Sir Robert Baden-Powell

"The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others."

--Sir Robert Baden-Powell

Montaigne

"Nothing is so firmly believed as that which least is known."

--Montaigne

Austin Chase

"When the search for truth is confused with political advocacy, the pursuit of knowledge is reduced to the quest for power."

--Austin Chase

Michael Crighton

"The current near hysterical preoccupation with safety is at best a waste of resources and a crimp on the human spirit and at worst an invitation to totalitarianism. Public education is desperately needed."

--Michael Crichton
State of Fear

George Orwell

"Within any important issue, there are always aspects no one wishes to discuss."

--George Orwell

Mark Twain

"There is something fascinating about science; one gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact."

--Mark Twain

Thomas Jefferson

"In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."

--Thomas Jefferson, fair copy of the drafts of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798

Via Patriot Post

George Washington

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."

--George Washington

Via Patriot Post

Samuel Adams

"The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men."

--Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, 1775

George Washington

"[A] good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous."

--George Washington, letter to Steptoe Washington, 1790

Via Patriot Post

Patrick Henry

"They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? 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

Barry Goldwater

"Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is No Vice"

Barry Goldwater

John Locke

"Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience."

--John Locke

Via "Sipsey Street Irregulars"

Alexander Hamilton

"[T]he present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes -- rejecting all changes but through the channel itself provides for amendments."

--Alexander Hamilton, letter to James Bayard, 1802

Via Patriot Post

Plato

"'Thinking' is the soul talking to itself."

-Plato

Alex's Dad

"The best thing I can do for the poor in this world is not to be one of them."

-Alex's Dad

George Bernard Shaw

"Our first duty in life is not to be poor."

-George Bernard Shaw

Thomas Jefferson

"On every unauthoritative exercise of power by the legislature must the people rise in rebellion or their silence be construed into a surrender of that power to them? If so, how many rebellions should we have had already?"

--Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, Query 12, 1782

Via Patriot Post

Roger Whitaker

" 'If' is for Children."

--Roger Whitaker

George Eliot

"It's never too late to be what you might have been."

--George Eliot

Andre Gide

"Sadness is almost always a form of fatigue."

--Andre Gide

Ronald Reagan

"Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets." 

-- Ronald Reagan

Via Texans for Fiscal Responsibility& the Empower Texans PAC

Benjamin Franklin

"No nation was ever ruined by trade, even seemingly the most disadvantageous."
--Benjamin Franklin and George Whaley, Principles of Trade, 1774

Via Patriot Post

James Madison

"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions."

--James Madison, letter to Edmund Pendleton, 1792

Via Patriot Post

James Madison

"The ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone. ... The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition."

--James Madison
Federalist No. 46

Via Patriot Post

Mark Twain

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."

-- Mark Twain

Via Texans for Fiscal Responsibility & the Empower Texans PAC

Fisher Ames

"We are not to consider ourselves, while here, as at church or school, to listen to the harangues of speculative piety; we are here to talk of the political interests committed to our charge."

--Fisher Ames, speech in the United States House of Representatives, 1789

Via Patriot Post