“Philosophy is common sense with big words.” – James Madison Fourth US President and Father of the Bill of Rights.
Liberty
“Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.” – Lord Acton
“… 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 3/23/1775.
“When the people fear the government, there is Tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is Liberty.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Our country may be likened to a new house. We lack many things, but we possess the most precious of all – liberty!” – James Monroe
“Take Back Liberty (Reclaim our unalienable Rights.)” – Bill Todd 6/14/2005
“Make America Free Again! ” – Bill Todd 6/14/2005
“I never had White Privilege, but I had Freedom and Liberty Privilege. I wasn`t ashamed I was Proud. All US Citizens have Freedom and Liberty Privilege. It came from the Indians and The Bill of Rights. Which the People Insisted be added to The Constitution.” – Bill Todd 9/22/2019
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” – Thomas Jefferson
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” – Thomas Jefferson
“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
“To give a man his life but deny him his Liberty is to take from him all that makes life worth living.” – Justice George Sutherland
“Liberty is a state of mind that does not require the indulgence of others. ” – Lou Carabini
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” – John Kennedy
“Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry…” – Thomas Jefferson
“I prefer dangerous liberty to a quiet servitude.” – Thomas Jefferson
He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security. – Benjamin Franklin
“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” – John Adams 10/2/1789.
“It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan.” – Thomas Jefferson
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” – James Madison*
“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” – James Madison
“No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” – James Madison
“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” – John Kennedy
“It is hard to know how many people do, but given that the people are so docile towards the rulers, nowadays, very few Americans show the passion for freedom that our forefathers had.” – James Bovard
“Freedom to vote is valuable primarily as a means to safeguard other freedoms.” – James Bovard
“Government cannot make trade more fair by making it less free.” – James Bovard
“It is impossible to destroy all alleged enemies of freedom everywhere without also destroying freedom in the United States.” – James Bovard
“Citizens should distrust politicians who distrust freedom.” – James Bovard
“As long as enough people can be frightened, then all people can be ruled. That is how it works in a democratic system and mass fear becomes the ticket to destroy rights across the board.” – James Bovard
“Some of the folks on both sides might be sincere, but it does seem as if it is only the opposition that cares about the Bill of Rights most of the time.” – James Bovard
“The more that voting is glorified as a panacea, the more lackadaisical people become about preserving their constitutional rights.” – James Bovard
“A government that claims it can give you rights can also take them away.” – Andrew Napolitano
“Make America Free Again!” – Bill Todd 1/4/2019
“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” – George Washington
Tax
“There were only two things certain in life: death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Read my lips: no new taxes” – George H. Bush 8/18/1988
“The federal tax system is turning individuals into sharecroppers of their own lives.” – James Bovard
“The state as the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else.” – Frederic Bastiat
“April 15 make it Just another day” – Americans for fair Taxation 1995
“The Fair Tax is fairer then The Income Tax!” – Bill Todd 11/7/2018
“Lincoln Freed the Slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation, but Enslaved the Free with Income Tax.” – Bill Todd 1/7/2019
Life
“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.” – Thomas Jefferson
“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.” – Thomas Jefferson
“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” – Thomas Jefferson
“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it” – Thomas Jefferson
“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Think as you please, and so let others, and you will have no disputes.” – Thomas Jefferson
“When angry, count 10. before you speak; if very angry, 100.” – Thomas Jefferson
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
KISS “Keep It Simple Stupid.” – Kelly Johnson
“There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction.” – John Kennedy
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” – John Kennedy
“We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.” – John Kennedy
“Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.” – John Kennedy
“Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.” – John Kennedy
“Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.” – John Kennedy
“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” – John Kennedy
“A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.” – John Kennedy
“Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.” – John Kennedy
“Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” – Randy Pausch 10/29/2010
“Die with memories, not dreams.” – Unknown
“Aspire to inspire before we expire.” – Eugene Bell Jr.
“Love For All, Hatred For None.” – Mirza Nasir Ahmad
“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” — Dalai Lama.
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon.
“Get busy living or get busy dying.” — Stephen King.
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” — Mae West
“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” — John Kennedy
“The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.” – John Kennedy
“Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.” – Warner Von Braun
“I have learned to use the word impossible with the greatest caution.” – Warner Von Braun
“We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.” – Warner Von Braun
“I never skate to where the puck is; I skate to where the puck is going to be” – Wayne Gretzky
“Can we all just get along.” 5/1/1992 – Rodney King
“If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away.” – Henry David Thoreau
“Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.” – George Washington
“We’ve heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the Complete Works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.” – Robert Wilensky (1951-2013) American computer scientist.
“For many, possibly most, such villain/victim assertions do not stem from any deep reasoning.” – Lou carabini
“Have more than you show, Speak less than you know.” – William Shakespeare
“Never play with the feelings of others, because you may win the game but the risk is that you will surely lose the person for life time.” – William Shakespeare
“Nothing comes from doing nothing.” – William Shakespeare
“This above all; to thine own self be true.” – William Shakespeare
“the smallest minority on earth is the individual” – Ayn Rand
“Those who choose to live by the Crystal Ball must learn to enjoy eating ground glass.” – Joe Cobb
“In a World where you can be anything, be kind.” – Jennifer Dukes Lee
“We have come a long way on taming the complications of the body, but not very far in taming the complications of the mind.” – Dr. Nicole Saphier 5/9/2020
Other
“I have not yet begun to fight.”(really said: “I may sink, but I’m damned if I’ll strike”) – Captain John Paul Jones
“I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” – Thomas Jefferson
“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. 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
“I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” – Thomas Jefferson
“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry…” – Thomas Jefferson
“History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.” – Thomas Jefferson
“I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccesful rebellions indeed generally establish the incroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.” – Thomas Jefferson
“We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the ground of their pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation.” – Thomas Jefferson
“The Ambassador [of Tripoli] answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.” {Letter from the commissioners, John Adams & Thomas Jefferson, to John Jay, 28 March 1786}
“remember the ladies?” – Abigail Adams wrote these words to her husband, John Adams, on March 31, 1776, nearly 150 years before the House of Representatives voted to pass the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.
“If we advert to the nature of republican government we shall find that the censorial power is in the people over the government, and not in the government over the people.” – James Madison
“The means of defense against. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.” – James Madison
“The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries. [Letter objecting to the use of government land for churches, 1803]” – James Madison
“The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.” – James Madison
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” – James Madison
“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” – James Madison
“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.” – James Madison
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” – James Madison
“Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.” – James Madison
“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it’s issuance.” – James Madison
“You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.” – James Madison
“Equal laws protecting equal rights…the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country.” – James Madison
“Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties or his possessions.” – James Madison
“All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree” – James Madison
“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone.” – John Quincy Adams
“All the measures of the Government are directed to the purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer”
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” – Harry Truman
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” – Lord Acton
“The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.” – Lord Acton
“The power of government grows out of the barrel of a gun” – Mao Zedong 8/7/1927 (Why I like Amendment II.)
“The Buck Stops Here” – Harry Truman
“we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex.” – Dwight Eisenhower 1/17/1961
“Ask not what your country can do for you… ask what you can do for your country.” – John Kennedy
“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” – John Kennedy
“World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbour – it requires only that they live together with mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement.” – John Kennedy
“It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.” – John Kennedy
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” – Armstrong 6/20/1969
“We are a Nation that has a government, not the other way around.” – Ronald Reagan
“The federal government did not create the states; the states created the federal government” – Ronald Reagan
“Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem.” – Ronald Reagan
“Libertarianism is what you probably already believe: Libertarian values are American values.” – David Bergland
“Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.” – James Bovard
“People are so docile right now. It is almost as if good government means when the politicians lie to us for our own good, for the public good, and bad government is when politicians lie for their own selfish interests.” – James Bovard
“If so many Americans are looking for the government to save them, then it is hard to have a dignified search for a shepherd in chief.” – James Bovard
“I was amazed at how easy it was for the Clinton Administration to basically cover what they did at Waco in the fog of lies and avoid any responsibility for it.” – James Bovard
“It is amazing to think after all that has happened in this country in the last few years, the last few decades, that so many people have this blind faith that government is our friend and therefore, so we don’t need protections against it.” – James Bovard
“It is like we are obliged to assume that the government is only doing what it says it is doing.” – James Bovard
“It is one of the great tragedies of the US, that most learn most of what they know about the government from the government.” – James Bovard
“Some of the folks on both sides might be sincere, but it does seem as if it is only the opposition that cares about the Bill of Rights most of the time.” – James Bovard
“There are a lot of benefits representative of government and it is far better than any type of dictatorial system and it is far better than a one-man rule situation.” – James Bovard
“Well, one of the first things is to restore the rule of law, to place the government back under the cage of law. Another thing is to stop falling for the myth of democracy.” – James Bovard
“Trumpeting the importance of voting deludes people into thinking that they have a leash on the government.” – James Bovard
“The more that voting is glorified as a panacea, the more lackadaisical people become about preserving their constitutional rights.” – James Bovard
““Fair trade” is a moral delusion that could be leading to an economic catastrophe.” – James Bovard
“The U.S. government has created a trade lynch law that can convict foreign companies almost regardless of how they operate.” – James Bovard
“It should not be a federal crime to charge low prices to American consumers.” – James Bovard
“A law is simply a reflection of the momentary perception of self-interest by a majority of a legislative body.” – James Bovard
“The Night Watchman State has been replaced by Highway Robber States – governments in which no asset, no contract, no domain is safe from the fleeting whim of politicians.” – James Bovard
“So much of political philosophy throughout history has consisted of concocting reasons why people have a duty to be tame animals in politicians’ cages.” – James Bovard
“The surest effect of exalting government is to make it easier for some people to drag others down.” – James Bovard
“The growth of government is like the spread of a dense jungle, and the average citizen can hack through less of it every year.” – James Bovard
“Trusting government nowadays means dividing humanity into two classes: those who can be trusted with power to run other people’s lives, and those who cannot even be trusted to run their own lives.” – James Bovard
“Nothing happened on 9/11 that made the federal government more trustworthy.” – James Bovard
“The Patriot Act treats every citizen like a suspected terrorist and every federal agent like a proven angel.” – James Bovard
“The worse government fails, the less privacy citizens supposedly deserve.” – James Bovard
“There is no technological magic bullet that will make the government as smart as it is powerful.” – James Bovard
“A lie that is accepted by a sufficient number of ignorant voters becomes a political truth.” – James Bovard
“In the long run, people have more to fear from governments than from terrorists. Terrorists come and go, but power-hungry politicians will always be with us.” – James Bovard
“Citizens are deceived en masse,but enlightened one at a time.” – Richard Boddie
“The United States is a Nation of Laws: Badly Written and Randomly Enforced.” – Frank Zappa
“Americans need to Remember Their Constitutional birthright and stand up to arrogant government officials who treat them like subjects rather than citizens.” – James Bovard
“Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master.” – George Washington
“What’s important now is the direction we want to go, not the precise destination. And the direction that most of us want is towards less government – a lot less government.” – Harry Browne
“This battle over medical marijuana is no more about marijuana than the Boston Tea Party was about tea.” – Michele Kubby 1999
“I never had White Privilege, but I had Freedom and Liberty Privilege. I wasn`t ashamed I was Proud. All US Citizens have Freedom and Liberty Privilege. It came from the Indians and The Bill of Rights. Which the People Insisted be added to The Constitution.” – Bill Todd
“Make America Great Again!” – Donald Trump
“Take Back Liberty” “Take Back The American Dream.” – Bill Todd 06/08/2018.
“I never had White Privilege, but I had Freedom and Liberty Privilege. I wasn`t ashamed I was Proud. All US Citizens have Freedom and Liberty Privilege. It came from the Indians and The Bill of Rights. Which the People Insisted be added to The Constitution.” – Bill Todd 9/22/2019
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” – John Kennedy
(Last update: 2020-07-02)