1. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — …” – Declaration of Independence
2. "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." – Thomas Jefferson
3. "Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." – Thomas Jefferson
4. “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" – Patrick Henry
5. “Abhorrent!” -- George Washington, when asked to be king of the USA
6. “No.” -- Abraham Clark, when dragooned to renounce his signature on the Declaration of Independence for the release of his two sons, officers in the Continental Army, captured and tortured by the British
7. “A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” – Thomas Jefferson
8. “A is A.” -- Aristotle
9. “What reason shows to be true is absolutely true, so that the opposite is absolutely false and impossible.” – Thomas Aquinas
“If religion, therefore, teaches something that is opposed to reason, … it would teach what is absolutely false and impossible.” – The Radical Academy
10. "... Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State..." -- Thomas Jefferson, On New Year's Day in 1802
11. “The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good.” – George Washington
12. “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” -- William Pitt the Younger
13. “Definitions are the guardians of rationality, the first line of defense against the chaos of mental disintegration… A concept or mental integration is not arbitrary; it has a basis in reality… Definitions are determined by the facts of reality within the context of one’s knowledge.” - Ayn Rand
"... But soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with great confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler propositions of Euclid are true, but nevertheless he would fail, utterly, with one who should deny the definitions and axioms. The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society...
All honor to Jefferson -- to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and sagacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that today, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression." – Abraham Lincoln
14. “My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” -- Ayn Rand
15. “The only good which men can do to one another and the only statement of their proper relationship is — Hands off!” -- Howard Roark, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
16. "If it is ever proper for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence… the greatest document in human history, both philosophically and literarily." -- Ayn Rand
“It is in this context — from the perspective of the bloody millennia of mankind's history — that I want you to look at the birth of a miracle: the United States of America. If it is ever proper for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence.
The concept of individual rights is so prodigious a feat of political thinking that few men grasp it fully—and two hundred years have not been enough for other countries to understand it. But this is the concept to which we owe our lives—the concept which made it possible for us to bring into reality everything of value that any of us did or will achieve or experience.” – Ayn Rand
17. “If I were to speak your kind of language, I would say that man’s only moral commandment is: Thou shalt think. But a “moral commandment” is a contradiction in terms. The moral is the chosen, not the forced; the understood, not the obeyed. The moral is the rational, and reason accepts no commandments.
My morality, the morality of reason, is contained in a single axiom: existence exists — and in a single choice: to live. The rest proceeds from these. To live, man must hold three things as the supreme and ruling values of his life: Reason — Purpose — Self-esteem. Reason, as his only tool of knowledge — Purpose, as his choice of the happiness which that tool must proceed to achieve — Self-esteem, as his inviolate certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means: is worthy of living. These three values imply and require all of man’s virtues, and all his virtues pertain to the relation of existence and consciousness: rationality, independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness, pride.” -- John Galt, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
18. "I swear, by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." -- John Galt, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
19. “Thomas Jefferson said: ‘Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments.’ To remove the use of force from citizen interactions so that individuals may deal with each other only by reason and persuasion, citizens delegate their right to self-defense to their government. Citizens cannot delegate a right they do not possess – hence, the government has no right to regulate inherent inalienable Rights, including the rights of individuals who hold that selfishness is a virtue.” – Apollo, Royal Serf
20. “Don’t you want to be better than Toni?” Lola replied, “I don’t compare myself to anyone. I want to be good – period. I want to be the best I can be. I also admire intelligent people, like Toni.” -- Ten-year-old girls, Reason Reigns
21. “Good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good.” -- Thomas Aquinas
22. “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” -- Thomas Edison
23. “I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one.” -- Henry Ford
24. Property is the fruit of labor... property is desirable... is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built. – Abraham Lincoln
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66 comments:
Favorite quote:
"A moral man does not rule, nor can he be ruled by men." -- Reason Reigns and Royal Serf
What a pleasure to meet you. I have a folder of favorite quotes which better describe my beliefs and thoughts than I am able to in my words. I shall peruse your site for some additional ones.
I love your attitude toward business. You apparently do not consume mental candy at the Kool Aide stands of the Left.
“So you think that money is the root of all evil? Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?” -- Ayn Rand
“Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another – their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.” -- Ayn Rand
Thank you, Rossabh. It's so nice to meet you :)
I wish you everything good and wonderful.
"Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence." ~ Author Unknown
“I believe with you that morality, compassion, generosity are innate elements of the human constitution; that there exists a right independent of force; that a right to property is founded in our natural wants, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without violating the similar rights of other sensible beings; that NO ONE HAS A RIGHT TO OBSTRUCT ANOTHER exercising his faculties innocently for the relief of sensibilities made a part of his nature; that justice is the fundamental law of society; that the majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest, breaks up the foundations of society; that action by the citizens in person, in affairs within their reach and competence, and in all others by representatives chosen immediately and removable by themselves, constitutes the essence of a republic; that all governments are more or less republican in proportion as this principle enters more or less into their composition; and that a government by representation is capable of extension over a greater surface of country than one of any other form.” – Thomas Jefferson
http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116915
“The only good which men can do to one another and the only statement of their proper relationship is — Hands off!” - Howard Roark, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
"But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." - Thomas Jefferson
One's personal stand on anything or one's private life is no one's business.
"We hold these truths
To be sacred & undeniable;
That all men are created equal & independent,
That from that equal creation
They derive rights inherent & inalienable,
Among which are the preservation of
Life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness;
That to secure these ends,
Governments are instituted among men,
Deriving their just powers
From the consent of the governed..."
- Thomas Jefferson
"The prosperity of commerce is now perceived and acknowledged by all enlightened statesmen to be the most useful as well as the most productive source of national wealth, and has accordingly become a primary object of its political cares." -- Federalist No. 12
"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright, that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong; that is your oath." - Knight's Oath, Kingdom of Heaven
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2011/02/marilyn-tagocon-v
Ayn Rand: "I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows."
"When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he will learn; if I am wrong, I will; one of us will win, but both will profit." - Ayn Rand
http://discoveraynrand.com/quotes.html
"The best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.... The more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, & of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, & became richer." - Dr. Franklin
http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf3/price.htm
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” ~ James Madison, Annals of Congress, House of Representatives, 3rd Congress, 1st Session, page 170
Rights are ACTIONS that can be exercised without anyone's permission, limited only by the equal rights of others.
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." – Thomas Jefferson
Independent equals do not have slaves that would provide manmade values like houses or healthcare.
"Shake off all the fears & servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." - Thomas Jefferson
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/jefferson_carr.html
"Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind." - Thomas Jefferson
Good people can survive and flourish while respecting the independence of others, without the help of thugs, without defrauding others...
Whereas, parasites exist because of the goodness of the hosts, socialists exist at the expense of the productive, tyrants rise by conning some good people and then enslaving producers...
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" - Benjamin Franklin
“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
"If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1782. ME 4:196, Papers 6:185
http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-am-a-Jeffersonian/102951273112979?v=wall#!/photo.php?fbid=2300606958417&set=o.207875672581275&type=1&theater
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=183033081762624&id=1346466773#!/photo.php?fbid=2319682555295&set=a.1268872285695.139307.1346466773&type=1&theater
“Conscience is the most sacred of all property.” - James Madison
Government is FORCE. A gov't IN BED w/ religion/marriage/indoctrination is tyrannical. Opposing a military draft is not anti-military; it means one is for a volunteer army. Opposing THEOCRACY is not anti-faith; it is pro-freedom. Opposing the injection of FORCE/GOVERNMENT into non-force realms is upholding rights.
"We are bound, you, I, & every one to make common cause, even with error itself, to maintain the common right of freedom of conscience." - Thomas Jefferson
"Government is instituted to protect property of every sort," [James Madison] explained, "this being the end of government, that alone is a just government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own."
http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2008-fall/property-rights-crisis.asp
I am against all taxes, as I am against a military draft. I am for voluntary fundraisers or contributions, like I am for a volunteer army.
http://mises.org/daily/1597
"Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties
by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency.
These, as they are often used, are but three different names
for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice." --John Adams (1735-1826)
Founding Father, 2nd US President 1765
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." - Calvin Coolidge
Via Robin Elliott - thank you.
“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms…. Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them.” – The most glorious man who ever lived.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/08/28/us-world-firearms-idUSL2834893820070828
“It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, “You toil and work and earn bread, and I’ll eat it.” No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.”
–Abraham Lincoln, Seventh and Last Joint Debate with Steven Douglas, held at Alton, Illinois, Oct. 15, 1858.
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/02/hbc-90004392
"Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business." - Calvin Coolidge
Honest political ads are a noble PUBLIC SERVICE. “Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.... The spread of information [has] its effect towards supporting free and good government.” - Thomas Jefferson
"Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice." - John Adams
"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright, that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong; that is your oath." - Knight's Oath, Kingdom of Heaven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dUj6nOcQdw&feature=player_embedded
"The great book of nature can be read only by those who know the language in which it was written. And that language is Mathematics."
- Galileo Galilei
"Perfect freedom is as necessary to the health and vigor of commerce as it is to the health and vigor of citizenship." - The Voice of the American Revolution
"It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it." - The Sword of the American Revolution
"The first principle of association [is] the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.... The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits." - The Mind of the American Revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qmj4trja7w&feature=player_embedded
"The power to tax involves the power to destroy;...the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create...." -- Chief Justice John Marshall, 1819.
“Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality. It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions. And the actions which speak louder than the words. It is making the time when there is none. Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year. Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change the face of things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.” - Abraham Lincoln
"Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business." - Calvin Coolidge
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." - Calvin Coolidge
"In general, it can probably be said that the conservative does not object to coercion or arbitrary power so long as it is used for what he regards as the right purposes. He believes that if government is in the hands of decent men, it ought not to be too much restricted by rigid rules. Since he is essentially opportunist and lacks principles, his main hope must be that the wise and the good will rule – not merely by example, as we all must wish, but by authority given to them and enforced by them.[7] Like the socialist, he is less concerned with the problem of how the powers of government should be limited than with that of who wields them; and, like the socialist, he regards himself as entitled to force the value he holds on other people."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/hayek1.html
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/photo.php?fbid=503835572990090&set=a.274473352592981.68056.101861109854207&type=1&theater
"In general, it can probably be said that the conservative does not object to coercion or arbitrary power so long as it is used for what he regards as the right purposes. He believes that if government is in the hands of decent men, it ought not to be too much restricted by rigid rules. Since he is essentially opportunist and lacks principles, his main hope must be that the wise and the good will rule – not merely by example, as we all must wish, but by authority given to them and enforced by them.[7] Like the socialist, he is less concerned with the problem of how the powers of government should be limited than with that of who wields them; and, like the socialist, he regards himself as entitled to force the value he holds on other people."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/hayek1.html
“Agriculture, manufactures, commerce and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise.... I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty.” - Thomas Jefferson
http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/articles/hayek-why-i-am-not-conservative.pdf
"In general, it can probably be said that the conservative does not object to coercion or arbitrary power so long as it is used for what he regards as the right purposes. He believes that if government is in the hands of decent men, it ought not to be too much restricted by rigid rules. Since he is essentially opportunist and lacks principles, his main hope must be that the wise and the good will rule – not merely by example, as we all must wish, but by authority given to them and enforced by them.[7] Like the socialist, he is less concerned with the problem of how the powers of government should be limited than with that of who wields them; and, like the socialist, he regards himself as entitled to force the value he holds on other people."
http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/articles/hayek-why-i-am-not-conservative.pdf
Romney holds contradictions. He has extolled the Declaration of Independence, yet his fundamentals dishonor it.
One who holds that there is a cause greater than the self is unfit to secure Individual Liberty. One who spurns selfishness, the concern for oneself, has no respect for the right to the pursuit of one's own happiness.
"If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1782. ME 4:196, Papers 6:185
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=595049083839380&set=a.221499604527665.68159.220814084596217&type=1&theater
The wall of separation principle is very clear. Government is FORCE. This is why it should be separated from religion, science, education, economics, art, bedroom, uterus, etc.
UVA - 1820 Dec. 27. "This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."[4]
- Thomas Jefferson
Capitalism is the separation of state and economics, where rights respecters are free to do anything limited only by the equal rights of others, and where the only function of government is to secure rights.
"Well done is better than well said." - Benjamin Franklin
“Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.” - Thomas Jefferson
From Jim Matzger: In 1981, long after his Presidential defeat [1964] Goldwater had this to say:
"On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.
I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in "A," "B," "C" and "D." Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?
And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism."
Speech in the US Senate (16 September 1981)"
"Freedom [is] the first-born daughter of science." -Thomas Jefferson
“I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism.” – Barry Goldwater
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.” – Barry Goldwater
“When you say “radical right” today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican Party away from the Republican Party, and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye.” – Barry Goldwater
http://goldwater1964.wordpress.com/about/
“In dealing with poverty here and around the world, welfare and foreign aid are a Band-Aid. Free enterprise is a cure... Entrepreneurship is the most sure way of development.”
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/428836/bono-only-capitalism-can-end-poverty-video/#RYhDycAmw7A1HBBE.99
"A man's property is the fruit of his industry, and if it may be taken from him under any pretense whatever, at the will of another, he cannot be said to be free, for he labors like a bond slave, not for himself, but for another." - Samuel Adams, 1765, during the revolt against Britain's Stamp Tax
“War is the remedy our enemies have chosen — & I say let us give them all they want.... War is cruelty. There's no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over." - William Tecumseh Sherman
"Once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end.... Why, my soldiers asked me, surrender military advantages to an enemy in the field? I could not answer." - General Douglas MacArthur's Address to Congress, April 19, 1951
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/filmmore/reference/primary/macspeech05.html
“Honor, justice, and humanity,
Forbid us to tamely surrender that freedom
Which we received from our gallant ancestors,
And which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.
We cannot endure the infamy and guilt
Of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness
Which inevitably awaits them
If we basely entail hereditary bondage on them.”
-Thomas Jefferson
http://books.google.com/books?id=epx7gy-hig0C&pg=PA243&lpg=PA243&dq=Honor,+justice,+and+humanity,+Forbid+us+to+tamely+surrender+that+freedom&source=bl&ots=d3yA6A0xUk&sig=gXQYZVQh6Kz3ko4lUkTcC6tdSpU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Hv5VUsD5DfjF4AOy3IDIDA&ved=0CHQQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Honor%2C%20justice%2C%20and%20humanity%2C%20Forbid%20us%20to%20tamely%20surrender%20that%20freedom&f=false
Absolute proof that the above quotation is Jefferson's:
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/arms.asp
-IR
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/arms.asp
"We... find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. -- Honour, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them." - Thomas Jefferson
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/arms.asp
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." - Thomas Jefferson
http://books.google.com/books?id=5bRaCtLJTVAC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=the+two+enemies+of+the+people+thomas+jefferson&source=bl&ots=lobkGoHU-4&sig=VQDEvzNFTn9IDYdiiDp4f04A-qg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=pB6EUrOCLvbj4AOfj4CADg&ved=0CE0Q6AEwBDgU#v=onepage&q=the%20two%20enemies%20of%20the%20people%20thomas%20jefferson&f=false
"Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck." –Thomas Jefferson
“No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him." - Thomas Jefferson
Another difference between public and government: "Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." -> Where there is no coercion (e.g. no government interference), reason is left free to combat the irrational. But where there's government/legal-coercion in the realms of conscience, bedroom, uterus, science, economics, education, art..., there are only slaves and masters.
"We are all born sexual creatures, thank God, but it's a pity so many people despise and crush this natural gift." - Marilyn Monroe
http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/sep/14/greatinterviews
"The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, [and] we must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time and eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good." --Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 1790. ME 8:4
http://famguardian.org/Subjects/Politics/thomasjefferson/jeff0150.htm
"I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others... We are bound, you, I, & every one to make common cause, even with error itself, to maintain the common right of freedom of conscience." - Thomas Jefferson
“The only good which men can do to one another and the only statement of their proper relationship is — Hands off!” - Howard Roark, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom proposed during Jefferson’s tenure in the Assembly and finally passed in 1786 was among his proudest accomplishments. In his autobiography, he explains:
The bill for establishing religious freedom, the principles of which had, to a certain degree, been enacted before, I had drawn in all the latitude of reason & right. It still met with opposition; but, with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally past; and a singular proposition proved that it’s protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word “Jesus Christ,” so that it should read "” departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion” the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of it's protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/thomas-jefferson/history3.html
"I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others." - Thomas Jefferson
“The only good which men can do to one another and the only statement of their proper relationship is — Hands off!” -- Howard Roark
Capitalism is the separation of state and economics. It is the respect of individual rights in economics.
Socialism holds that society is king, and thus can dictate to an individual.
"Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education and free discussion are the antidotes of both. We are destined to be a barrier against the returns of ignorance and barbarism. Old Europe will have to lean on our shoulders, and to hobble along by our side, under the monkish trammels of priests and kings, as she can. What a Colossus shall we be when the Southern continent comes up to our mark! What a stand will it secure as a ralliance for the reason & freedom of the globe! I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. So good night. I will dream on, always fancying that Mrs. Adams and yourself are by my side marking the progress and the obliquities of ages and countries. (Letter to John Adams)" - Thomas Jefferson (in a letter to John Adams)
One I and three MEs in one sentence: "I know not what course others may take; but as for ME, give ME liberty or give ME death!"
"We hold these truths
To be sacred & undeniable;
That all men are created equal & independent,
That from that equal creation
They derive rights inherent & inalienable,
Among which are the preservation of
Life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness;
That to secure these ends,
Governments are instituted among men,
Deriving their just powers
From the consent of the governed..."
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
"If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged."
“I believe with you that morality, compassion, generosity are innate elements of the human constitution; that there exists a right independent of force; that a right to property is founded in our natural wants, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without violating the similar rights of other sensible beings; that NO ONE HAS A RIGHT TO OBSTRUCT ANOTHER exercising his faculties innocently for the relief of sensibilities made a part of his nature; that justice is the fundamental law of society; that the majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest, breaks up the foundations of society; that action by the citizens in person, in affairs within their reach and competence, and in all others by representatives chosen immediately and removable by themselves, constitutes the essence of a republic; that all governments are more or less republican in proportion as this principle enters more or less into their composition; and that a government by representation is capable of extension over a greater surface of country than one of any other form.”
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
"Perfect freedom is as necessary to the health and vigor of commerce as it is to the health and vigor of citizenship." - The Voice of the American Revolution
"It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it." - The Sword of the American Revolution
"The first principle of association [is] the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.... The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits." - The Mind of the American Revolution
Jim Matzger
27 minutes ago
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Interesting quotes from F. A. Hayek...
"A society that does not recognise that each individual has values of his own which he is entitled to follow can have no respect for the dignity of the individual and cannot really know freedom."
"The effect of the people's agreeing that there must be central planning, without agreeing on the ends, will be rather as if a group of people were to commit themselves to take a journey together without agreeing where they want to go; with the result that they may all have to make a journey which most of them do not want at all."
"There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. While the first is the condition of a free society, the second means as De Tocqueville describes it, 'a new form of servitude.'"
"Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom."
"It would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that the greatest danger to liberty today comes from the men who are most needed and most powerful in modern government, namely, the efficient expert administrators exclusively concerned with what they regards as the public good."
"The tug of war between conservatives and progressives can only affect the speed, not the direction, of contemporary developments."
"In general, it can probably be said that the conservative does not object to coercion or arbitrary power so long as it is used for what he regards as the right purposes. He believes that if government is in the hands of decent men, it ought not to be too much restricted by rigid rules. Since he is essentially opportunist and lacks principles, his main hope must be that the wise and the good will rule — not merely by example, as we all must wish, but by authority given to them and enforced by them. Like the socialist, he is less concerned with the problem of how the powers of government should be limited than with that of who wields them; and, like the socialist, he regards himself as entitled to force the value he holds on other people."
"It is not democracy but unlimited government that is objectionable, and I do not see why the people should not learn to limit the scope of majority rule as well as that of any other form of government. At any rate, the advantages of democracy as a method of peaceful change and of political education seem to be so great compared with those of any other system that I can have no sympathy with the antidemocratic strain of conservatism. It is not who governs but what government is entitled to do that seems to me the essential problem."
"I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice."
""Emergencies" have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded."
"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."
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