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2009 March 20
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"It is morally as bad not to care
whether a thing is true or not,
so long as it makes you feel good,
as it is not to care how you got your money
as long as you have it." |
"Whoever controls the volume of money in any country
is absolute master of all industry and commerce." |
"There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers." |
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2009 March 19
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"I want people to be able to get what they need to live: enough food, a place to live, and an education for their children. Government does not provide these as well as private charities and businesses." |
"A billion here, a billion there, sooner or later it adds up to real money." |
"Security is mostly superstition." |
"If a majority are capable of preferring their own private interest, or that of their families, counties, and party, to that of the nation collectively, some provision must be made in the constitution, in favor of justice, to compel all to respect the common right, the public good, the universal law, in preference to all private and partial considerations... And that the desires of the majority of the people are often for injustice and inhumanity against the minority, is demonstrated by every page of history... To remedy the dangers attendant upon the arbitrary use of power, checks, however multiplied, will scarcely avail without an explicit admission some limitation of the right of the majority to exercise sovereign authority over the individual citizen... In popular governments [democracies], minorities [individuals] constantly run much greater risk of suffering from arbitrary power than in absolute monarchies..." |
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2009 March 18
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"We are all doubtless bound to contribute a certain portion of our income to the support of charitable and other useful public institutions. But it is a part of our duty also to apply our contributions in the most effectual way we can to secure this object. The question then is whether this will not be better done by each of us appropriating our whole contribution to the institutions within our reach, under our own eye, and over which we can exercise some useful control? Or would it be better that each should divide the sum he can spare among all the institutions of his State or the United States? Reason and the interest of these institutions themselves, certainly decide in favor of the former practice." |
"When more of the people's sustenance is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just obligations of government, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of the fundamental principles of a free government." |
"We built your fort. We will not have it used against us." |
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2009 March 17
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"Forced to choose, the poor, like the rich, love money more than political liberty; and the only political freedom capable of enduring is one that is so pruned as to keep the rich from denuding the poor by ability or subtlety and the poor from robbing the rich by violence or votes." |
"The collection of taxes which are not absolutely required, which do
not beyond reasonable doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only
a species of legalized larceny. The wise and correct course to follow
in taxation is not to destroy those who have already secured success,
but to create conditions under which everyone will have a better chance
to be successful." |
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2009 March 16
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"The best way to put more money in people's wallets is to leave it there in the first place." |
"In general, the art of government
consists in taking as much money as possible
from one party of the citizens to give to the other." |
"The blame for [the national debt]
lies with the Congress and the President,
with Democrats and Republicans alike,
most all of whom have been unwilling
to make the hard choices or
to explain to the American people that
there is no such thing as a free lunch." |
"Who could impose such socialistic confiscatory rates?" |
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