's worth the price.

The following are mutually exclusive: Peace and freedom; Liberty and equality; fairness and simplicity.

Education is no substitute for literacy.

"To know is not enough—we must apply; to will is not enough—we must do." - Goethe

Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all that they have.

Be a leader: remember the lead sled dog is the only one with a decent view.

"The will to persevere is often the difference between success and failure." - David Sarnoff, Founder and President of RCA

"Things to remember: The value of time. The necessity of perseverance. The pleasure of working. The worth of character. The dignity of simplicity. The power of kindness. The wisdom of saving. The virtue of patience. The job of originality. The beauty of cheerfulness. The influence of example. The obligation of duty." - Anonymous

"Arms in the hands of citizens [may] be used at individual discretion . . . in private self-defense." - John Adams

". . . arms . . . discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. . . . Horrid mischief would ensue were [the law-abiding] deprived of them." - Thomas Paine

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." - Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria

"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves . . . and include all men capable of bearing arms . . . . To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." - Richard Henry Lee

"The Constitution shall never be construed . . . to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samuel Adams

"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people . . . . To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." - George Mason

"The more fundamental the truth, the more politically incorrect is the expression thereof." - G. Gordon Liddy

"A few people read, still fewer think, and a very few do both." Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

"Governments have always found it easier to impose 'the will of the people' upon the people if the people are unarmed." - Prof. Mark D. McLean

"When words lose their meaning, people loose their liberty." - Kung-Fu-Tse (Confucius)

"Tis true that the pen is mightier than the sword, but far more have people died for want of a sword than will die for lack of a pen." - Curtis Mohr

Only man has the will to direct an instrument, and only man, not an instrument, has the potential for evil.

"Glory is fleeting, obscurity lasts forever." - Napoleon Bonaparte

Among God's great gifts to humanity are fine weapons, beautiful women, great books, fine wines, fast cars, and good music. In return for these wonders we owe Him clear thoughts, good humor, courage, and kindness.

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to be happy is something to be enthusiastic about.

"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this life, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend." - Robert Louis Stevenson

"[I go armed that] I should have some chance of shooting the assassin before he could shoot me, if he were near me." - Theodore Roosevelt

"Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people. Action, self-reliance, the vision of self and the future have been the only means by which the oppressed have seen and realized the light of their own freedom." — Marcus Garvey

"If it is not seemly, do it not; if it is not true speak it not." - Marcus Aurelius, 121-180 AD, Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher.

"Over here, over there, everywhere, today, tomorrow, always: Bad men there are. Hate you they do. Kill you they will. Watch out you better!" - Old Shoshone refrain.

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened." - Winston Churchill

"He who will not risk cannot win." - John Paul Jones

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke


Back to current sayings