Category: Quote of the Week

“An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” – Robert A. Heinlein, Logic of Empire (1941)

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – H. Jackson Brown

Burnett: I was told that it might be possible to rent your boat–we need to get up river. Rambo: Where? Burnett: Into Burma. Rambo: Burma is a war zone. Burnett: Up the Salween river is our best alternative. Rambo: I can’t help you out. Burnett: Please, it will help change people’s lives. Rambo: Are you bringing in any weapons? Burnett: Of course not. Rambo: You’re not changin’ anything. – from the trailer to John Rambo, 2008

“There’s something cool about the thought of being totally off the power grid. It’s a psychological thing. I could rationalize being off the grid by saying it would come in handy if the rest of the world runs out of energy. But realistically, the big worry in that case wouldn’t be powering my iPod so much as not getting eaten by cannibals.” – Cartoonist Scott Adams.

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." – Thomas Jefferson

"Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, refrains from giving wordy evidence of the fact." – George Eliot

"A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing that is more important than his personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertion of better men than himself." – John Stuart Mill

“Competition is the life of trade…In a controlled situation, people take what they can get. In a competitive situation, people get what they want.” – William C. Durant, founder of General Motors

“The wheels have come off. Structured finance, which has been the key to this credit bubble, has broken down. We believe that confidence in structures, ratings, collateral, issuers, counterparties, et cetera, has all been lost. Therefore we are in a very precarious position. Credit has driven the economy and has driven markets. Credit has to grow year-over-year in this credit bubble environment in order for the economy to grow. With structured finance having broken down, in our opinion, there is no way that credit will grow year-over-year any longer.” – David Tice of the Prudent Bear Fund, as quoted by …

"Dying is easy; you have to work at living. Life is an athletic event. You have to really be in shape for it." – Jack La Lanne (quoted when he was 93 years old).

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." – Albert Einstein

“Gold is for optimists. I’m diversifying into canned goods.” – Richard Daughty (aka “The Mogambo Guru”)

“There are going to be situations where people are going to go without assistance. That’s just the facts of life.” – Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates

"Bushido is all very well in its way, but it is no match for a .30-06." – The Late Col. Jeff Cooper

“The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere. But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it — once you can honestly say, “I don’t know”, then it becomes possible to get at the truth.” – Robert A. Heinlein, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)