Einstein on Education

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

Albert Einstein

Government Efficiency or Mutual Exploitation?

Each of us wishes to receive a maximum of benefits from government for the minimum cost.  This goal suggests maximum government efficiency, on the one hand, but it also suggests mutual exploitation on the other. Each of us favors an arrangement in which our fellow citizens pay for our benefits.

Morris Fiorina  (Congress: Keystone of the Washington Establishment, 1989)

Israel and American Lives

Israel's intransigence could cost American lives.

 Admiral Mike Mullen and General David Petraeus

On Breaking the Law

If I find a rule tolerable, I obey it. If I find it intolerable, I break it.

Professor Bernardo de la Paz 
  Fictional character modeled after Robert LeFevre in Robert A. Heinlein book The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, 1966

The End Place

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T. S. Eliot -- "Little Gidding" (the last of his Four Quartets), 1942

Singing Pigs

Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig

Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988)

Bank Security

This currency is not fiat currency. It is issued only on adequate security -- and every good bank has an abundance of such security.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, March 12, 1933 in a radio speech titled "On the Bank Crisis"

Choice, baby

it gives you a choice, baby, and that's what it's about

Lenny Bruce talking about capitalism

Volunteer Defense

I hate to think of the day my grandchildren will be defended by volunteers.

Lewis Hershey, 4 Star US General, 2nd Director of the Selective Service System, delivered at a National Press Club luncheon.

The Give and Take

The government strong enough to give you what you want is strong enough to take it all away.

Barry Goldwater, 1964

War and Country

The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his.

Gen. George Patton

Law's Pathway

As I understand it, laws, commands, rules, and edicts
are for those who have not the light which makes plain the pathway.

Anne Hutchinson, 1591-1643

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors.
But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931)

Collapse

Imperial collapse may come much more suddenly than many historians imagine. A combination of fiscal deficits and military overstretch suggests that the United States may be the next empire on the precipice.

Niall Ferguson

Oil

 oil is much too important a commodity to be left in the hands of the Arabs

Henry Kissinger

Apologize.

History makes at least one thing absolutely clear: regardless of the stated purposes and proffered justifications, the United States of America has been the cause and source of untold death, destruction, and damage. To say that we should not apologize for these stains on our nation’s standard of liberty is not only a reflection of the individual’s inadequate level of morality, but an indication that he or she might one day participate in similar atrocities.

Connor Boyack (March 8th, 2010)
in an article about Iran Air Flight 655, the Vietnam War, the 1953 Iranian coup d’état, 1973 Chilean coup d’état, the Banana Wars, Iraq, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Guantanamo.

Do and Doing

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You
Ask what your country is doing to you.

Lew Rockwell (March 9, 2010)

Masters

Often, those who accept a master demand that others accept the same master.

Louis E. Carabini (Inclined to Liberty, 2008)

Liberty

Liberty is a state of mind that does not require the indulgence of others

Louis E. Carabini (Inclined to Liberty, 2008)

Highest Manifestation of Life

The highest manifestation of life consists of this: that a being governs its own actions.  A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing.

St Thomas Aquinas

State Education

[A] primary purpose of the educational system is to train schoolchildren in good citizenship, patriotism, and loyalty to the state and nation as a means of protecting the public welfare.

California 2nd District Court of Appeals (Filed February 28, 2008, B192878)

Savior and Master

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.

H.L. Mencken 

Jobs and Prosperity

Jobs themselves do not necessarily create prosperity; prosperity is created by the production of goods and services that people value.

Louis E. Carabini (Inclined to Liberty, 2008)

Tragedy of the Commons

For that which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.  Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all for the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual.

Aristotle (Politics, 1261, b34)

Following the multitude

It is a poor mind that will think with the multitude because it is a multitude: truth is not altered by the opinions of the vulgar or the confirmation of the many.  It is more blessed to be wise in truth in face of opinion than to be wise in opinion in face of truth

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600)

Liberty and Politicians

Where politicians flourish, long history has harshly taught us, people and their liberty wither.

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

Question

Do you feel that man actually is incapable, as an individual, of knowing what is right or wrong: and that only the wisdom of "society" can establish such values?

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

"divine" law

Just as a "divine" king once could say, "I am the state," governments today everywhere say they are the law

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

Great Cheese

Sir, I have read the story Benjamin Button in Collier's and I wish to say that as a short story writer you would make a good lunatic. I have seen many pieces of cheese in my life but of all the pieces of cheese I have ever seen you are the biggest piece. I hate to waste a piece of stationery on you but I will.

Anonymous letter in response to F. Scott Fitzgerald short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, originally published in Collier's Magazine, 1921. 

Legal Plunder

When plunder has become a way of life for a group of people living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it, and a moral code that glorifies it.

Frédéric Bastiat (The Law, 1850)

Blowback

Colonel, I hope you’ve learned that an occupying foreign force can never defeat a determined local populace.

Lisa Simpson (The Simpsons, Episode G.I.D'oh)