"Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtain, wheel the sofa round, And while the bubbling and loud hissing urn Throws up a steamy column; and the cups That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in." -William Cowper, "The Task" (1785)
“Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distresses of every one, and let your hand give in proportion to your purse; remembering always the estimation of the widow’s mite, but, that it is not every one who asketh that deserveth charity; all, however, are worthy of the inquiry, or the deserving may suffer.” – President George Washington, letter to Bushrod Washington, Jan. 15, 1783
"Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide." – Dr. Jerry Pournelle
"Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken." – Warren Buffett
"In peace and prosperity states and individuals have better sentiments, because they do not find themselves suddenly confronted with imperious necessities; but war takes away the easy supply of daily wants, and so proves a rough master than brings most men’s characters to a level with their fortunes." – Thucydides, circa 400 BC, during a revolt on Corfu
“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” – President Calvin Coolidge
"Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company." – President George Washington
"If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: "God with us." We tend to focus our attention at Christmas on the infancy of Christ. The greater truth of the holiday is His deity. More astonishing than a baby in the manger is the truth that this promised baby is the omnipotent Creator of the heavens and the earth!" – John F. MacArthur, Jr.
"God grant you the light in Christmas, which is faith; the warmth of Christmas, which is love; the radiance of Christmas, which is purity; the righteousness of Christmas, which is justice; the belief in Christmas, which is truth; the all of Christmas, which is Christ." – Wilda English
"The budget should be balanced; the Treasury should be refilled; the public debt should be reduced; the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled. Assistance to foreign land should be curtailed lest we become bankrupt. The mob should be forced to work and not depend upon government for subsistence." – Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 – 43 BC
"Every nation that has ended in tyranny has come to that end by way of good order. It certainly does not follow from this that peoples should scorn public peace, but neither should they be satisfied with that and nothing more. A nation that asks nothing of government but the maintenance of order is already a slave in the depths of its heart; it is a slave of its well-being, ready for the man who will put it in chains." – Alexis DeTocqueville, Democracy in America
"We have thus given up much of the ground that our fathers had won; for under the banner of justice and in the name of the law we permit things to be done that could only be imposed on them by violence." – Alexis DeTocqueville, Democracy in America
“There’s no such thing as a foolproof system, because fools are too ingenious.” – Wernher von Braun
“What is more important is that I don’t know how I have survived. I don’t know a word which could express it better but this was more than a narrow escape… I had a will to live and God had mercy on me.” – Doctor Stephen Kaddu Ssesanga, survivor of the December´s 2007 Ebola outbreak in Uganda
“Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursel’s as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, And foolish notion.” – Robert Burns