About kazvorpal
Autodidactic polymath
Polyamorous, libertarian heinleiner. ENTP, student of traditional Shaolin kung fu, writer, cunning linguist.
The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants.
He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.
Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.
— Theodore Roosevelt, “Sedition, Free Press, and Personal Rule“, Kansas City Star (05-07-1918)
Tags: barack obama, bush, first amendment, free press, freedom of speech, george w bush, germany, kansas city, kansas city star, liberty, mr hankey, obama, president, roosevelt, sedition, teddy roosevelt, the war to end all wars, treason, truth, whistleblower, wilson, world war one, wwi
Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
— Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr (1787)
Tags: agnosticism, atheism, christianity, deism, god, jefferson, jesus, letters, logic, peter carr, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, reason, religion, sayings, theism, thomas jefferson
Just as eating against one’s will is injurious to health, so studying without a liking for it spoils the memory, and it retains nothing it takes in.
— Leonardo da Vinci, Writings of Leonardo da Vinci (1833)
Tags: autodidactic, autodidactism, da vinci, education, fun, history, knowledge, learning, leonardo, leonardo da vinci, manuscript, public education, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, renaissance, saying, socialized education
Climate bureaucrats violate the scientific method, by claiming certainty
Science is always tentative, expecting that modification in its present theories will sooner or later be found necessary, and aware that its method is one which is logically incapable of arriving at a complete and final demonstration.
— Bertrand Russel, Religion and Science (1935)
Tags: 1935, apodictic, bertrand russel, einstein, environmentalism, facts, hard science, instrumentalism, logic, methodology, physics, pseudoscience, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, religion and science, sayings, science, scientific method, scientific realism, theory
Our constitution protects aliens, drunks, and U. S. Senators. There ought to be one day (just one) when there is open season on senators.
— Will Rogers, Autobiography
Tags: aliens, autobiography, drunks, elena kagan, government, Humor, kagan, politicians, Politics, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, senate, senators, tea party, will rogers
The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
— Frederick Douglass, An address on West India Emancipation (1857)
Tags: abolition, agitation, emancipation, frederick douglass, freedom, liberation, liberty, protest, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, sayings, speeches, tea party, west indies
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed, and are right…The United States has never developed an aristocracy really disinterested or an intelligentsia really intelligent. Its history is simply a record of vacillations between two gangs of frauds.
— H.L. Mencken, Notebooks
Tags: aristocracy, bipartisan, democracy, democrats, h.l. mencken, intelligentsia, lesser evil, lesser of two evils, mencken, notebooks, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, republians, south park, southpark, two party system
Democracy is not freedom.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch.
Freedom comes from the recognition of certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote.
— James Bovard, “Individual Rights“, Sacramento Bee (1994)
Tags: civil liberties, constitution, democracy, elections, fox in the henhouse, freedom, individual rights, james bovard, libertarian, liberty, majority rule, natural rights, philosophy, Politics, republic, rights, sacramento bee, tyranny of the majority, vote, wolves
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
Tags: accomplishment, arrogance, confidence, embarrassment, friedrich nietzsche, human all too human, humble, humility, individualism, nietzsche, offensiveness, pride, self-confidence, socialism, success
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
Tags: adams, address to congress, debt, deficit, federal debt, federal deficit, founding fathers, john adams, national debt, presidents, public debt, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, speech, spending deficit, state of the union, state of the union address
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
Tags: al gore, aphorisms, bill clinton, biographia literaria, biography, coleridge, deceit, deception, fraud, fraudulent, george w bush, honesty, lying, politicians, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, samuel taylor coleridge, truth, veracity
Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.
— Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Home Book of Quotations, Classical and Modern (1937)
Tags: ben franklin, conservatism, danger, fosdick, free market, freedom, harry emerson fosdick, henry emerson fosdick, liberalism, liberty, pastor, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, risk, safety, sayings
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)
Tags: 1st amendment, battleplace of ideas, censorship, college campus, fire, first amendment, free speech, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, liberty, marketplace of ideas, offensive, offensiveness, political correctness, political incorrectness, speech, violence, words
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)
Tags: agriculture, aphorisms, diet, emetic, founding fathers, france, government, health care reform, health reform, jefferson, medicine, national health care, notes on the state of virginia, organ donation, organ donors, Politics, potatoe, prescription drug reform, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, sayings, socialism, socialized health care, socialized medicine, thomas jefferson
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.
Tags: adage, aphorisms, curmudgeon, directness, honesty, kaz, kaz vorpal, opinion, philosophy, political incorrectness, pride, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, saying, words of the sentient
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
Tags: aphorisms, diamonds, joseph roux, pebbles, priest, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, roux, sayings
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
Tags: adage, aphorism, benjamin rush, censorship, conspiracy, debate, declaration of independence, discussion, dr benjamin rush, education, father of psychiatry, first amendment, foia, founding father, founding fathers, freedom of expression, freedom of information act, freedom of speech, government, government secrets, inquiry, liberty, Politics, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, saying, secrecy, secrecy is tyranny, socialized medicine, truth, will
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
Tags: adages, aphorisms, attorney general, civil liberties, civil rights, conservatism, freedom, inalienable rights, johnson, liberty, natural law, natural rights, pithy, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, ramsey clark, right, rights, saying, sayings
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
Tags: affirmative action, ben franklin, created equal, eeoc, equal employment opportunity commission, equality, free to choose, freedom, friedman, gap between rich and poor, liberty, milton friedman, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, sayings, social democracy, social justice
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
Tags: aliens, america, american principles, bill of rights, citizens, citizenship, conservatism, enemy combatants, founders, founding fathers, guilty, illegal aliens, innocent, judge, judge andrew napolitano, justice, lawful combatants, liberty, napolitano, natural rights, neocons, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, sayings, socialists, terror war, terrorism, the founding fathers, torture
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
Tags: civil disobedience, disobedience, evil, gandhi, law, laws, legality, mohandas gandhi, non-violent resistence, obedience, peace, peaceful resistence, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, sayings, schindler's list, unjust administration, unjust laws
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
Tags: 1st amendment, areopagitica, civil war, fire in a crowded theater, first amendment, free speech, freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, john milton, liberty, milton, paradise lost, parliament, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, sayings, speech, speeches
If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.
I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals — if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories.
The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.
– Ronald Reagan, “Inside Ronald Reagan”, Reason magazine, July 1975
Tags: conservatism, conservatives, founding fathers, freedom, liberalism, liberals, libertarian, libertarianism, liberty, neocons, nixonians, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, reagan, revolution, rino, rinos, rockefeller republicans, ronald reagan, ronald wilson reagan, tories
Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.
– Ben Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack
Tags: almanacks, ben franklin, benjamin franklin, liberty, money, poor richard's almanack, power, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, sayings, virtue, wealth
The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots.
Elbridge Gerry, Constitutional Convention, Monday, May 31, 1787
Tags: constitution, democracy, elbridge gerry, freedom, gerrymander, liberty, patriotism, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, sayings, virtue
Whereas civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.
— Tench Coxe, “Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution,” under the pseudonym “A Pennsylvanian” in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789.
Tags: civil rulers, defense, liberty, militia, quotation, quotations, quote, quote of the day, quotes, rkba, second amendment, tench coxe, tyranny, unorganized militia
What stops a man who can laugh from speaking the truth?
– Horace, cited in P.J. O’Rourke’s book Parliament of Whores
Tags: comedy, defense, honesty, horace, horatio, Humor, laughter, p.j. o'rourke, parody, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, satire, truth
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it.
I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.
— William S. Burroughs, Grand Street, no. 37 (1992). The War Universe
Tags: elian gonzales, gun control, gun rights, guns, military, nra, police, prohibition, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, school shooting, shooting spree, william burroughs, william s burroughs
One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on.
And when you do find somebody, it’s remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver’s license.
– P. J. O’Rourke, Rolling Stone Magazine, November 1989
Tags: driver's license, free will, freedom, individualism, liberty, o'rourke, personal responsibility, pj o'rourke, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, responsibility, sayings
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.
In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.
The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both.
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
— James Madison, Political Observations, 1795
Tags: call to power, corruption, debt, deficit, federal deficit, government fraud, liberty, license, public debt, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, sayings, standing armies, standing army, taxes, war
I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people.
The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager.
Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form.
— Calvin Coolidge, 1924 Inaugural Address
Tags: deficit spending, federal debt, federal deficit, government spending, government waste, income tax, liberty, spending, taxation, taxes, waste fraud and abuse
Roaming the world as a foreign correspondent for more than a decade, I was able to observe how a variety of vastly different nations organized themselves economically.
The inescapable conclusion was that no politician anywhere on the planet has ever actually created a rupee’s worth of prosperity.
— Louis Rukeyser, “Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street” newsletter, Nov 96
Tags: economics, economy, louis rukeyser, money, politicians, properity, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, rukeyser, rupee, wall street
Words of the Sentient 
