Anable
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Notable Quotables............................................. . . . . . . . . |
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Index |
Edward | A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. |
Voltaire | It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong |
George | Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. |
Thomas Paine | The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance |
Teddy | To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day |
Thomas | We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate. Were we to be directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread. If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment ... inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose The people are the ultimate guardians of their own liberties. In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy. Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first. What is it men cannot be made to believe! Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just. I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country. Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority: It was unjust and unrepublican for one generation of a nation to encumber the next with the obligation to discharge the debts of the first. After all, the following generation cannot have given their consent to decisions made by their fathers, nor will they have necessarily benefited from the deficit expenditures. Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction. The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground |
James Madison | All men having power ought to be mistrusted |
William | The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated. If the doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to declare war and they are screened at once from scrutiny |
Butler D. | Because we fear the responsibility for our actions, we have allowed ourselves to develop the mentality of slaves. Contrary to the stirring sentiments of the Declaration of Independence, we now pledge "our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor" not to one another for our mutual protection, but to the state, whose actions continue to exploit, despoil, and destroy us |
Robert E. | What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world |
Abraham | I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. |
Martin | Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace |
Robert | The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions |
Mahatma | One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds. The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles. |
Joseph | Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them." |
Plato | We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. |
Samuel | The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember that `if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.' it is a very serious consideration...that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event. |
Frank | The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people |
African | Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters |
Georges | The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means." |
John | The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing Liberty can not be preserved without general knowledge among people. Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws. |
Helena | Ah yes, truth. Funny how everyone is always asking for it but when they get it they don't believe it because it's not the truth they want to hear." |
Herbert | The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear |
Mark | How you can win the population for war: At first, the statesman will invent cheap lying, that impute the guilt of the attacked nation, and each person will be happy over this deceit, that calm the conscience. It will study it detailed and refuse to test arguments of the other opinion. So he will convince step for step even therefrom that the war is just and thank God, that he, after this process of grotesque even deceit, can sleep better It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it... ( other twainisms ) |
Napoleon | In the eyes of empire builders men are not men but instruments |
Woodrow T. | The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy |
Hermann | God gave the savior to the German people. We have faith, deep and unshakeable faith, that he was sent to us by God to save Germany. Hermann Goering, speaking of Hitler |
Aristotle | A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side |
George W. | If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier - just so long as I'm the dictator. We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace. I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe-I believe what I believe is right. International law? I better call my lawyer; he didn't bring that up to me ( More ) |
Karl | War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost. |
Haile | Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph |
Albert | The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them! Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs Only two things are infinite. The universe and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe He who joyfully marches 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 suffice |
Bertrand | Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false Dogma demands authority, rather than intelligent thought, as the source of opinion; it requires persecution of heretics and hostility to unbelievers; it asks of its disciples that they should inhibit natural kindliness in favor of systematic hatred. I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology. ...It's importance has been enormously Increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda ... Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated. |
Franklin D. | Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people. The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of a private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson. The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group or any controlling private power. |
Thomas | He does not believe who does not live according to his belief |
Friedrich | Morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose Insanity in individuals is something rare -- but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule. |
Ernest | Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime |
Henry | The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. |
Frank | If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual. |
William | When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do. |
Barbara | But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's, it's not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? |
Patrick | We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth... For my part, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst; and to provide for it |
Barry | Now those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth, and let me remind you they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyranny |
George | The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essense of inhumanity |
Kahlil | Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills? |
Mohandas | An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it |
Wang | War is the extension of politics and politics is the extension of economic interests, |
Ramsey | We're not a democracy. It's a terrible misunderstanding and a slander to the idea of democracy to call us that. In reality, we're a plutocracy: a government by the wealthy. |
John | Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy |
Benito | Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power. |
John | The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. |
Benjamin | Let those who would die for the flag on the field of battle give a better proof of their patriotism and a higher glory to their country by promoting fraternity and justice We Americans have no commission from God to police the world |
Joseph | The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly...it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State. |
George | The process [of mass-media deception] has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt.... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies - all this is indispensably necessary. Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life ... A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors... Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them. There is almost no kind of outrage-----torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians-----which does not change its moral color when it is committed by 'our' side. |
Benjamin | Half a truth is often a great lie |
Rudyard | If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied. |
Martin | Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it politic? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? 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 one must take it simply because it is right. |
Machiavelli | For in every city these two opposite parties [people vs aristocracy] are to be found, arising from the desire of the populace to avoid oppression of the great, and the desire of the great to command and oppress the people....For when the nobility see that they are unable to resist the people, they unite in exalting one of their number and creating him prince, so as to be able to carry out their own designs under the shadow of his authority. [S]ince love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved. |
Ralph | ...most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four; so that every word they say chagrins us, and we know not where to begin to set them right. |
Adolf | The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others |
Larry | Conscience is the knowledge someone is watching |
Euripides | A slave is he who cannot speak his thoughts. |
Anne Louise | "Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty. |
Woodrow | A great industrial Nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the Nation and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. |
Aldous | At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human |
Noam | ...free enterprise, [is] a term that refers, in practice, to a system of public subsidy and private profit, with massive government intervention in the economy to maintain a welfare state for the rich. The point of public relations slogans like "Support our troops" is that they don't mean anything... That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. Its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something: Do you support our policy? That's the one you're not allowed to talk about. |
Marshall | Today the tyrant rules not by club or fist, but, disguised as a market researcher, he shepherds his flocks in the ways of utility and comfort. |
Johann | None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. |
James | Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. |
Gary | Only the winners decide what were war crimes. |
Anable | [Mother] A bridge between the days when horses drew buggies and man walked on the moon, before ladies got to vote, and women got elected Time will tell, we say, and yet we fear the tale be sad - - Time, unlock us now, and let the tale be told. |
Andre | The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his [or her] deception, the one who lies with sincerity. |
Stonewall | The battlefield is a great place for liars, |
C.S. Lewis | Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. 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 |
Dwight D. | Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are...a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid. |
Sydney | Our real enemies are the people who make us feel so good that we are slowly, but inexorably, pulled down into the quicksand of smugness and self-satisfaction |
Ambrose | ALLIANCE, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third |
James | Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity. Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong. |
Thich | In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us. |
Henry | It's not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true. |
Howard | If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves. |
William | When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do. |
Edward R. | A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves |
C. L. De | The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded. |
Aesop | The injury we do and the one we suffer are not weighed in the same scales |
Geoffrey L. | In the last analysis we must be judged by what we do and not by what we believe. We are as we behave - with a very small margin of credit for our unmanifested vision of how we might behave if we could take the trouble. |
Alfred | It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them |
Hermann | Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country |
| The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through |
Alfred E. |
Crime does not pay ... as well as politics. America; first we fight for our freedom,then we make laws to take it away. The reason many people are lost in thought is because its unfamiliar territory ( More ) |
Arthur M. | For most Americans the Constitution had become a hazy document, cited like the Bible on ceremonial occasions but forgotten in the daily transactions of life." |
Erasmus |
There are some whose only reason for inciting war is to use it as a means to exercise their tyranny over their subjects more easily. For in times of peace the authority of the assembly, the dignity of the magistrates, the force of the laws stand in the way to some extent of the ruler doing what he likes. But once war is declared then the whole business of state is subject to the will of a few ... They demand as much money as they like. Why say more? |
Martin | |
Oscar | The pure and simple truth is seldom pure....and never simple |
Marcus | So let us regard this as settled: what is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious |
Robert G. | The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to himself and his fellow men |
William | Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of opinion |
Henry |
Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive. |
Martin |
First they came for the Communists; I wasn't a Communist so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the Trade Unionists; I wasn't in a Union so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the Jews; but I was a Christian, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the Catholics; I was a Protestant, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for me; and there was no one left to speak up |