Ideas

ideas have consequences,

Richard Weaver (Ideas have Consequences, 1948)

Discrimination

It is the essence of intelligence to be able to discriminate, i.e., to make relevant distinctions between and among various facts and principles and alternative courses of action.

Butler Shaffer, Boundaries of Order, 2009

Conduct

though I disapprove of how you conduct your life, as long as you do not violate the property boundaries of others, I shall defend to the death your right to act as you choose

Butler Shaffer, Boundaries of Order, 2009

Ownership Question

Of necessity, this will lead us to a consideration of the questions: do we, in fact, own ourselves, and do we desire to do so?

Butler Shaffer (Boundaries of Order, 2009)

Eager Trespass

We eagerly trespass one another's property interests out of an arrogance that threatens to destroy human society, if not humanity itself.

Butler Shaffer (Boundaries of Order 2009)

Good men and Law

Good men must not obey the laws too well

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Politics, 1844

Liberty is

"Liberty" is life pursuing what it wants to pursue, through its self-directed energy.

Butler Shaffer (Boundaries of Order, 2009)

Of Men and Money

I'll tell you what I think about the way
    This city treats her soundest men today:
By a coincidence more sad than funny,
    It's very like the way we treat our money.

The noble silver drachma that of old we were
    So proud of, and the recent gold coins that
Rang true, clean-stamped and worth their weight
    Throughout the world, have ceased to circulate.

Instead , the purses of Athenian shoppers
    Are full of shoddy silver-plated coppers
Just so, when men are needed by the nation,
    The best have been withdrawn from circulation

Aristophanes, The Frogs, ~400BC

Superstitions

Delusions are states of refuge. The mind, unable to comprehend realities or to deal with them, finds its ease in superstitions, beliefs and modes of irrational procedure. It is easier to believe than to think.

Garet Garrett (Ch 4 of 'The Driver', 1922)

The Power of "No"

You know, it's funny, I was thinking about what you said, that the preeminent truth of our age is that you cannot fight the system. But if, as you say, the truth is fluid, that the truth is subjective, then maybe you can fight the system. As long as just one person refuses to be broken, refuses to bow down.
Interrogator: But can you win?
Every time I say "no.".

Captain John Sheridan of Babylon 5, Season 4, Episode 18

You are...

You are not a great chief of this country, ... You have no following, no power, no control, and no right to any control. You are on an Indian reservation merely at the sufferance of the government. You are fed by the government, clothed by the government, your children are educated by the government, and all that you have and are today is because of the government…. The government feeds and clothes and educates your children now, and desires to teach you to become farmers, and to civilize you, and make you as white men."

Republican Senator John Logan of Illinois to the imprisoned Sitting Bull (1881-1882)

Sitting Bull's "no"

I do not want to sell any land to the government – not even as much as this. [released a pinch of earth into the wind]

Sitting Bull - Response to a federal emissary that stated Washington's desire to buy the Black Hills (1875)

Twain'ian Education

Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.

Mark Twain

On Punishing Murderers

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Voltaire (1771)

Education and Freedom

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

Thomas Jefferson

Sheeple

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter

George Washington

Pirate Economics

Because I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor.

A Pirate, from St. Augustine's "City of God"

Power

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Great men are almost always bad men.

Lord Acton (expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887)

Civil Obedience

Our problem is not civil disobedience, our problem is civil obedience ... Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country.

Howard Zinn (Failure to Quit, 1993)

Money and Things

The man in the street does not need more money. He needs more of the things money can buy. This means that he needs greater output. He says, "I need more money," but he means, "I need greater output with which to buy scarce consumer goods." The economists say, "The economy needs more money," because they believe that people's output can increase only when there is an increase in the money supply. The state or the state-sanctioned banking system must supply this extra money.

Gary North (What is Money? Pt 12 Why Central Bankings Persists) 11/4/2009

Future Impossibilities

I will not be around at that time.

Taken from What is Money? Pt 11 The Great Default by Gary North
The quote is the paraphrased response of Major Leaders in the West when warned about the impossibility of funding social programs like Medicare/Social Security per Peter Peterson circa 1995-2000

Presidential Intelligence

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H. L. Mencken (Bayard vs. Lionheart, 1920)

A Live Lived

When King Lear dies in Act V, do you know what Shakespeare has written? He's written "He dies." That's all, nothing more. No fanfare, no metaphor, no brilliant final words. The culmination of the most influential work of dramatic literature is "He dies." It takes Shakespeare, a genius, to come up with "He dies." And yet every time I read those two words, I find myself overwhelmed with dysphoria. And I know it's only natural to be sad, but not because of the words "He dies." but because of the life we saw prior to the words.

I've lived all five of my acts, Mahoney, and I am not asking you to be happy that I must go. I'm only asking that you turn the page, continue reading... and let the next story begin. And if anyone asks what became of me, you relate my life in all its wonder, and end it with a simple and modest "He died."

Mr. Edward Magorium in Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007)

The Secessionist Campaign for the Republic of Vermont

The gods of the empire, are not the gods of Vermont.

Dennis Steele 1/15/2010

Rent Control

In many cases, rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city except for bombing.

Assar Lindbeck

Marching to a Different Drummer

If a man does not keep 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, Walden, 1854

Economics Primarily Lesson

[Economics] main lesson was taught again and again for centuries: government cannot improve on the results of human action achieved through voluntary trade and association. This was its contribution. This was its argument. This was its warning to every would-be social planner: your dreams of domination must be curbed.

Llewellyn Rockwell 1/25/10

WWII Question

  It was a war against an enemy of unspeakable evil. Hitler's Germany was extending totalitarianism, racism, militarism, and overt aggressive warfare beyond what an already cynical world had experienced. And yet, did the governments conducting this war-England, the United States, the Soviet Union-represent something significantly different, so that their victory would be a blow to imperialism, racism, totalitarianism, militarism, in the world?

Howard Zinn 6/9/09

Learn to do Good

Let us therefore learn while there is yet time, let us learn to do good. Let us raise our eyes to Heaven for the sake of our honor, for the very love of virtue, or, to speak wisely, for the love and praise of God Almighty, who is the infallible witness of our deeds and the just judge of our faults

Étienne de La Boétie - The Politics of Obedience 1552-1553

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