Great QuotesOf all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely 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. -- C.S. Lewis
I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents. -- James Madison, principal author of the US Constitution
With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the details of powers (enumerated in the Constitution) connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proof was not contemplated by its creators. -- James Madison
I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. -- James Madison
When people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the Republic. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -- Benjamin Franklin
If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy. -- Thomas Jefferson
The greatest security against the introduction of corrupt practices and principles into our government is to make [Congress keep] ... public expenses down to their minimum. -- Thomas Jefferson
I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. -- Thomas Jefferson
The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. -- Thomas Jefferson
By a declaration of rights, I mean one which shall stipulate freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce against monopolies, trial by juries in all cases, no suspensions of the habeas corpus, no standing armies. These are fetters against doing evil which no honest government should decline. -- Thomas Jefferson
What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body, no matter whether of the autocrats of Russia or France, or of the aristocrats of a Venetian Senate. -- Thomas Jefferson
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. -- Thomas Jefferson
To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father's has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association--the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it. -- Thomas Jefferson
The Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of it's benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind. -- Thomas Jefferson
Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? -- Thomas Jefferson
I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is "needed" before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents "interests," I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can. -- Barry Goldwater
If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen. -- Samuel Adams
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. ... And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure--reason & experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. -- George Washington
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened. -- Sir Winston Churchill
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. -- Sir Winston Churchill
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. -- Sir Winston Churchill
Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm. -- Sir Winston Churchill
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. -- Confucius
I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. -- Thomas A. Edison
Genius is one percent inspiration, and ninety-nine percent perspiration. -- Thomas A. Edison
One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its reward to the man who loves his work. But speaking for myself, I can honestly say this is not so...I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success. -- Thomas A. Edison
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. -- Albert Einstein
The mere formulation of a problem is far more often essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science. -- Albert Einstein
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. -- Albert Einstein
No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong. -- Albert Einstein
We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. -- Albert Einstein
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? -- Albert Einstein
If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability. -- Henry Ford
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young. -- Henry Ford
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. -- Galileo Galilei
In any non-trivial axiomatic system, there are true theorems which cannot be proven. -- Kurt Goedel
First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Fear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth. -- Ernest Hemingway
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! -- Patrick Henry
Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. -- Lloyd Jones
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. -- Ann Landers
The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. -- Vincent T. Lombardi
The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand. -- Vincent T. Lombardi
If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants. -- Isaac Newton
In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up. -- Martin Niemoeller, German Lutheran Pastor
The greatest wealth is to live content with little. -- Plato
Every man is ignorant - just on different subjects. -- Will Rodgers
It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt. -- Mark Twain
Courage is the mastery of fear, not the absence of fear. -- Mark Twain
The man with a new idea is a crank, until the idea succeeds. -- Mark Twain
It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them. -- Mark Twain
I may not agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. -- Voltaire
Work keeps us from three great evils: boredom, vice and poverty. -- Voltaire
If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him. -- Voltaire
The multitude of books is making us ignorant. -- Voltaire
A witty saying proves nothing. -- Voltaire
Anything too stupid to be said is sung. -- Voltaire
The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be. -- Paul Valery
Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! It is a dangerous servent and a terrible master. -- George Washington
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. -- George Santayana
Fanaticism consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim. -- George Santayana
Cynicism is knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. -- Oscar Wilde
We think in generalities, but we live in detail. -- Alfred North Whitehead
Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway. -- John Wayne
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half. -- John Wanamaker
To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe. -- Marilyn vos Savant
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. -- George Orwell
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. -- George Orwell
Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help out that of the other. -- George Orwell, 1942
The quickest way to end a war is to lose it. -- George Orwell
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is. -- Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut
Nobody believes a theoretical analysis - except the guy who did it. Everybody believes an experimental analysis - except the guy who did it. -- Unknown
Hindsight is always 20/20. -- Billy Wilder
It ain't over till it's over. -- Yogi Berra
Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded. -- Yogi Berra
When you come to a fork in the road, take it! -- Yogi Berra
Never fight an inanimate object. -- P.J. O'Rourke
My toughest fight was with my first wife. -- Muhammad Ali
It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens. -- Woody Allen
Do not count your chickens before they are hatched. -- Aesop
Appearances often are deceiving. -- Aesop
Familiarity breed contempt. -- Aesop
Better to be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own. -- Aesop
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. -- Aesop
Don't carry moderation to extremes. -- Unknown
Check back soon for more great quotes! -- Russ Paielli
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