Selected Contemporary and Historical Quotations on Political Issues
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!"
— George W. Bush (Oval office meeting, November 2005)
(see George Washington's quote on this subject)
"How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of."
— Texas State Rep. Suzanna Gratia-Hupp
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money"
— Margaret Thatcher
"I am proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is – I could be just as proud for half the money."
— Arthur Godfrey
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
"There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men."
— Sgt. Charles Zim (Starship Troopers, page 61, Robert Heinlein)
Elephant: a mouse built to government specifications.
Social Security: a pension plan built to government specifications.
Obamacare: a healthcare plan built to government specifications.
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."
— P.J. O'Rourke
"If Guns are responsible for Columbine, then spoons are responsible for Rosie O'Donnell being fat."
— (Anonymous)
"We have to fight the terrorists as if there were no rules, and preserve our open society as if there were no terrorists." ---
— Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, September 13, 2001
"Anyone may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes."
— Justice Learned Hand
Helvering v. Gregory, 69 F.2d 810 (1934)
The height of deceit: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
We preserve our freedoms using four boxes —
— the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.
Lawyer: the larval form of Politician.
"Abuse of power isn't limited to bad guys in other nations. It happens in our own country if we're not vigilant."
— Clint Eastwood
The best defence against logic is ignorance, so don't ever expect to win an argument with a liberal.
"We must acknowledge, once and for all, that the purpose of diplomacy is to prolong a crisis."
— Mr. Spock
1st Officer, Starship Enterprise
"We make war that we may live in peace."
— Aristotle
Our job is to make terrorism so horrific that it becomes unthinkable to attack Americans.
— Gabriel Shear (Swordfish, Warner Bros., 2001)
"A politician focuses on the next election. A statesman focuses on the next generation."
— (unknown)
And the best summation of war and defense ever —
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
—
English economist & philosopher, John Stewart Mill,
