Category: Quote of the Day

"That the several States composing, the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes — delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force." – Thomas Jefferson, Kentucky Resolutions of 1798

“We’re going to suspend your rights to protest, bear arms, privacy, and trial by jury.” “Why?” “To protect you from terrorists.” “Why do we need to be protected from terrorists?” “They hate you for your freedom.” – Reader “Nick Tha Swede,” commenting on an article about Mayor Bloomberg at The Politicker web site

“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.” – Thomas Jefferson

"Publication is a self-invasion of privacy." – Marshall McLuhan

“And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways [shall be] made smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Then said he to the multitude that came forth …

“My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.” – Proverbs 7:1-3 (KJV)

“When more of the people’s sustenance is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just obligations of government and expenses of its economical administration, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of the fundamental principles of a free government.” – Grover Cleveland

"There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal." – F. A. Hayek

"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home." – James Madison

"Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it political? 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 political, nor popular – but one must take it simply because it is right." – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“It takes a twisted sense of humor for Connecticut to call itself the Constitution State. Somewhere, Nathan Hale is puking.” – Ol’ Remus, The Woodpile Report

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” – 1 Timothy 2:1-4 (KJV)

“Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring [it] again to mind, O ye transgressors. Remember the former things of old: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else; [I am] God, and [there is] none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times [the things] that are not [yet] done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken [it], I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed [it], …

"Fire upon it, my dear Marquis, and never spare a particle of my property so long as it affords a comfort or a shelter to the enemies of my country." – Virginia Governor Thomas Nelson, when asked by Marquis de Lafayette, who was commanding the artillery barrage of Yorktown in the American War of Independence, if he had a target to recommend. Nelson pointed to his own home, knowing it would probably be used as a headquarters by British General Cornwallis.

"…There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. … Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing." – Daniel Webster, June 1, 1837