Category: Quote of the Day

“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.” – Philip K. Dick

“Hopefully the FDIC insurance will take care of it. I’m also kind of kicking myself for not taking care of this sooner, sooner as in the last couple of days.” – Alan Sands, a former IndyMac Bank customer; quoted on Friday, July 11, 2008, commenting on how he was unable to draw funds after his bank was closed by Federal regulators in the midst of a bank run.

"My people perish for lack of knowledge." – Hosea 4:6

“And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts? Hot ashes for trees? Hot air for a cool breeze? Cold comfort for change? And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?” – Roger Waters, lyrics to Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” (1975)

“We are thus in the position of having to borrow from Europe to defend Europe, of having to borrow from China and Japan to defend Chinese and Japanese access to [Persian] Gulf oil, and of having to borrow from Arab emirs, sultans and monarchs to make Iraq safe for democracy. We borrow from the nations we defend so that we may continue to defend them. To question this is an unpardonable heresy called ‘isolationism’.” – Patrick J. Buchanan

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on… or by imbeciles who really mean it." – Mark Twain

"Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government." – Henry Kissinger, …

“What is worse? Thinking that you are paranoid, or knowing that you should be?” – Shane Carruth, from the screenplay of his science fiction movie Primer (2004)

"No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it." – Thomas Jefferson

“From housing to the dollar, banking to commodities, national debt to soaring Medicare and Social Security obligations: it’s difficult to see the period since 2002 as anything other than one of profligacy and utter fiscal mismanagement. I am not a bear by nature, but when you consider the average debt of the average household and the concentration of household assets in housing, it’s difficult to see happy retirements for many baby boomers.” – Brett Steenbarger

“I learned from my two year’s experiment that it would cost incredibly little trouble to obtain one’s necessary food, even in this latitude; that many a man may use as simple a diet as the animals, and yet retain health and strength.” – Henry Thoreau, Walden, 1854

"With respect to our rights, and the acts of the British government contravening those rights, there was but one opinion on this side of the water. All American whigs thought alike on these subjects. When forced, therefore, to resort to arms for redress, an appeal to the tribunal of the world was deemed proper for our justification. This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the …

"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them." – Barry Goldwater

"There is nothing which doth more agreeably concern the Senses, than in the depth of Winter to behold the Fruits so fair, and so good, yea better, than when you first did gather them…….You will taste your fruit with infinite more gust and contentment, than in the Summer itself, when their great abundance, and variety, rather cloy you than become agreeable. For this reason therefore it is, that we essay to teach you the most expedite, and certain means how to conserve them all the WInter, even so long, as till the New shall incite you to quit the Old." …

“It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company.” – President George Washington