Category: Quote of the Day

“When they call the roll in Congress, our Congressmen don’t know whether to answer present, or guilty.” – Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, 1st US Volunteer Cavalry, Manzanillo, Cuba 1898 (to a Hearst newspaper reporter)

“We are in a period of price discovery. Many shares, businesses, and credits are on offer. Typically, people are reluctant to make bids until they have a clearer idea of what these things are worth. What are they worth now that we’re in a post-Bubble world? No one knows. And no one seems in a hurry to find out.” – Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning

"He that suffers his life to be taken from him by one that hath no authority for that purpose, when he might preserve it by defense, incurs the Guilt of self murder since God hath enjoined him to seek the continuance of his life, and Nature itself teaches every creature to defend itself." – From a 1747 sermon given in Philadelphia, as quoted by C. Asbury in The Right to Keep and Bear Arms in America: The Origins and Application of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, (an unpublished doctoral thesis in history, available at University of Michigan Graduate Library), …

Wir versaufen unser Oma ihr klein Hauschen, Ihr klein Hauschen, Wir versaufen unser Oma ihr klein Hauschen, Und die erste und die zweite Hypothek! – Popular drinking song in the Weimar Republic of Germany, 1922 referring to the runaway inflation of the period Loosely translated: We are drinking up our granny’s little house, Her little house, We are drinking up our granny’s little house, And the first and second mortgage!

"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation." – John Adams

Then Daniel went to his house, and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, For wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up …

“Abilene is a town of an armed citizenry. This tends to make relations both peaceful and respectful.” – James Butler (“Wild Bill”) Hickok, while City Marshal of Abilene, in an interview with an eastern newspaper reporter. (Until Hickok’s reply, the reporter had thought Wild Bill himself was the reason.that Abilene was so peaceful for the locals)

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” – Mother Teresa

"What has been, what ever must be, the consequence of such a sudden and prodigious inflation of the currency? Business stimulated to the most unhealthy activity; a vast amount of over production in the mechanick arts; a vast amount of speculation in property of every kind and name, at fictitious values; and finally, a vast and terrifick crash, when the treacherous and unsubstantial basis crumbles beneath the stupendous fabrick of credit, and the structure falls to the ground, burying in its ruins thousands who exulted in the fancied security of their elevation. Men, now-a-days, go to bed deeming themselves rich, …

"The very first, most important rule of gunfighting is this: have a gun. If you do not have a gun, do not come to the gunfight." – Mark Moritz

“I am so firmly determined, however, to test the constancy of your mind that, drawing from the teachings of great men, I shall give you also a lesson: Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: ‘Is this the condition that I feared?’ It is precisely in times of immunity from care that the soul should toughen itself beforehand for occasions of greater stress, and it is while Fortune is kind that it should fortify itself against her violence. …

"There are certain things that are true no matter how much someone may deny them. In the economic realm, for instance, you cannot legislate the poor into independence by legislating the wealthy out of it. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. Government cannot give to people what it does not first take away from people. And that which one man received without working for, another man must work for without receiving." – Kenneth W. Sollitt

“The world is not going back to normal after the magnitude of what they have done. When the dust settles this will either work, and the money they have pushed into the system will feed though into an inflation shock. Or it will not work because too much damage has already been done, and we will see continued financial deterioration, causing further economic deterioration, with the risk of a feedback loop. We don’t think this is the more likely outcome, but as each week and month passes, there is a growing danger of vicious circle as confidence erodes. This will …

“It will not be enemies at the gates who overwhelm the American empire. It will be the army of politically armed economic dependents inside the gates. Granny will bring it down. If you want a mental picture image of the end of American empire, imagine a man dressed in uniform, holding an automatic rifle, being pelted mercilessly by an old lady who is beating him over the head with her handbag.” – Dr. Gary North

“You’ve got to understand that we had a big ranch but we only got money once or twice a year out of it. The money wasn’t very free. All the money you got was in gold coin. I remember I was nearly fifteen or sixteen years old before I saw much paper money. It was all gold and silver. They didn’t have any greenbacks that I remember. My dad would take the wool and mutton to sell, and he’d come back with some tobacco sacks full of twenty-dollar gold pieces. He used to drive three or four-hundred head of sheep …