Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive.
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All too Human
Monthly Archives: July 2010
Accumulation of Public Debts <- Adams
The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to be careful to prevent their growth in our own.
— John Adams, November 23rd, 1797, First Address to Congress
It’s Still Lying
Even if what you say is technically true, if you knowingly leave a false impression, you are a liar
Veracity does not consist in saying, but in the intention of communicating truth.
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria
Liberty is Safer
Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.
— Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Home Book of Quotations, Classical and Modern (1937)
Words are SUPPOSED to Hurt
Words are supposed to hurt. That’s considered a legitimate way of fighting things out.
And what did it replace in the historical scene? It replaced actual violence.
Words are supposed to be free so we CAN actually fight things out, in the battleplace of ideas, so we don’t end up fighting them out in civil wars.
If we try to legitimately ban anything can hurt someone’s feelings, everyone is reduced to silence.
— Greg Lukianoff, head of FIRE, speaking on Stossel (2009)
Jefferson, on Socialized Medicine
Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potatoe as an article of food.
— Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-1785)
Never Be Offended
Never be offended by an honest opinion:- If the person is correct, then you have no room to complain,
- and if they’re wrong, then it’s irrelevant, no threat anyway.
— Kaz Vorpal, But Now You Know, 2009
Diamond, or Pebble?
A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.
— Joseph Roux, Meditations of a Parish Priest
Deceivers Deny Debate
Temperate, sincere, and intelligent inquiry and discussion are only to be dreaded by the advocates of error. The truth need not fear them…
— Dr. Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Provisions of the Last Will and Testament of Dr. James Rush
Inalienable Rights
A right is not what someone gives you;
it’s what no one can take from you.
– Ramsey Clark, U. S. Attorney General, New York Times, 2 October 1977
Freedom before Equality
A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither.
A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.
– Milton Friedman, from Created Equal, Free to Choose television series
The Founders Protected Persons, not Citizens
The founders intended the Constitution to apply to Americans, aliens, citizens, non-citizens, lawful combatants, enemy combatants, innocents, the guilty, those who wish us well, and those who wish us ill.
The Constitution applies to persons, not just citizens.
If you read the Constitution, its protections are not limited to Americans.
And that was written intentionally, because at the time it was written, they didn’t know what Native Americans would be.
When the post civil war amendments were added, they didn’t know how blacks would be considered, because they had a decision of the Supreme Court called Dred Scott, that said blacks are not persons.
So in order to make sure the Constitution protected every human being:
- American, alien;
- citizen, non-citizen;
- lawful combatant, enemy combatant;
- innocent, guilty;
- those who wish us well, those who wish us ill…
…they use the broadest possible language,
to make it clear:
Wherever the government goes,
the Constitution goes,
and wherever the Constitution goes,
the protections that it guarantees restrain the government
and requires it to protect those rights.
— Judge Andrew Napolitano
Resist Unjust Authority
Any time someone tells you that even an unfair law needs to be obeyed, ask him if he thinks Schindler was doing the wrong thing
You assist an unjust administration most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil administration never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil.
A good person will resist an evil system with his whole soul.
Disobedience of the laws of an evil state is therefore a duty.
– Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance
Liberty to Know and Argue by Conscience
Areopagitica is regarded as one of the most eloquent defences of press freedom ever written.
Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
– John Milton, Areopagitica: A speech of Mr. John Milton for the liberty of unlicensed printing to the Parliament of England, 1644
Words of the Sentient 