"Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race." – William Howard Taft
"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever." – Thomas Jefferson
“[A]n act that is inherently evil does not become moral simply because there’s a majority consensus.” – Dr. Walter E. Williams
“I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools [in the U.S.] that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn’t there. If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don’t ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school.” – Oprah Winfrey
"The real freedom of any individual can always be measured by the amount of responsibility which he must assume for his own welfare and security." – Robert Welch
"Permissiveness is the principle of treating children as if they were adults; and the tactic of making sure they never reach that stage." – Thomas Szasz
"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders." – Samuel Adams (letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775)
"There are no victims, only volunteers. You volunteer by looking uncertain and afraid. You volunteer by being, as grass-eaters invariably are, unprepared to confront the hazards of life." – The Late Col. Jeff Cooper
"A poison in a small dose is a medicine, and a medicine in a large dose is a poison." – Alfred Swaine Taylor, a 19th Century toxicologist
"There are no victims, only volunteers. You volunteer by looking uncertain and afraid. You volunteer by being, as grass-eaters invariably are, unprepared to confront the hazards of life." – The Late Col. Jeff Cooper
“So what’s the difference between republican and democratic forms of government? John Adams captured the essence of the difference when he said, ‘You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.’ Nothing in our Constitution suggests that government is a grantor of rights. Instead, government is a protector of rights.” – Dr. Walter Williams
"When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in confederacy against him." – Jonathan Swift
"Does history warrant the conclusion that religion is necessary to morality — that a natural ethic is too weak to withstand the savagery that lurks under civilization and emerges in our dreams, crimes and wars? There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion." – Will and Ariel Durant
"Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction." – Will Rogers
"There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him …