TimelyStuff.com - Red White and Blue Clock

Quotes

A collection of quotes from famous folks -
(and a few folks not so famous)


"Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have realized that it bears a close resemblance to the first."
– Ronald Reagan

"Two things are infinte: The universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
– Albert Einstein

"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."
– H. L. Mencken

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."
–Groucho Marx 

"Ah, the patter of little feet around the house. There's nothing like having a midget for a butler."
–W. C. Fields 

"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe."
– Frank Zappa

"Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."
– Hermann Goering

"The unwilling, led by the incompetent, to do the unnecessary, for the ungrateful."
– found inscribed on a Vietnam-era coffin

"History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap."
– Ronald Reagan

"War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength."
– Big Brother – (George Orwell's 1984)

"A Human Being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
– Robert Heinlein

"Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times."
– G. Michael Hopf – (Those Who Remain)

"It is when people forget GOD, that tyrants forge their chains."
– Patrick Henry – 1775

"There is a tremendous difference between shooting methods that work well when you're simply trying to put holes in a target, and those that work well when the target is trying to put holes in you."
– US Army Col. Rex Applegate

"Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women."
– Ronald Reagan

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
– Sinclair Lewis, (It Can't Happen Here, 1935)

"Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak."
– Marcus Tullius Cicero

"Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men -- the other 999 follow women."
–Groucho Marx 

"No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority."
– Thomas Jefferson

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
– Mark Twain

"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."
– Thomas Jefferson

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!"
– commonly misattributed (especially on the internet) to, and almost definitely not, Benjamin Franklin

"...there is much truth in the Italian saying, Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you."
– Benjamin Franklin (in a letter to Thomas Cushing, 1733)

Since we're on the subject of varieties of government using analogies of sheep and wolves, here are a few definitions from me, with a lot of help from all over the internet:

"Freedom: Three very hungry wolves looking for dinner and finding a flock of very aware and well-armed sheep.

Constitutional Republic: Three wolves and a large flock of sheep; eating sheep for dinner is expressly forbidden, the sheep are armed, and prepared to use force to ensure all sheep remain safe.

Republic: Three wolves and a large flock of sheep; all the sheep may vote to choose which wolf will decide what's for dinner. (of course, not all the sheep even bother to vote ...)

Federal Government: Wolves who continually attempt to persuade the sheep to vote for a Democracy.

Democracy: Three wolves and two sheep voting on what's for dinner."

– cobbled together by TRL (TimelyStuff.com)

"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."
–Ayn Rand 

"After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him - The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut."
–Will Rodgers 

"Rice is great if you're really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something."
–Mitch Hedberg 

"All the problems of the world could be settled easily, if men were only willing to think."
– Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler

"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher."
– Ambrose Bierce

"If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die."
– Warren Buffet

"Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much."
– Oscar Wilde

"Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one."
– Benjamin Franklin

"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do."
– Benjamin Franklin

"Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing."
– Oscar Wilde

"By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher."
– Socrates

"By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich."
– Democritus

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."
– Benjamin Franklin

"Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous."
– Albert Einstein

"Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor."
– Benjamin Franklin

"Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
– Mark Twain

"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."
– Oscar Wilde

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
– Benjamin Franklin; written for the Pennsylvania Assembly in its Reply to the Governor (11 Nov. 1755)

"Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power."
– An earlier variant by Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanack (1738)

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it."
–Groucho Marx