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January 19, 2004
Timeless quotes
Thanks to Price Roe for spotting these quotes:
1) Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. - Mark Twain
2) I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
- Winston Churchill
3) A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. -- George Bernard Shaw
4) A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. -- G. Gordon Liddy
5) Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. -- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
6) Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. -- Douglas Casey, Classmate of W.J. Clinton at Georgetown U. (1992)
7) Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. -- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian
9) Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -- Ronald Reagan (1986)
11) If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. -- P.J. O'Rourke
12) If you want government to intervene domestically, you're a liberal. If you want government to intervene overseas, you're a conservative. If you want government to intervene everywhere, you're a moderate. If you don't want government to intervene anywhere, you're an extremist. -- Joseph Sobran, Editor of the National Review at one time (1995)
13) 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. -- Voltaire (1764)
14) Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. -- Pericles (430 B.C.)
17) The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. -- Ronald Reagan
18) The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -- Winston Churchill
19) The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. -- Mark Twain
20) The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
The Pericles quote is misattributed. The only quoted remarks of Pericles occur in Thucidyes, specifically in the great set speeches to the Athenian demos, where he says no such thing. Your (somewhat monomaniacal) contributor may be thinking of a quote that is sometimes attributed to Leon Trotsky: "You may not be interested in violence, but violence is interested in you." Trotsky was a great theorist of revolution, and liked such gnomic utterances on his chosen profession. He also, more plausibly, is reputed to have said, "Insurrection is an art form like any other, and has its rules, of which I am a master."