“All initiation of force is a violation of someone else’s rights, whether initiated by an individual or the state, for the benefit of an individual or group of individuals, even if it’s supposed to be for the benefit of another individual or group of individuals.:” – Congressman Ron Paul
“I have had a taste of it myself, and it’s mighty bitter. A debt is a debt, whether it’s margins or mortgages; and debts are all the same, no matter how you try to camouflage ’em. You never get much out of ’em except trouble. On the farm or in Wall Street, if you use the other fellow’s money, it costs you a lot more than it’s worth.” – Sue Sanders Our Common Herd, 1940
"At this point the debate is not about a soft landing or hard landing; it is about how hard the hard landing will be." – Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University
"Punishment is now unfashionable… because it creates moral distinctions among men, which, to the democratic mind, are odious. We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility." – Thomas Szasz
“Every morning in Africa a gazelle awakens knowing it must today run faster than the fastest lion or it will be eaten. Every morning a lion awakens knowing it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It matters not whether you are a gazelle or a lion, when the sun rises you had better be running.” – African Proverb
"The crowning illusion of our time must be the idea that you can get what you want, rather than what you deserve." – Bill Bonner
“There are two methods, or means, and only two, whereby man’s needs and desires can be satisfied. One is the production and exchange of wealth; this is the economic means. The other is the uncompensated appropriation of wealth produced by others; this is the political means.” – Albert Jay Nock
“‘Need’ now means wanting someone else’s money. ‘Greed’ means wanting to keep your own. ‘Compassion’ is when a politician arranges the transfer.” – Joseph Sobran
"This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer." – Will Rogers
"It is a wise man who, in quiet times, keeps his knives sharp and ready" – Lao Tzu
"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