Category: Quote of the Day

“None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but licence.” – John Milton 1608-1674, from: The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)

“You only have power over people as long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything he’s no longer in your power—he’s free again.” – Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, from The First Circle, 1968, Chapter 17

“If a sovereign oppresses his people to a great degree, they will rise and cut off his head. There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that will keep us safe under every form of government.” – Samuel Jonson

“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.” –  P.J. O’Rourke

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith …

“Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the …

“The second item in the liberal creed, after self-righteousness, is unaccountability. Liberals have invented whole college majors–psychology, sociology, women’s studies–to prove that nothing is anybody’s fault. No one is fond of taking responsibility for his actions, but consider how much you’d have to hate free will to come up with a political platform that advocates killing unborn babies but not convicted murderers. A callous pragmatist might favor abortion and capital punishment. A devout Christian would sanction neither. But it takes years of therapy to arrive at the liberal view.” –  P.J. O’Rourke, Give War a Chance

“Man, biologically considered, and whatever else he may be into the bargain, is simply the most formidable of all the beasts of prey, and, indeed, the only one that preys systematically on its own species.” – William James (1842-1910), in the Atlantic Monthly, December 1904, p. 84

“As it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation, amicably if they can, violently if they must.” – Josiah Quincy (1772-1864) — Abridgement of Debates of Congress vol. 4, p. 327, 14 January 1811

“The grass will grow in the streets of a hundred cities, a thousand towns.” –  President Herbert Hoover, from a speech given on 31 October 1932. (as quoted in ‘State Papers of Herbert Hoover’ (1934) vol. 2, p. 418, commenting on proposals ‘to reduce the protective tariff to a competitive tariff for revenue’.)

“They that die by famine die by inches.” – Matthew Henry, from ‘An Exposition of the Old and New Testament’ (1710) comments on Psalm 59

“Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation. Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is …

“And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them: he will …

“All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.” – Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 71

“Once its biggest self-celebration, May Day now signals Mayday for global communism. Just a half century ago, it seemed irrepressible, now communism is just reprehensible, with the relevance of a renaissance festival. Ironically, it is the Left who most want to forget… before the lesson behind communism’s demise can be more broadly applied. In the 1960s, the whole world seemed to be going communist. It held half of Europe, much of Africa, almost all of Asia, and seemingly the entire world’s intelligentsia. Only “benighted” pockets held out. Fifty years later, the situation has reversed – now communism is closeted away. …