Category: Quote of the Day

“Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mèrite.”  Translated:  “Every country has the government it deserves.” – Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821)

“America’s contemporary police officers now almost reflexively say: ‘Show me your I.D.’  I see hardly any difference from the familiar old German Gestapo demand: ‘Deine Papiere, bitte.’  (‘Your papers, please.’) Or, less politely: ‘Zeig mir deine Papiere.’  (‘Show me your papers.’) If you are stopped by police but not placed under formal arrest, then you are not obliged to give your name or produce identity documents unless an officer can state a reasonable articulable suspicion of an actual crime that has been committed or that is about to be committed.  Without that reasonable articulable suspicion (under the Terry v. Ohio doctrine), …

“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore …

“Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered. And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of …

“When Freedom from her mountain-height Unfurled her standard to the air, She tore the azure robe of night, And set the stars of glory there. She mingled with its gorgeous dyes The milky baldric of the skies, And striped its pure, celestial white With streakings of the morning light. Flag of the free heart’s hope and home! By angel hands to valour given! Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, And all thy hues were born in heaven. Forever float that standard sheet! Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With Freedom’s soil beneath our feet, And Freedom’s banner …

“Peace is more than just the absence of war. True peace is justice, true peace is freedom. And true peace dictates the recognition of human rights.” – Ronald Reagan, 1986

“Napoleon’s troops fought in bright fields, where every helmet caught some gleams of glory; but the British soldier conquered under the cool shade of aristocracy. No honours awaited his daring, no despatch gave his name to the applauses of his countrymen; his life of danger and hardship was uncheered by hope, his death unnoticed.” – General William Francis Patrick Napier (1785-1860), in Peninsular War (1810). Vol. ii. Book xi. Chap. iii.

“Hinc quam sic calamus sævior ense, patet.” (Translated: “The pen worse than the sword.”) – Robert Burton (1576-1640) Anatomy of Melancholy. Part I. Sect. 2, Memb. 4, Subsect. 4.

“Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations,—entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigour, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; . . . . freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries …

“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore …

“He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.”  – Isaiah 33: 15-17 (KJV)

“Whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.” – John Locke

“L’immoralitè est la base du despotisme comme la ventu est l’essence de la Rèpublique.” (Translated: “Wickedness is the root of despotism as virtue is the essence of the Republic.”) – Maximilien Robespierre (1758-94) In the Convention, 7 May 1794, as cited by A. Cobban, in: ‘Aspects of the French Revolution’ (1968)    

“Liberty is liberty, not equality or fairness or justice or human happiness or a quiet conscience.” – Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997), from ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’ (1958) p. 10

“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.” – Francis Bacon, ‘Essays’ (1625) ‘Of Studies’”